Archaeological preservation lacks funding
Israr Ardiansyah, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
Workers digging in a sugar cane field in Wonoboyo village in Klaten regency made a sensational archaeological discovery, finding a buried container with hundreds of gold and silver ceremonial objects.
The treasure, 12,436.8 grams of gold and 3,343.7 grams of silver, was only just the beginning. Weeks later, the workers found a jug containing 6,387 gold coins, weighing 15,576 grams.
The sensational event took place 11 years ago, on Oct. 17, 1990. With a subsequent discovery in February 1991, the total amount of treasure collected from the 1.5-hectare field was some 32 kilograms of gold and silver -- the greatest discovery of buried treasure in the country's history.
The small village, only a few kilometers away from the renowned Prambanan temple, soon became a popular site, thanks to poor farmer Wito Lakon and his neighbors, who eventually received an award of more than Rp 200 million in cash from then president Soeharto, for finding the ninth century treasure.
Nowadays, the village is forgotten. The historical site of Wonoboyo has become history.
Graduate of Gadjah Mada University's School of Archaeology, Andreas Sujito, recalled it was hard for him to study the site, as the farmers, who owned the land, had returned it to agriculture in 1996.
"They had used tractors to plow the land. Although there weren't any more significant discoveries in that location in the years after the excavations of 1990 and 1991, my personal opinion was that the government should have bought that historical site," said Andreas, who conducted research into ceramics discoveries at Wonoboyo for his thesis.
He said the Central Java office of Historical and Archeological Heritage Preservation (SPSP-Central Java) had tried to approach the farmers, whose land had been leased for years by the office for excavation purposes. But it seemed the farmers needed more, they wanted the government to make a definitive decision on whether to buy their land or not.
Andreas said the greatest challenge to Indonesian archaeologists was the shortage of funds to support research.
Archaeologist Wahyu Indrasana, the head of SPSP Yogyakarta, shared Andreas' opinion. He admitted the office had limited resources to finance its activities.
"Despite our limitations, we always fight hard to save our archeological sites, including asking the government to review ongoing projects that could disturb sites," Wahyu said.
Harry Widianto, head of Yogyakarta's balai arkeologi (archaeological center), which oversees sites in Yogyakarta, Central Java and East Java, said that financial problems had forced the office to carefully prioritize its archeological research.
"We have limited resources. That's why we work on the basis of a scale of priorities," he said. He added that the office, so far, had only been able to fund a total of 10 thematic research projects on archaeological sites in the three provinces this year.
Head of Central Java's SPSP Tri Hatmadji said there had been 156 fragments of cultural heritage significance lost in the province recently. "Security for guarding high-value historical items is far less than it should be, as we don't have the money to do full-time monitoring," he said.
The authorities also acknowledged the limited financial resources for the preservation of archeological sites. Director general for culture I Gede Ngurah Anom revealed, during a recent scientific archaeological symposium here, that there were only about 300 restored archaeological sites, from a total of about 6,640 registered sites in Indonesia. "We don't even have any money for new site restoration," he said.
How to deal with the situation?
Timbul Haryono, a professor of archaeology, urged sensitivity toward the need to preserve cultural heritage.
Unfortunately, he said, misunderstandings over Indonesian historical sites had recurred with the present government, which equated culture with tourism.
"The present government has included the word 'culture' in the nondepartmental post of state minister of culture and tourism," Timbul said.
He explained that the preservation of Indonesia's cultural heritage had priorities that differed to those of the tourism industry's commercial programs.
"If the government itself does not understand the substance or the difference (between culture and tourism), there is likely to be an even worse effect at the grassroots level," Timbul said.
He acknowledged the presence of Law No. 5/1992 on cultural preservation, but lamented the fact that policy makers still had a different vision.
"We need to establish a separate ministry of culture someday, if we really want to develop the richness of our culture through the preservation of archaeological sites."