Archaeologists Discover Building Structures and VOC Bullets at Speelwijk Fort

Serang (ANTARA) - Archaeologists have discovered building structures and VOC bullets at Speelwijk Fort through excavation activities conducted by the Regional VIII Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency of Banten Province in Kasemen Subdistrict, Serang City, to unveil the historical veil of colonial-era remnants.

A cultural curator from the Banten Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency, Adita Nofiandi, in Serang on Saturday, explained that this year’s excavation is a continuation project to follow up on last year’s findings, with research focused on the inside of the eastern side of the fort.

“Our target is to excavate the land according to the determined layout. So far, the clearly visible findings are the foundation structures of former buildings and intact floor structures,” Adita stated.

In addition to building structures, the archaeological team also found various important artefacts such as fragments of foreign ceramics and metal objects. One of the findings that attracted attention was a round bullet strongly suspected to originate from the VOC era.

Adita emphasised that the discovered building structures are planned to remain exposed and not covered back to complement the historical narrative regarding the period and cultural patterns of that time.

On the other hand, Adita also highlighted the challenges of space utilisation in the cultural heritage area, which is often used by local residents for exercise, such as playing football, due to the scarcity of public open spaces for the local community.

“This is indeed a problem; on one side we are preserving cultural heritage, on the other side the community needs space for expression. Our hope is that the local government can facilitate sports spaces for residents so that the utilisation of cultural heritage remains in accordance with Law No. 11 of 2010,” she said.