Mudslide reveals mystery objects

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Mystery continues to shroud a number of apparently historical objects that were found after a mudslide flushed out a trench of over a kilometer in length in the middle of rice fields in the Yogyakarta village of Ngestihardjo.

Villagers and local officials remain in the dark over the origin and dates of the baffling finding. A small boat, black balls with fuses popping out in what could be bombs, ammunition, a keris, which is a traditional Javanese dagger, and a dragon shaped stone were among the objects uncovered. The trench also contained piles of bricks of an as yet unknown construction.

Local police took away the bombs and the ammunition, but villagers placed the other objects on public display, making it difficult for the Yogyakarta archeological office to examine their origins.

Hundreds of onlookers from the city and surrounding areas continue to flock to the site since its discovery on Thursday last week.

Heavy rainfall broke a 20-meter-wide hole of an embankment, causing water and mud to flush out the around one and a half kilometer long trench. About 20 to 25 meters wide, it cuts through a section of the rice fields and a street before ending at the Bedog River. A small stream of water runs inside the deep trench where locals found the objects.

Some of the objects, such as the boat, appear to be of a more recent period, said Indra Dewa Kusuma, a staffer at the local archeological office who was taking inventory of the finding.

The bricks, he said, could date back to the late 19th century as there was once an artificial lake to irrigate the surrounding rice fields and provide water for a nearby royal palace, a kraton that has long been abandoned.

But Indra added that the bricks could come from an earlier period, reasoning that the builders had used limestone as mortar commonly found in much older construction.