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Brass Kettledrums in Sabah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

John Bastin
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Extract

The problem whether or not West Malaysia passed through a distinctive Bronze Age has been the subject of a good deal of discussion since the second World War, and is again raised by the remarkable discoveries in 1964 of four bronze ‘Dông-so'n’ (Heger Type I) drums, two at Kampong Sungai Lang in the Kuala Langat District of Selangor, and two at Batu Burok near Kuala Trengganu on Malaya's east coast. With these and the remains of two other Heger Type I drums found in 1926 at Batu Pasir Garam on the Tembeling River, Pahang, and at Bukit Kuda, north-east of Klang, Selangor, in 1944, West Malaysia can now boast more ‘Dông-so'n’ drums than Sumatra, but not so many as Java where more than a dozen drums or fragments of drums have been found.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , February 1971 , pp. 132 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1971

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Footnotes

1

Abbreviations: JMBRAS (Journal of the Malayan [Malaysian] Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Singapore); FMJ (Federation Museums Journal, Kuala Lumpur); VKI (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volhenhunde, Leiden); SMJ (Sarawak Museum Journal, Kuching); AP (Asian Perspectives, Hong Kong).

References

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33 p. 458, n. 1.

34 M. Pike in letter dated 30 January 1970 describes the drum as being in poor condition: ‘In recent years it has evidently been used as a carrying basket, as a wooden base and rotan shoulder straps [have] been fitted’.

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40 Jacques Schulman NV, Amsterdam, Coins and medals, Catalogue 249, plate 10, reproduced here from the same printer's block by courtesy of Mr. R. L. Schulman.

41 Considering their rarity it is perhaps worth noting that another moko, decorated with linear and spiral ornamentation, and lacking one of four handles, was auctioned by the London coin-dealers, Glendining and Co., on 25 September 1969: Catalogue of foreign coins in gold and silver, lot 340. The following are the approximate measurements made by me of this badly worn specimen: height 42'5 cm.; diameter of tympanum 28–8 cm.

42 Bois, C. Du, The people of Alor: a social-psychological, study of an East Indian island, Minneapolis, 1944, 22–3Google Scholar, and note.

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51 The analyses of the ‘Woolley’ drum were made by the Geological Survey HQ, Kuala Lumpur, and that of the ‘Evans’ drum by Dr. E. Slater, Department of Metallurgy, University of Cambridge.

52 Schmeltz, , Int. Archiv für Ethnographie, XV, 32 Google Scholar.

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55 M. Pike in letter dated 30 January 1970.

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57 Rouffaer, G. P., De voornaamste industrieen der inlandsche bevolking van Java en Madoera, The Hague, 1904, 100 Google Scholar; cf. van der Hoop, , Catalogus, 224 Google Scholar; Bosch, F. D. K., Oudh. Verslag 1925, 20, plates 8–9Google Scholar.

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59 , T. and Harrisson, B., SMJ, NS, VII, 8, 304 Google Scholar.

I should like to acknowledge the generous assistance given to me in the preparation of this article by Mr. R. L. Schulman of Amsterdam; the Curator of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Dr. G. H. S. Bushnell; the Curator of the Sabah Museum, Malaysia, Mr. M. Pike; the Director of the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden, Dr. P. H. Pott; and Dr. E. Slater, Department of Metallurgy, University of Cambridge.