The finding of treasure in the Musi River, Palembang, South Sumatra (South Sumatra) which is claimed to be a remnant of the Sriwijaya Kingdom, is doubtful. Archaeologists from South Sumatra said that every finding of objects or treasures in the Musi River so far has often used the big name of the Sriwijaya Kingdom to increase its selling value in the eyes of collectors or collectors.
According to archaeologist from the Archaeological Center of South Sumatra Retno Purwanti, without laboratory tests, ancient metal objects such as gold, silver, or bronze cannot be claimed as relics of the Srivijaya era. The reason, metal can be reproduced.
"If gold like that there is no special marker. Except for ceramics, or beads, or currency such as ancient coins, now it can be identified. So we can't immediately claim that even though this looks like an object from the Srivijaya era, we still have to be careful , is it true or not from that time, "said Retno.
Recently, regarding the Sriwijaya treasure found in the Musi River, South Sumatra became the world's attention after a research report by British maritime archaeologist, Sean Kingsley, was published in the latest issue of Wreckwatch magazine and The Guardian.
In response to this, the South Sumatra Archeology Center is skeptical that the treasure that Kingsley revealed is a relic of the Sriwijaya Kingdom. He also questioned the research permit owned by the British archaeologist.
British research criticized
Retno said from the data that her party had, the research conducted by Sean Kingsley was not scientific because there was no official research submission. Not only was there no official approval from the Archaeological Center, Kingsley's research methods were also questioned.
In the publication by Sean Kingsley, no sources and research methods are listed to explain the theory of 'Island of Gold, the Lost Srivijaya' published in Wreckwatch magazine.
"From abroad you can't just do research, there are procedures. You have to get permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the relevant ministers, finally to the Arkenas Research Center, the process is long. So what if he did research on the Musi River? So can you be called an archaeologist? It is not possible to carry out a maritime archaeological research procedure with underwater surveys or excavations in the Musi River because the water is cloudy. What kind of instrument can read in the dark?" said Retno as quoted from CNN Indonesia.
Retno revealed that treasure hunters have been doing diving to find ancient objects in the Musi River for decades, not just the last five years as Kingsley said.
At least, he said, the activity of diving in the Musi River looking for objects at the bottom had been observed since the 1970s.
Initially, residents dived to look for logs that fell from the transport ship. In addition, residents also look for scrap metal at the bottom of the river. However, as time goes by, the scrap wood and iron are running out and people living on the coast of the Musi River are turning to sand miners.
"Then from mining this sand, it turned out that ancient objects were found, so there were more and more miners. Sand mining was finally abandoned and the main goal was to find these ancient objects to sell," said Retno.
Nowadays, even treasure hunting by diving in the Musi River is no longer a side profession. Residents who dive are not fishermen looking for fish who are looking for treasure, but have become their main profession. Even on Kemaro Island, Palembang, most of the residents work as divers looking for treasure.
"So the discovery of ancient objects in the Musi River did not happen in the last five years, it has been decades. This also needs to be emphasized that it is not necessarily ancient objects found from the Musi River are relics of the Sriwijaya Kingdom," he said.