Villager stumbles upon ancient human skeletal remains

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Villager stumbles upon ancient human skeletal remains
Story and photo by CHEN PELF YEEN

MALACCA: Ancient human skeletal remains found in several large traditional Chinese jars buried near Kampung Tengah in Bukit Rambai will be sent to Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for further analysis.

According to local archeologists this is the first time that ‘jar burial’ with human bones, common in Sabah and Sarawak, was discovered in Peninsular Malaysia.

Malacca Museums Corporation’s general manager Khamis Abbas said the remains were discovered in mid December last year when a villager was clearing some banana trees at the back of his home.

“We excavated the site and found four large jars with one of them containing what is believed to be human bones,” he told the Star when met at the Malacca Cultural Museum recently.

Based on initial archeological examination, he said the area where the jars were discovered might have been a Chinese cemetery once used by settlers in the area.

“Porcelain plates with Chinese characters covering the jars were also recovered. The calligraphy is of classical Chinese type and we believe the jars date back to the 1702,” he said adding that the artifacts would be sent to USM for further analysis, including carrying out a DNA test on the human bones.

He said that further excavation was likely to be carried out by National Heritage Department’s Heritage Commissioner Datuk Prof Siti Zurina Abdul Majid, to see if the site has more buried artifacts.

Khamis said that the jars and the artifacts would be displayed at the Malacca’s History Museum once the analysis was completed.

In July 2007, four complete human skeletal remains were discovered during archeological excavation at the 17th Century Dutch Middelburg Bastion next to the Malacca River.

The bones were later sent for analysis and were dated back to early to mid-1400s.


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