Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The discovery of an underground structure in a historic area of West Jakarta is only the beginning of the process of studying and understanding the site, experts say.
Last month, workers digging the western entrance of a pedestrian tunnel in the Old Town area uncovered the remnants of a stone wall, buried some three meters under the earth.
""The wall is likely to stretch farther along the north-south axis,"" Josia Irwan Rastandi, a structural advisor to the contractor building the tunnel, Wijaya Karya, said last week.
The ongoing construction project makes it unlikely the city administration will permit a thorough on-site investigation, but archaeologists may be able to examine the ruins from another vantage point.
The stone structure, which stretches along a straight north-south axis, is intercepted by a 160-centimeter-thick brick wall, running east-west.
Heritage activists previously called for the construction project to be halted, in the belief that the findings were part of the Batavia city wall, which was built in the early 1600s.
However, preliminary archaeological studies carried out by the city's cultural and museums agency have determined it is not part of the old fortress.
""We have dug to the east and to the west and found the brick wall does not extend beyond the section that has already been examined -- which it would if it were part of the fortress. But the stone wall is likely to stretch farther,"" Josia said.
The stone wall resembles a 17th century European structure in that metal strips are laid between the stones at intervals.
Further studies have only confirmed the wall was part of an underground quarters, without revealing its function.
There are no plans for further archaeological digs along the wall.
""With a limited budget, our current priority is to preserve the remains of the city wall on Jl. Tongkol. It would be difficult to break through the built-up segments of the urban area,"" agency head Aurora Tambunan said.
The archeological value of indepth research, she said, must be weighed against disruptions to city activities, like traffic.
However, the method of single context recording, where the ground layer is investigated in smaller sections, might serve as a solution as excavations need not take up the whole area.
""Further studies are also important because they might spur discoveries about people and events in history,"" a historian, who asked not to be named, said.
""We need not merely study the artifacts, but look at the construction technology and how past civilizations dealt with specific problems on that particular site.""
A successful ""urban layer"" preservation project in Yuexiu district, Guang Zhou, China, for example, shows how the city administration was able to turn archaeological findings into a valuable feature of a pedestrian area.
The relics management committee of the area has preserved the remains of an ancient street dating back to the Tang dynasty in a transparent underground box along the pedestrian strip.
""Seeing the old streets and walls from 100 or 300 years ago really brings the old city to life for me,"" said 26-year-old Troy Richardson commenting on the preserved city layer.
""Jakarta is actually about 500 years old, but it is hard to see because most of the buildings are new. I think that seeing the old Jakarta would help visitors appreciate this city more,"" said the Australian who lives in Jakarta.
