Extraordinary: A staff from archeological office shows a dolmen preserved by residents in Wringin district.

At first glance, the plantations in Bondowoso regency, East Java, do not look that special. They just seem to be farms against mountain slopes. But the existence of many big stones spread across the region makes the area unique.

"Those stones aren't just any old stones. These stones date back to the megalithic period, and they can still be seen," said Majelis from the Trowulan Archaeological Office in Glingseran village, Wringin, in Bondowoso.

Bondowoso is well known for its tape (a sweet cake made from slightly fermented rice or tubers). It is also famous as a region of megaliths.

According to records at the Trowulan Archaeological Office, there are thousands of monuments in Bondowoso, which is located 192 kilometers from Surabaya, dating back to the megalithic period.

In the Grujugan subdistrict, for example, more than 400 monuments of various types have been discovered. Meanwhile, in Maesan and Pujer subdistricts, there are 140 large stones.

There are also similar stones in Wringin, Tlogosari and Wonosari subdistricts where so far 60 more megaliths have been discovered.

The archaeological site with the biggest monument is found in Wringin subdistrict. This is in the form of a six-meter-high menhir stone. It is estimated that the real number is far bigger because not all stones have been reported to the archaeological office.

The megalithic age occurred about 4,000 years before the present (BP). Historians have divided the period into old and the young megalithic ages.

The people who lived in the old megalithic age focused their activities on farming and hunting. These people learned how to fulfill their daily needs as the number of animals being hunted slowly decreased. The young megalithic age was noted for its culture of carving stones and making metal.

Dihin Ikhtiardi, a history graduate who is also a teacher at a senior high school, said the sites in Bondowoso and Situbondo showed the characteristics of the young megalithic period.

Geographically, Dihin said, Bondowoso was exactly the right place to live during the megalithic period.

The geography of this regency is framed by several mountain ranges, including Mount Ijen, Mount Argopuro, Mount Raung, Mount Krincing, Mount Keong, Mount Saeng, Mount Gugur, Mount Rampe, Mount Suket, Mount Kalisat, Mount Lebang and Mount Malung.

"This is a fertile region with all the various necessities for supporting life," Dihin told The Jakarta Post.

His analysis has been reinforced with the discovery of various functional objects in Bondowoso and part of Situbondo. These include kenong, gravestones, dolmen, menhir and sarcophagi (stone coffins).

The kenong stones lay at the base of the poles used to build houses, while dolmen and menhir functioned as places of worship.

Sarcophagi and gravestones are all signs of a burial place.

"All the signs here *in Bondowoso and Situbondo* show that this was a region where the people from the megalithic period lived," he said.

What a pity then, that although the sites of these monuments from the megalithic period are very important many are in a rather sad condition. For example, the stones in Wringin subdistrict, Bondowoso. From the 60 or so megalithic monuments seen in this area, located just 15 kilometers from Bondowoso city, only 20 stone sites are well maintained.

This is the basic situation. The sites with kendang stones, sarcophagi and dolmen were covered in moss. They were located in the middle of a plantation and the sites were filled with leaves from the nearby surroundings.

The site located in Grujugan subdistrict, five kilometers from Bondowoso, was in a similar condition. Although in a better physical condition than the sites in Wringin subdistrict, it was not very well maintained.

Three sarcophagi located in the middle of the rice fields have been shattered. A gravestone, which stands beside a resident's house, has succumbed to an attack by moss and age. It has been broken.

A collection of stones inside a timber factory face a similar fate. It is as though these things are not useful, so this collection of historical monuments has been left in a jumble behind the factory. Majelis said preservation of the stone sites in Bondowoso and Situbondo did not receive enough funding from the government.

The man, who has been working since 1978, said that in all this time, the government only allocated funds to pay the land tax for the location where the monuments lie. In Wringin subdistrict, for example, from the 60 stone sites there, the land tax provides only enough money for 20 stone sites at the rate of Rp 7,000 (60 US cent) per stone site.

"That funding stopped when Indonesia was hit by the monetary crisis during Megawati Soekarnoputri's presidency. All this time, we *the staff members of the Trowulan Archaeological Office* have personally paid the tax," Majelis said.

The situation has been aggravated by the activities of robbers who have been active at the monument sites. Usually it is the statue-shaped monuments that are the usual targets.

"Megalith thieves were really active in the 1980s. At that time the staff members had to keep watch and stay awake all night to prevent thieving," Majelis said.

At that time, rumors had it that the monuments contained gold. That is why the local community smashed the stones to try and extract the gold.

The number of stone sites damaged by the activity is hard to imagine.

Meanwhile, the number of archaeological office staff members based in Bondowoso and Situbondo is low. In Bondowoso, there are only 35 staff members who have to look after 1,000 or more stone sites spread across almost all of the regency.

Meanwhile in Situbondo, there are only eight staff members to guard 50 or more stone sites.

"On one night, four staff members had to fight 14 robbers. It was lucky that we were all safe," Majelis said.

Cultural observer Ayu Sutarto has seen the deterioration of monument sites in Bondowoso and Situbondo, saying it was a classical case of no funding.

"The regency government can't do much to save these stone sites because it has no funds and on top of that it is not aware that these monumental sites are something important," Ayu said.

She said the only thing that could be done was to establish Bondowoso as an open museum with the support of the government and a significant amount of money.

She said the government had to buy land surrounding the stone sites and build the appropriate infrastructure, such as being done in Mojokerto at the Majapahit kingdom site in Trowulan region.

The government should also maximize the use of the field museum by introducing classroom teachings about the sites to students.

"This is how the government can make the best of the historical remains there," she said.

- Photos by ID Nugroho

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