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research team from the National Archeological Development and Research Center has announced the finding of a number of artifacts in Bantaeng regency, South Sulawesi, that are believed to date from prehistoric times up until the colonial era.

The team’s leader, Naniek Harkantiningsih, said they had found 600 artifacts of ceramic and earthenware whose shapes and motifs suggested they were from the Yuan, Ming and Sung Dynasties from China, as well as from Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and the Netherlands.

The 10-member team conducted an archeological exploration across eight districts in Bantaeng from March 14 to 28.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry-initiated exploration was set up to search for traces of the twin kingdoms of Gowa Tallo, which is considered to have been the biggest kingdom in the Malay archipelago outside of Java Island.

The team, Naniek said, also found a number of coins and graveyards believed to have been built during the Islamic Age, between the 15th and 18th Centuries.

“Every age has been identified by a cultural legacy,” Naniek said.

The prehistoric age, he said, was marked by the finding of stone mortars discovered in other regencies in South Sulawesi. The pre-Islamic age was marked by the finding of a polimesia statue in an ancient burial site, she added.

“The Islamic age is marked by the finding of special graveyards that only exist in Bantaeng,” she said.

The burial sites, she added, were found in Ulu Ere and Gantarang Keke districts. Both are still intact, according to Naniek, although he added that local communities did not know the history of the burial grounds.

“The complexes have more detailed gravestones compared to those of the Latenri Ruwa burial site, which has been turned into a prehistoric park,” she said.

The team, she added, had suggested that the two complexes, which were located in a pine forest, be made into prehistoric parks or cultural heritage centers.

Naniek said her team had concluded that Bantaeng was part of Gowa Tallo’s twin kingdoms and was the production center of the kingdoms’ main spice commodities, including cloves, cacao and vanilla, which it sold to European nations.

The team also concluded that of the four regencies that had been previously explored — namely Makassar, Gowa, Takalar and Jeneponto — Bantaeng had been the most frequently visited by foreigners of the time.

The fact that the main popular commodities among European countries were only found in Bantaeng during the Gowa Tallo era indicates that Bantaeng was frequently visited by European and Asian traders, she said.

“It’s not surprising therefore that Bantaeng was nicknamed Butta Toa, or old region,” she added.