|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Unfortunetely we could not find any interesting web link about Javanese gold. The best illustrated book on the subject is "Small Finds: Ancient Javanese Gold" by John N. Miksic. Here some words from it:
"The history of metallurgy dated back 5000yrs. By 1900, 20,000tons of mineral had been taken from the earth (60,000tons in the 20th cent. alone) yet pieces of ancient gold are relatively uncommon.. This paradox results from the attribute of human nature known as changing taste. Most gold jewelry sooner or later has to be recast in new forms... but fortunately for us, gold is also found thanks to another human trait: carelessness. It is difficult to imagine the circumstances in which precious possessions such as gold rings, pendants and other ornaments can be lost, but but the frequency with which these artifacts are found amid mounts of broken pottery and other discarded trash of daily life demonstrates that even gold is not exempt from our carelessness...
...We also discover them more frequently in situations which demonstrate that they were intentionally buried. Many cultures have followed the custom of enterring the dead with valuable objects which, it was thought, the soul might require in the next world. This was the practice in many parts of Southeast Asian before Hindu and Buddhist tenets were followed. Later this custom of giving burial offering vanished. But during the classical period, we known that deposits of semi-precious stones and pearls, seeds or other organic remains, and gold artifacts of various kind were made beneath the centre of the temples' sanctuary or its walls, many times enclosed in terracotta or stone boxes...
...But the context in which many, perhaps the majority, of ancient Javanese gold have been found is also the most enigmatic. Thousands of gold ornaments and coins have been found in the most sparcely populated areas of central Java, including the mountains around the Dieng plateau and Mount Ungaran, and the limestone hills around Wonogiri.. These discoveries normally take the form of a cylindrical container of bronze or clay, in which may be as few as a dozen or as many as several hundred objects.
Why were these hoards of precious objects deposited in such cold, volcanic, or poor and arid areas? Several hypotheses are plausible: For instance it is possible that such deposits once existed in other regions including the central plains around Borobudur and Prambanan, but that dense and continuous settlements eliminated them. This explanation fails to answer the question of why so many hoards were left unclaimed and forgotten. Another theory holds that the mountainous areas were suddenly depopulated because epidemics or attacks from the Sumatran kingdom of Srivijaya, which is known to have been hostile to Javanese kingdoms during early classical period." Perhaps these areas were places of refuge during harsh times. But the owners of these hoards failed to come back or died in these hostile landscapes. "The correct answer to the problem of these hoards will probably remain unknown, but we must be grateful to their existence, because they provide our best source for the study of early Javanese gold work..."
The circumstances in which the Kmer bronze earrings of Cambodia were lost or interred are probably similar. However we can't find any research paper about them on the Internet. Nor that we know of any books describing them. Some called them 'statues' earrings, because they may think that no human being would be able to carry such weight in their earlobe. However if we look at any Buddha image as an example, it is obvious that, since early ages, human have worn this kind of flesh stretchers...
|
 |
|
|
|
|