Contrary to what many scholars may believe, Borneo offers scores of archaeological sites, even in its far hinterlands, and one can only regret that so little attention has been granted to an island whose history is crucial in Southeast Asia.
Hardly any of these sites have been excavated, besides a few famous ones in Sarawak. At Tanjung Lokang, a Hovongan (or Punan Bungan, another formerly nomadic group) settlement on the Bungan River, one of the uppermost tributaries of the Kapuas, people preparing an airstrip in the early 1980s unearthed a hoard of artefacts very similar to those of Nanga Balang (necklaces, bracelets, rings, beads, stone axes, and plenty of pottery shards).
These two sites, and others in the same region, still remain to be scientifically excavated.
Hardly any of these sites have been excavated, besides a few famous ones in Sarawak. At Tanjung Lokang, a Hovongan (or Punan Bungan, another formerly nomadic group) settlement on the Bungan River, one of the uppermost tributaries of the Kapuas, people preparing an airstrip in the early 1980s unearthed a hoard of artefacts very similar to those of Nanga Balang (necklaces, bracelets, rings, beads, stone axes, and plenty of pottery shards).
These two sites, and others in the same region, still remain to be scientifically excavated.
Other sites in West Kalimantan are briefly described by Goenadi Nitihaminoto (Laporan Hasil Survai Kepurbakalaan di Propinsi Kalimantan Barat, Jakarta: Departemen P & K, Proyek Pengembangan Media Kebudayaan, Berita Penelitian Arkeologi series, no.6, 1977, 51 pp.). Some of them, in the regency of Kapuas Hulu, have yielded ceramic plates or shards thereof.
Further downstream along the middle Kapuas River, in the regency of Sintang, several lingga – including one with a carved face of Shiva (mukhalinga) and a basal yoni are found, also large stone tools and anthropomorphic stone statues.
Near Sanggau, inscriptions have been reported, both Hindu and Buddhist, as well as stone statues of Nandi bulls and Ganesha, and a bronze statue of Shiva with four arms (see F.D.K. Bosch, "Oudheidkundig Verslag over het derde en vierde Kwartaal 1925", Oudheidkundig Verslag (1925), pp. 69-104, particularly p. 89; N.J. Krom, "Voorloopige Lijst van Oudheden in de Buitenbezittingen", Oudheidkundig Verslag, Bijlage T. (1914), pp. 101-177; N.J. Krom, Hindoe-Javaansche Geschiedenis ('s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1926), p. 72; D. Lombard, "Guide Archipel IV: Pontianak et son arriere-pays", Archipel 28 (1984): 77-97; particularly pp. 78, 80;also Anonymous, Monofrafi, p. 1; and Anonymous, Peta Sejarah Kalimantan Barat (Jakarta: Dep. P & K, Proyek Inventarisasi dan Dokumentasi Sejarah Nasional, 1985-86).
At the north-western tip of the island, several hoards of gold objects were excavated, some attributed to a Tantric Buddhist cult. (see T. Harrisson and S.J. O'Connor, Excavations of the Prehistoric Iron Industry in West Borneo (Ithaca: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program, Data Paper no. 72, 1969, 2 vols.); and T. Harrisson, "The Prehistory of Borneo", in Prehistoric Indonesia, ed. P. van de Velde (Dordrecht: Foris, 1984), pp. 297-326 (this article first published in 1970).
To the south, on the upper Melawi River, an elaborate lingga-and-yoni was found in the territory of the Ot Danum groups.(see E.L.M. Kuhr, "Schetsen uit Borneo's Westerafdeeling", BKI 46 (6, 2 1896): 63-88, 214-39; 47 (6, 3 1897): 57-82; A.H.B. Agerbeek, "Batoe Darah Moening. Eene Kalang-legende van West-Borneo", Tijdschrift v. Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (Bataviaasch Genootschap) (1910): 153-57.)
Farther to the southwest, some Hindu-Buddhist objects were also reported. To the east, on the Mahakam River, a number of stone Nandi bulls had been placed at the sites of important settlements by the Pin groups (who lived along the Mahakam before the Kayan invasion); one can still be seen in situ. Also in East Kalimantan, inscribed yupas (in Pallava script; fourth or fifth century A.D.), gold jewellery, stone statues of Hindu gods and Boddhisatvas (ca tenth century), and a bronze Buddha were discovered. (see H. Kern, "Over de Sanskrit opschriften van Kutei (Borneo) ca. 400 A.D.)", in Verspreide Geschriften 7 ('s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1917),pp. 55-76; J. Ph. Vogel, "The Yupa Inscriptions of King Mulavarman from Koetei (East Borneo)", BKI 74 (1918): 167-232; F.D.K. Bosch, "Oudheden in Koetei", Oudheidkundig Verslag, Bijlage G. (1925), pp. 132-46; N.J. Krom, Geschiedenis; J.G. de Casparis, "Some Notes on theOldest Inscriptions of Indonesia", in A Man of Indonesian Letters -- Essays in Honor of Professor A. Teeuw, ed. C.M.S. Hellwig and S.O. Robson (Dordrecht: Foris/KITLV, 1986), pp. 242-56.)
According to Bernard Sellato from the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Vol. 24, 1993), it is clear that Indian cultural influence, at least in some of its visual manifestations, reached quite far inland up Borneo's major rivers. As the uppermost Kapuas region is rich in gold and forest products, this should not be surprising. Networks of trade and, along with it, cultural interaction - probably induced the emergence there of supra-tribal polities in the form of petty trading kingdoms.
According to the region, this Indian influence appears to have been either Shivaist or Buddhist. Among the artifacts found at the site of Nanga Balang, the presence of gold jewellery (if not that of the phallic stone) might be interpreted as an unambiguous clue to such influence.
If Indian influence reached the coasts of Borneo in the fourth or fifth century A.D.,it most probably took several centuries to diffuse to the populations of the far interior. In any case, western Borneo later came under the influence of the Hindu-Javanese kingdom of Majapahit (around 1350).
Similarly Islam, known to have reached the coastal regions of West Kalimantan in the mid-sixteenth century, probably did not diffuse to Putussibau before the first half of the eighteenth century.
Catholic missionaries established themselves near Putussibau in 1924, and it probably took another couple of decades before they actually started converting the Bukat. Bernard Sellato stated that none of the sites mentioned above has yielded metals (that is, other than gold), with the exception of the two bronze statues mentioned above.
Although metal (bronze and iron) technology might have reached certain points of Borneo's coasts around 2000 B.C., we know that notable iron production in Borneo only started in the tenth century A.D. (see T. Harrisson and S.J. O'Connor, Excavations, J.W. Christie, "Ironworking in Sarawak", in Metalworking in Borneo: Essays on iron-and silver-working in Sarawak, ed. J.W. Christie and V.T. King (Hull: The University of Hull, Centre for South-East Asian Studies, 1988), and was widespread only among a few inland groups (e.g., the Iban and Kayan), and probably not earlier than the fifteenth century. Neither of these groups was present on the uppermost reaches of the Kapuas at any time before the early nineteenth century.
Most inland groups went on using a Neolithic-technology until a couple of centuries ago, and the most isolated retained the use of stone tools until after World War II.
These groups relied on a horticultural economy until the availability of iron tools allowed for the real opening of tropical rainforests and for the advent of swidden rice agriculture in their hinterland territories.
