User:Joana1221/sandbox

Palembang and its relevance to the early Malaysian city suffered a great deal of controversy in terms of its evidence build up through the archaeological record. Strong historical evidence found in chinese sources speaking of city like settlements as early as 700 AD and later Arab travelers who visited the region during the 10th and 11th centuries held written proof, naming the kingdom of Srivijaya in their context. As far as early state-like polities in Malaysia, the geographical location of modern Palembang was a possible candidate for the 1st millennium kingdom settlement like Srivijaya as it is the best described and most secure in historical context, its prestige was apparent in wealth and in urban characteristics, and the most unique, which no other 1st millennium kingdom held, was its location in junction to three major rivers, the Musi, the Komering, and the Ogan. The historical evidence was contrasted in 1975 with publications by Bennet Bronson and Jan Wisseman. Findings at certain major excavation sites, such as Geding Suro, Penyaringan Air Berish, Sarang Waty, and Bukit Seguntang, conducted in the region played major roles in the negative evdience of the 1st millennium kingdom in the same region. It was noted that the region contained no locatable settlements earlier than the middle of the second millenium.

Lack of evidence of southern settlements in the archaeological record come from the disinterest in the archeologist and the unclear physical visibility of the settlement themselves. Archeology of the 1920’s and 30’s focused more on art and epigraphy found in the regions. Some northern urban settlements were sited due to some overlap in fitting the sinocentic model of city-state urban centers. An approach to differentualize between urban settlements in the southern regions from the northern ones of Southeast Asia was initiated by a proposition for an alternative model. Excavations showed failed signs of a complex urban center under the lens of a sinocentric model, leading to parameters of a new proposed model. Parameters for such a model of a city-like settlement included isolation in relevance to its hinterland. No hinterland creates for low archaeological visibility. The settlement must also have access to both easy transportation and major interregional trade routes, crucial in a region with few resources. Access to the former and later play a major role in a creation of extreme economic surplus in the absence of an exploited hinterland. The urban center must be able to organize politically without the need of ceremonial foci such as temples, monuments and inscriptions. Lastly, habitations must be impermanent, being highly probable in the region Palemabang and of southern Southeast Asia. Such a model was proposed to challenge city concepts of ancient urban centers in Southeast Asia and basic postulates themselves such as regions found in the South, like Palembang, based their achievements in correlation with urbanization.

Due to the contradicting pattern found in southern regions, like Palembang, in 1977 Bennet Bronson developed a speculative model for a better understanding of the Sumatran coastal region, such as insular and peninsular Malaysia, the Philippines, and western Indonesia. Its main focus being the relationship of political, economical and geographical systems. The general political and economical pattern of the region seems irrelevant to other parts of the world of their time, but in correlation with their maritime trade network it produced high levels of socio-economic complexity. He concluded, from his earlier publications in 1974 that state development in this region developed much differently than the rest of early Southeast Asia. Bronson’s model was based on the dendritic patterns of a drainage basin where its opening leads out to sea. Being that historical evidence places the capital in Palembang, and in junction of three rivers, the Musi, the Komering, and the Ogan, such model can be applied. In order for the system to function appropriately several constraints are required. Inability for terrestrial transportation results in movements of all good through water routes, lining up economical patterns with the dendritic patterns formed by the streams. The second being the overseas center is economically superior to the ports found at the mouth of the rivers, having a higher population and a more productive and technologically advanced economy. Lastly, constraints on the land work against and do not developments of urban settlements.