Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine whether the ancient bricks from Candi Pengkalan Bujang (Site 19) are made from local raw material or not. Candi Pengkalan Bujang (Site 19) is one of the temple sites that used bricks as the main construction material in addition to the usage of pillar bases made from granite stones and roof that are believed to have been made from wood and palm leafs. Relative dating proposed that this site was built between the 12th and 13 century AD. The architecture of the temple also indicates there was evolution toward the use of bricks that were smaller and of the same size as well as temple construction that revealed the lotus (padma) and upaphita structures. This study focuses on the material composition analysis of ancient bricks that were used to produce this temple of which the main purpose is to see whether the raw materials used to produce these bricks utilized local raw materials. Two analysis techniques were used, namely the X-Ray Fluorescence technique (XRF) and the X-Ray Diffraction technique (XRD) in determining the content of the major and trace elements as well as the mineral content in the ancient bricks. The findings of this study show that the major minerals found in the ancient bricks of the Candi Pengkalan Bujang (Site 19) are quartz, muscovite and microcline while other minerals that exist are leucite, mullite and geothite. The mineral content and physical observation of the bricks indicate that the open firing technique was used in producing these bricks. The major and trace element content also indicates that these bricks were produced from the same source and it is proposed that local raw materials were used in the production of the bricks. The involvement of the local community in producing the bricks should not be refuted, proving the Knowledge Transformation of the local community in Bujang Valley which had already started since the 4^th century.

Keywords:

Brick, bujang valley, candi pengkalan bujang (site 19), x-ray diffraction, x-ray fluorescence,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

Open Access Policy

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.