MALAYSIA, July 11, 2023 (Channel News Asia): When Professor Mokhtar Saidin bought a house in a private enclave in Sungai Petani, Kedah in 2005, he did not know that he was moving close to a site that would mean so much for Malaysia’s history. From 2007 to his retirement in 2021, Mokhtar made the half-an-hour drive countless times to the nearby Sungai Batu archaeological site, where he and his team from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) uncovered evidence of a thriving iron export industry dating as far back as 788 BC. For context, this is much older than the famous monuments of Borobudur (8th century) in Indonesia and Angkor Wat (12th century) in Cambodia, making Sungai Batu and the larger Bujang Valley complex part of the oldest civilization in Southeast Asia.

This declaration was accorded to Sungai Batu during a meeting on Ancient Kedah in 2016. A Bernama report quoted Mokhtar as saying that it was signed by five archaeological experts representing five world civilizations: Mesopotamia, Indus, Mesoamerica, China, and Greek-Rome. Bujang Valley is believed to have occupied an area as big as 386 sq miles on Malaysia’s west coast, stretching from northern Penang to Kedah and possibly eastwards to as far as the current border with Thailand. Since more than a century ago, researchers who worked on the valley have dug up evidence of Hindu-Buddhist temples, iron smelting sites and ancient relics. They say this is proof the area was a bustling, cosmopolitan trading port on the sea route from China to India and further on to Arabia.

Much more at source including a nice video.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-kedah-oldest-civilisation-bujang-valley-archeology-history-3589106

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