Srivijaya archaeological park

Srivijaya archaeological park (Indonesian: Taman Purbakala Kerajaan Sriwijaya), formerly known as Karanganyar archaeological site, is the ancient remnants of a garden and habitation area near the northern bank of Musi river within Palembang vicinity, South Sumatra, Indonesia. Remnants of ancient man-made canals, moats, ponds and artificial islands discovered in this area suggests the site was related with a 9th-century settlement related the Srivijaya empire. Several artifacts, such as Buddhist statues, beads, pottery and Chinese ceramics were found in this area, confirming the area was once a dense human habitation.

The archaeological park is located in Jalan Syakhyakirti, Kelurahan Karanganyar, Kecamatan Gandus, Palembang, on an alluvial plain of the Musi River near its junction with the Ogan and Kramasan rivers. Before the archeological excavation of the site in the late 1980s, the site of Karanganyar was thought to be a potential site for a Srivijayan political power center. However, immediately after the first excavations, the site, with its waterways, reservoirs, and "floating islands" (balai kambang) was thought to be more related with the site of Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II, early 19th-century leader of the Palembang Sultanate. Mahmud Badaruddin II had acquired the land and had started developing the area, probably to prepare his own burial ground, following a Palembang tradition in which the burial of the members of the royal family were to be done on site surrounded by water flowing into the Musi River. Karanganyar site had indeed been occupied in Srivijayan times, mainly in the 9th-century, however the only traces left of this period are a scatter of surface finds of contemporary artifacts e.g. Chinese ceramics, a few layers of ancient brick wall, and possibly one ancient canal. So far, archaeologists has found nothing in the site that can legitimately assign the Karanganyar site to the Srivijayan dynasty instead of to the Palembang Sultanate. Other archaeological sites to Karanganyar that is related with the 7th - 15th centuries Srivijayan dynasty are the Kambang Unglen, Padang Kapas, Ladang Sirap and Bukit Seguntang, and still for a variety of reasons, identification of confirmed archaeological sites of the Srivijayan period remains ambiguous.

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