teradesa.com The Pugung Raharjo archaeological site is administratively located in Pugung Raharjo Village, Sekampung Udik District, East Lampung Regency, Lampung Province. Precisely at coordinates 5° 18′ 54″ LS and 1105° 32′ 03″ East and is at an altitude of 80 m above sea level.
The Pugung Raharjo site was discovered in 1957 by local residents consisting of transmigrants during logging to clear land. Some of the transmigrants, namely Barno Raharjo, Sardi, Karjo, Kodiran and Sawal, reported the findings to the Antiquities Office. One of the early findings was a statue known as the Bodhisattva statue, which is characterized by the period of Hindu-Buddhist influence.
The uncovering of megalithic traditions in Sumatra has been done by many experts, long before Indonesia’s independence, including Tombrink, Steinmetz, Ullman, Schnitger, Van der Hoop, and Funke. However, Pugung Raharjo, which was discovered by transmigrants, was not recognized by these researchers.
A few years after it was discovered, in 1968, initial research was conducted by the Institute of Antiquities led by Drs. Buchori. In 1973, the Institute of Antiquities and National Heritage in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Museum University, recorded and documented the archaeology in Pugung Raharjo. The results of the research were outlined in the Sumatra Research Report.
Research continued, in 1975, Soekatno T.W.’s team conducted mapping and surface survey activities. In 1977, Haris Sukendar conducted research that succeeded in finding and identifying the existence of a number of hollow and scratched stones and the distribution of findings. In 1980 an excavation was carried out, which resulted in the conclusion that the Pugung Raharjo megalithic complex has an area of about 25 ha.
In 1977/1978 until 1983/1984, restoration was carried out at the Pugung Raharjo site by the Directorate General of Protection and Development of History and Antiquities through the Lampung Historical and Antiquarian Heritage Development and Maintenance Project.
In terms of chronology, artifacts, and features, the Pugung Raharjo site is very unique, interesting, and varied. The relics at this site are chronologically complete, ranging from prehistoric, classical (Hindu – Buddhist), to Islamic times. Artifacts found on this site include foreign ceramics from several dynasties, local ceramics, beads, dolmen, menhirs, knives, spearheads, hollow stones, whetstones, pipisan stones, stone axes, punden trap stones, bronze bracelets, and scratched stones. The features found at the Pugung Raharjo site include artificial forts and ditches, stepped pundens, perforated stones, stone mortar, scratched stones, cage stones (corpse stones).
