The residents have only managed to dug out the lid of the ancient bronze jar which was approximately 3-4 meters wide and buried some 2.5 meters underground and at least four men were needed to lift the relic.
Other parts of the relic still remain buried deeper in the ground, said Fikriansyah who discovered the ancient object on Wednesday.
"I was digging a hole for building a house foundation when suddenly my hoes hit a hard object and I continue digging it carefully," Fikriansyah said.
Fikriansyah who was curious about his discovery then realized that the object was a large jar lid, and called his friends to lift it of the ground but leaving the rest buried due to the heavy and large scaled jar.
"Amazingly, the bronze jar was still intact without rust, even after being in the ground for such a long time," he said.
Based on Fikriansyah`s assumption, the craved jar relic is probably from the Dutch or may be Japanese colonial period.
Researcher from the Palembang Institute for Archaeology, Kristantina said that she is still unable to predict with certainty what the relics really is, because a research process is needed for that.
"We must observe the discovered relic thoroughly, either the lid or in the whole thing if the residents have dug out the whole thing," she said.
In the meantime, the object still cannot be identified as to its date of origin and what the object really is before making any predictions, to make sure.
(SYS/A050/S012)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
