Dear Mr Paul de Souza,
The wreck was sunk in Dungun, Terengganu, around 5 nuatica miles from the shore. The wreck was believed as a Portuegese ship .
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Originally Posted by Paul de Souza
Dear Samsol,
Could you tell us where the wreck is located? It will give a clue as to the Malays on the ship. Also has the nationality of the wreck been identified? Is it Portuguese? Dutch? This too can give a clue as during that time in the 17th Century the Portuguese and Dutch were at each other throats and they had Malay Allies - Johor was very closely allied to the Dutch while some Sumatran States were allied to the Portuguese. So knowing these things can help us with a little pin-pointing.
Was the hilt found? I would assume that you took note of all the items on site - was there any two - three inch statue like carving of wood or ivory near the keris or remnants of it? That would be really interesting to see. Hopefully it's there but mislabeled. That too would be an important clue.
I read the article Bill posted but what makes the interviewee say it's a ship built in the Philippines and by the Portuguese at that. The Portugese may have explored part of the Philippines but I think they never settled there. They went to Ternate (Moluccas) and Ambon - further south - unless he is referring to a Spanish galleon built in the Philippines. But I always thought that the Spanish ships crossing the Pacific were built in Mexico.
Eupu Kumis recommendation is really good - The Karsten book - it's really great in giving us a window into the keris of the 16 - 17th century. But - Empu Kumis - why do you say we don't really know what the javanese blades look like. If Karsten is an example of Keris in the 17th century I think we have a good view. The keris of the 17th century look broader and much studier than present day keris. In fact some of the pieces in Karsten - If I did not know their origin, I would swear are Peninsular pieces - which leave me the theory that Malay and Balinese keris give a more accurate view of what the old keris are like in that given that the Malay world and Bali was in conflict till the early 20th century - there was much less modification to the battle-worthiness of keris design as compared to Java which was pacified by the Dutch from the Early 18th century. empu Kumis - remember the Sendai keris in Japan.
The bottom of the sampir of the keris do match the examples in Karsten and what is interesting is that only the examples identified as Markarssar (The Bugis) in Karsten have the Rattan. Given the fact that at that time they were active competitors with the Dutch - they would have helped the Portuguese once in a while so we could be seeing an early bugis piece - but it should not distract from the fact that it could also be Malay. What is interesting is that present keris with Malay style sampir and dress but with rattan at the bottom are consider work of the Bugis dispora or very heavily influenced by the Bugis. You don't see much rattan in pieces from Suluwesi now.
We have a really great item here. The keris is a lok 13 - though this keris seems to have more slender proportions than those in Karsten. Very interesting.
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