at Oc Eo amongst an indigenous people of 'Indonesian' type portrayed on several of the objects found. The presence of Vaishnavism, Saivism, and Buddhism is attested, and the great preponderance of imports were Indian. Two Buddhist bronzes in the style of Gandhara, A.D. 100-300, were found as well as a Buddhist copper statuette in the style of Amaravati; of the second or third centuries A.D. A cameo has figures upon it like those of Indians from north-western India and there is evidence of Indo-Scythian affinities. The finds of Iranian origin included a glass disc with the bust of a man wearing a Scythian head-dress, a beard and plaited locks of hair, who is smelling a flower and is reminiscent of effigies on Sassanian coins. Perhaps the most surprising evidence is that of Roman imports, which could, of course, have arrived through Indian middlemen, though the possibility of Romano-Greek ships having sailed direct to the port of Oc Eo cannot be excluded. There are intaglios engraved with Mediterranean subjects, notably composite figures of Roman or Greek origin, and two Roman medallions of Antonine emperors. One of these bears a mutilated legend in which the name of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180) can be distinguished, and the other gives the name of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161) and a date which corresponds to A.D. 152. The possibility that Oc Eo was the Zabai of Ptolemy seems to be a rational conjecture. Oc Eo had highly developed industries in metals, beads, glyptics and jewellery. The gold work is so noticeable that Malleret attributes a gold cult to the place. Tin, iron, copper and lead were also used. None of these metals could have come from the Trans-Bassak-region and must have been imported from elsewhere. One very possible site for the tin and the gold would have been the east coast of Malaya, where there exists a chain of ancient mining sites stretching from Pahang to Patani and, from the archaeological evidence, contemporaneous with Oc Eo.7 Some of the objects found at Oc Eo portray an animal with a jet of saliva issuing from its mouth and associated with the symbols of the sun and the moon. It is reminiscent of the gold 'kijang,' (barking deer) coins minted in Kelantan, Trengganu and Patani by various Muslim Sultans,8 and of the bull vomit mentioned in the Sejarah Malayu; but in our present state of knowledge it would be unwise to draw any inferences. There is no doubt that Oc Eo was the commercial centre of the ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 Anker Rentse, "A Historical Note on the Northeastern Malay States", JMBRAS., vol. 20, pt. 1, (1947), pp. 23-40; W. Linehan, "Traces of a Bronze Age Culture associated with Iron Age Implements in the Region of Klang and the Tembeling, Malaya", JMBRAS., vol. 24, pt. 3 (1951), pp. 1-59. 8 Anker Rentse, "Gold Coins of the North-Eastern Malay States", JMBRAS. vol. 17, pt. 1 (1939), pp. 88-97. |