Stutterheim's enigma
The mystery of his mapping of the Majapahit kraton at Trowulan in 1941
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2886708 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Amrit Gomperts (1. [email protected]), Arnoud Haag, Peter Carey (0000-0002-0480-8053) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 164 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 411-430 |
| Publication date | 2008-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0006-2294 • E-ISSN: 2213-4379 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/22134379-90003649 |
| OpenAlex | W2053388019 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 1 |
For over a century archaeologists have been trying to unravel the mystery of the location of the fourteenth-century kraton (palace) of the rulers of the Majapahit kingdom which held power in Java from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. It has been long known that the royal city and its palace was located at Trowulan about 50 kilometres southwest of Surabaya, the present-day capital of East Java. Today, unfortunately, all that remains of its former glory are isolated piles of broken bricks and an archaeologically mutilated landscape littered with craters dug by colonial-era asset strippers and treasure hunters. Knowledge of its exact position seemed to have vanished. In 1365 AD, however, the Javanese author Prapañca, had described the Majapahit capital and its royal palace in an extant Old Javanese text, called the Nāgarakrtāgama or Deśawarnana. Based upon this description, several scholars published reconstructions of the lay-out of the kraton of Majapahit, but none of them have been able to offer an identification of its exact location. In 1941, however, the then Head of the Netherlands Indies Archaeological Service (Oudheidkundige Dienst), W.F. Stutterheim, made a detailed reconstruction of the kraton of Majapahit, which the present authors are convinced correctly identified its precise location. The mystery is that Stutterheim himself did not reveal that location. This article sheds new light on the accuracy of Stutterheim's reconstruction and his seemingly intentional obfuscation of the site identifications in Prapañca's monumental work
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art history · Exoticism · Extant taxon · Geography · Glory · Treasure · Asian Studies and History · History
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.29 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2020 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |