YENBEKAKI FORTRESS IS EVIDENCE OF TRADE ACTIVITIES IN RAJA AMPAT

Jayapura, Nov 3 (ANTARA) - Yenbekaki Fortress, located in Arefi Village, Selat Sagawin subdistrict, Raja Ampat District, Papua Barat province, is a physical evidence of trading relations between the local people and merchants from the western part of Indonesia.

A researcher of the Jayapura Archeology Centre, Hari Suroto, said here recently the site of the Yenbekaki or Yambekakai or Yembekaki Fortress is a construction of coral limestone and other stones without adhesive materials, 56 meters long and 32 meters wide.

The wall is 50 centimeters to six meters thick, he said.

The fortress is facing the sea with a high and steep cliff in its back side, he said, adding that around the site there is a well and fragments of a vessel and jar potteries of storage type.

Judging from its shape, the vessel was used for cooking and storing foods, whereas the jar for storing water.

"Based on the physical evidence, the Yenbekaki fortress is predicted to have served as a transit place for ships which passed through this area and also as a shelter from pirates and the west wind.This place was also a source of water," Hari said.

These predictions were further strengthened by soil observation in Arefi Village in which highly porous white and black sea sand were found and therefore the soil cannot be used for making potteries.

"The clay deposit and tradition of making potteries are also not found here. Thus, it is concluded that the potteries found in this location must come from elsewhere," Hari explained.

These discoveries are evidence that in the 14th century, the southwest side of Papua was once visited by merchants from Java. The determination of the period was made on the basis of written information in 1365, titled 'Negarakertagama' which was created by Prapanca, a poet of Majapahit Kingdom in Java.

It was thought that the merchants came to Papua looking for masohi wood, resin, pearl, tortoise's shells, the fur of Cenderawasih birds and copra.

Raja Ampat's strategic geographic position also makes the district a main pathway for merchants from the western part of Indonesia who passed the Tidore Sultanate in Halmahera Islands to Papua.