A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an essay about metal in Santubong. I wasn’t satisfied with it. My first question is how did the iron get into the soil. The answer is long and complicated worthy of a geo chemist and has to do with slate, soil, water and heat from the tropical air. My next question was where exactly on the early boats, say pre-A.D., did they use metal? I searched and searched and found nothing. I looked at China and Indian metal origins and still found nothing. Dr Richard Unger provided the answer. Most historians say the furnaces produced metal but he took it one step further in saying they produced nails from that metal. The nails were needed to hold sections of the early boats together. This fits into my next question which was how such small furnaces could produce such large objects as kris, spears and hoes. They didn’t. The small furnaces produced nails for the repair of ships. There wasn’t enough metal produced from the ground to make the larger items. This answered another question on why I was getting so many nails while pulling my magnet through the ground on a string. Here again, the people were producing nails for the repairs. My hypothesis is the furnaces produced nails for ship and boat repair.
The metal culture of Santubong existed because of the need to collect fresh water and repair boats coming from Sanfosi and continuing on to China. The Chinese ships and others travelled down the coast of Malaya to the tip of Sumatra and then over to Santubong. They probably made this sail between the two monsoon seasons because the winds would have been neutral during the west-to-east crossing. This possibly occurred in the late BCE and the first five centuries A.D.
Iron in tropical soil comes from a substance called laterite. In tropical regions, the laterites are found in red or yellow soil where the soil has been weathered. Usually, the soil is soft and wet below the crust layer. Sometimes there are pebbles or clumps of laterite found on top of the ground.
When Indian boats first arrived in Santubong, in the late BCE, the sailors recognized the laterite soil and saw it was similar to that of Kedah. These people were presumably Indian or Malays who had converted to Buddhism. They were to trade and spread the faith. They presumably built the first furnaces to produce replacement nails. The local Malays or Bidayuh learned from the sailors and a new industry was born.
The flat nails on these early boats required replacing because of the salt water. The Malays were able to dig into the red soil which was laced with threadlike pieces of metal. They built furnaces using the vast quantities of mangrove forests located on the edge of the sea as fuel. The laterite contained in the dirt melted, dripped downward and was collected. Then the metal was melted again and shaped into nails needed by the boats.
Iron smelting sites dating to the second century were excavated from Kedah. The area was rich in laterites. Ancient Kedah existed before it became a major seaport in the ~5th century. This development was said to have been caused by the arrival of Buddhist traders from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. Buddhist missionaries, whether converted proto-Malays from Sumatra or actual Indians, arrived in Santubong and probably started the industry.
Two things had to come together and these were the laterite soil and a way to extract the iron from the soil. The Indian culture could have brought the idea of the furnaces from Kedah to Santubong in late BCE. The furnaces were termed “Indian-type smelting furnaces” and Indian artefacts have been found along the Santubong coast.
In the beginning, the smelting furnaces were too small to produce iron for kris, swords, spears or hoes. However, vast quantities of nails were produced. The nails, which held the ships together, often fell off the ships or were eroded away by the salt water. These could easily be manufactured by the small furnaces.
To prevent rust, the proto-Malays used a substance called keruin. Keruin was made of natural oils and resins. It was used as a protective layer on iron surfaces. The metal nails could be shaped, smeared with keruin, and placed on the boat, and the ship would continue on the voyage to China.
As more and more ships arrived from the Sunda Strait between monsoon seasons, the need for increased metal work became necessary. The boats would stay at Santubong during the Northeast Monsoon and depart when the winds changed on the Southwest Monsoon. Although not a major port, Santubong was able to sustain itself as a metal-producing site. During the Northeast Monsoon, the boats were pulled ashore and repaired.
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Dr Daniel Perret reported that Tom Harrisson excavated 22 tons of iron slag and had built a jetty from iron slag on the Raso River. I haven’t been down the Raso River, a creek actually, to find the jetty nor have I found any place where 22 tons of slag could have been placed.
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The Port of Santubong
It was soon realized by the Chinese that Santubong could become a major trading post for jungle produce. The ships sailed from Guangzou to Champa, to Karimata Strait and onwards to Santubong. When they docked, large amounts of shards, used as ballast, had to be shovelled out to make way for the products of the jungle.
At the beginning of the 8th century, a small number of boats had been replacing their palm fronds with cloth. This continued until the palm fronds were replaced entirely by cloth. However, they still needed fresh water and replacement for the nails. Gradually larger boats arrived, depositing their shards and then loading the boat with jungle produce.
The commerce lasted until three events came together. The first indication was the visit of The First Rajah Tengah or Islamic Rajah from Santubong to China in ~1408 where he passed away. He was the first Islamic Sultan of Santubong and sailed to China to encourage continued trade with the country.
The second event was the “Ming Gap”. The Ming dynasty began in 1368 and lasted until 1644. It was during this time very little pottery was unloaded at Santubong. This would necessitate the visit of the First Rajah Tengah to China.
The third was the invasion of Santubong by Brunei troops. The town of Santubong was completely destroyed and the royal family fled. Trade was redirected to Brunei. This occurred in ~ 1512.
The above is from
Abdul Mutalib Embong et al Tracing the Malays in the Malay Land 3rd Global Conference on Business and Social Science-2015, GCBSS-2015, 16-17 December 2015
Bronson, Bennett The Transition to Iron in Ancient China in Pigott, Vincent, ed. The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World: Philadelphia The University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, 1999
Butt, C. R. M. Regolith Exploration Geochemistry in Tropical and Subtropical Terrains in Handbook of Exploration Geochemistry,Volume 4 Amsterdam: Elesvier Science Publishers, 1992
Dilip K. Chakrabarti Distribution of Iron Ores and the Archaeological Evidence of Early Iron in India
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 20, No. 2 (May, 1977), pp. 166-184
Eyles, R.J. Physiographic Implications of Laterite in West Malaysia in Geological Society of Malaysia Bulletin No. 3 March, 1970
Nasha Rodzia Khaw et al The Sungai Batu Archeological Complex: Reassessing the Emergence of Ancient Kedah in Kajian Malaysia, Vol. 39, No. 2, 2021, 117–152
Nina Havela Dishong et al Investigating the Geochemical Content of Ancient Laterite Bricks… in Journal of Sustainability Science and Management Volume 17 Number 1, January 2022: 236-258
Perret, Daniel The Sungai Jaong and Bongkisam Archaeological Project, Sarawak, Malaysia in Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-…Vol. 105, 2019
Singh, S.D. Iron in Ancient India Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Jul., 1962), pp. 212-216 (5 pages)
Suriani binti Sahari and Tom McLaughlin Sarawak River Valley: Early Times to 1840 Kuching: Sue J’s Enterprises, 2020
Unger, Richard Melding technologies? Shipbuilding around the Indian Ocean after the arrival of European ships in International Journal of Maritime History 2024 DOI: 10.1177/08438714241272548
Unger, Richard Personal Communication with Tom McLaughlin 15 June 2025
Tom McLaughlin for BorneoHistory.net