The Mid-Second Millennium A.D. Submerged Iron Production Village of Pontada in Lake Matano, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

By the mid-second millennium A.D., Indonesians were already familiar with iron tools. One of Indonesia’s main centers of iron production is the Lake Matano area in the hinterland of East Luwu, South Sulawesi, eastern Indonesia, renowned for its nickeliferous iron ore. Research in Lake Matano conducted during 2016–2022 succeeded in documenting a submerged village with remnants of an iron processing industry dating to the late first millennium A.D. In this article, we describe a second submerged site associated with processing iron, which included forged iron implements. Occupation at this site, called Pontada, is dated to between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries A.D., before the site sank beneath the surface of Lake Matano. Written and archaeological evidence suggests that its antiquity corresponds to when the empire of Majapahit in eastern Java imported nickeliferous iron from Lake Matano and traded it throughout coastal Luwu.