The Bulu Cina Site in Northeast Sumatra: Some Preliminary Notes

Chance finds reported at Bulu Cina since 2017 have recently attracted the attention of archaeologists. This is particularly so as this site is less than ten kilometres from Kota Cina. The purpose of this contribution is firstly to introduce the objects discovered in the 2010s, in particular ten more or less fragmentary copper alloy statuettes and Buddhist sealings dated to the second half of the first millennium CE, and secondly to give a brief account of the first survey and excavations carried out in 2019 at Bulu Cina by the Medan Archaeological Research Office. Domestic material uncovered so far provides preliminary indications of a prosperous settlement between the tenth and fourteenth centuries CE. The Bulu Cina site opens therefore a new stage in the history of the region between the large shell middens of Saentis and Gohor Lama dating back several millennia BCE, and the site of Kota Cina.