A group of fishermen is believed to have discovered the site of Sumatra, known as the Island of Gold.
The fabled Indonesian kingdom boasted of untold treasure that disappeared 700 years ago. Fishermen had been hunting for this hidden wealth for the past five years and finally discovered it during the night-time dives on the Musi River near Palembang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The treasure trove include precious gems, gold rings, coins, and bells of bronze monks. A life-sized statue of Buddha adorned with a jewel from the 8th century has also been discovered.
The discovered artifacts date back to the Srivijaya civilisation, a powerful kingdom between the 7th and 13th centuries which mysteriously disappeared a century later.
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Dr Sean Kingsley, a British maritime archaeologist, said that discovery of these jewels and artifacts was proof that Srivijaya kingdom was not fictional.
In the past five years, he said, extraordinary stuff has been coming up. “Coins of all periods, gold and Buddhist statues, gems, all the kinds of things that you might read about in Sinbad the Sailor and think it was made up. It’s actually real,” he added.
The empire used to be “Water World” wherein people would make and use wooden boats. When this civilisation ended, their wooden houses, palaces, and temples also drowned with them.
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Dr Kingsley also said old utensils and pans were also discovered which show how much progress the people of that time had made. Apart from the stunning finds of gold and jewels, the riverbed turned up tons of Chinese coins and even greater loads of sunken ceramics, he further said.
