Composition Analysis of Ancient Bricks, Candi Bukit Kechil, Bujang Valley, Kedah

Abstract

Candi Bukit Kechil or Bukit Kechil Temple is one of the temples in Bujang Valley that was built on a hill apart from Candi Bukit Pendiat (Site 17), Candi Bukit Meriam (Site 26), Candi Bukit Penjara (Site 25) and Candi Bukit Gajah Mati (Site 7). On the whole, this temple was made from bricks and based on the north-south orientation and the construction of the lotus-like structure, it is believed that this temple is of Buddhist religion and was built between 9th to 10th century AD. Based on GPS reading, the temple’s location is N5 37.129 E100 27.324. Analysis on the bricks of the temple was performed to determine whether the bricks used local raw material or otherwise, as well as to find out the physical condition of the bricks, particularly their burning method. As such, two analysis techniques were conducted, namely the X-Ray Diffraction and the X-Ray Fluorescence method that respectively determined the mineral content of the bricks as well as the major and trace element content of the bricks. Analysis shows that the minerals contained in the brick samples of Candi Bukit Kechil comprise of quartz, muscovite, albite and kaolinite. The presence of the kaolinite mineral shows that there are bricks that were baked at temperatures less than 550°C and this shows that open burning was used. The analyses of major and trace element content show that the raw material used are local raw material and the sources of the raw material were obtained from the area of the Bujang River basin and the areas around Mukim Merbok and Mukim Bujang.

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