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More than fifty years after the last excavations undertaken in the coastal area of the Sarawak River Delta, new archaeological excavations in the region started in 2019, through a cooperation between the École française dʼExtrême-Orient and the Sarawak Museum Department. This article offers the preliminary results of researches conducted at the Sungai Jaong site, in the Santubong area, until late 2023. Despite a very limited excavated surface area, the conduct of metallurgical activities in ancient times has been recognised and attested without any doubt for the first time in the Sarawak River Delta. Several remains of iron smelting furnaces, dated between mid-11th and late 12th-13th century CE, have been uncovered. They could represent the first iron smelting furnaces, dated to early second millennium CE, reported so far on the whole island of Borneo. Other finds include notably more than seven tons of iron slag, some 3,200 fragments of tuyeres, 6,600 earthenware sherds, almost 2,500 stoneware shards, and several grooved stones. Various analyses of these finds are underway, including a compositional analysis of iron slag samples. Archaeological research at Sungai Jaong also includes a geomorphological study to shed light on the interactions between the ancient occupation of the site and the environment over the longue durée.
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