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Collection of beads left by prehistoric people at the Ganesya Museum (Avirista Midaada)
MALANG – The Ganesya Museum Malang presents various objects from prehistoric times such as rare beads from various regions in the archipelago.
Of all the bead collections, the collection of beads from the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean is the furthest owned. These light blue beads look unique both in terms of shape and color.
Ganesya Museum senior guide Amri Bayu said that beads were used by ancestors for burial supplies.
“As grave supplies, for those who have died who believe in animism, they wear these beads so they can go to heaven,” said Amri Bayu at the Ganesya Museum, Wednesday (20/9/2023).
He said that some beads also mark the owner’s age. He read this from several literature presented by archaeologists.
“But this is still a hypothesis, still an estimate. At a young age, which colors are green, when they are adults, blue and so on, this is still an estimate, there is no valid research to validate this hypothesis,” he said.
In the prehistoric era when ancient people did not know writing, beads were quite advanced compared to their civilization. Some of these beads are usually used as a means of bartering for various basic necessities.
“They brought this to the archipelago to be produced or the finished object was used for bartering in the archipelago,” he said.
According to him, the collection of beads at the Ganesya Museum is all original, only the statues used are not original statues but replicas. These beads are also stored in a large glass cabinet monitored by sensors and CCTV cameras, for security. Because the value is also quite expensive because there are some beads that are quite rare.