Semiotics Analysis of the Landscape Reconstruction of Medang Kamulan Ancient Sites Grobogan - Central Java

Abstract

This study examined the landscape of the Medang Kamulan site in Banjarejo Village, District of Gabus, Grobogan-Central Java, which is often mentioned as the center of ancient Mataram kingdom. This opinion is based on the toponym of Medang (Kamulan) which is identical to the signifier of the Ancient Mataram palace name in the VIII-X century AD. The aim of the study was to reconstruct the landscape of the Medang Kamulan site to obtain an overview of the environment of the ancient Javanese civilization. The research was conducted through the stages of inscriptions data collection, Chinese news sources, maps of the earth images, and geological maps. The next stage is the survey of the environment by arranging the landform units, identifying soil and rock, water resources observations, and archaeological data collection. The result shows that Medang Kamulan landscape is consisting of structural units of gentle slope landform, denudational flat landform units, fluvial landform units, and artifacts finding which include ceramic container, pottery container, currency, and jewelry. Next, the environmental signifier and artifacts signifier will be analyzed using environmental semiotics, the results show that Medang Kamulan site represents the prehistoric ancient environment and developed into the community of the Ancient Javanese starting from the local community that interact with the culture of India and China.