Jakarta, IO – A hot spring (petirtaan) site thought to date back to Kediri or Majapahit kingdom era was discovered in the Dhoho Kediri Airport compound.
The discovery of the site was made by the Cultural Conservation Center (BPK) region XI East Java after carrying out excavations of the site in the Grogol Village area, Grogol District, Kediri until Tuesday (24/10), per Detikcom, Saturday (28/10).
Head of the BPK Excavation Team for Region XI East Java Muhammad Ikhwan said excavation workers to salvage the site found horizontal brick structure stretching to the north.
He said that excavations had been going on since Thursday (19/10) according to the schedule and actually ended today. But yesterday the structure was discovered.
“From the results of this excavation, we found a petirtaan structure that leads to the north of this plan structure shaped like the letter U. It leads to the north with walls, then on the inside there is a water channel chamber to the north,” said Ikhwan.
The site area measures 12×12 meters is located just west of the airport area. This site is buried in soil about 2 meters deep.
However, Ikhwan admitted that they could not confirm how old it is because there have been no other discoveries indicating the existence of the site at that excavation stage.
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However, looking at the findings of the size of the bricks in the structure suspected to be place of worship, he suspected it to be from the Kediri-Majapahit Kingdom era.
“The brick is around 22-cm-long and 7-cm-wide, this was common during the Kediri-Majapahit period. But we are not sure yet. Next, they will recommend the results to the regional government,” added Ikhwan. (rr)