Under the Scorching Sun of Bumiayu: Brief Notes from a Survey

Under the scorching sun of Bumiayu, I began to realize that survey activities are not merely about walking and observing. There is a process of understanding that slowly grows with every step, when the eyes are forced to become more perceptive and the mind learns to read things that previously felt meaningless.

That experience felt increasingly real when my survey team and I conducted surveys at Kali Aur and Kali Jurang earlier this afternoon. Tracing the river currents through terrain that was not always easy, we tried to observe every detail on the surface from the arrangement of rocks to changes in soil color. At first glance, everything looked like ordinary landscape. But when we began to apply what we had learned, our perspective slowly shifted.

At Kali Aur, the water flow and the sediments it carried seemed to open a small part of what lay beneath the surface. Meanwhile, at Kali Jurang, the different terrain characteristics presented both challenges and opportunities to read other traces that might have been overlooked if seen in the usual way. At both locations, we found several things, ranging from stone artifacts to a number of fossils scattered at various points. It was then that I began to understand that surveying is not just about finding something clearly visible, but also about cultivating sensitivity learning how to distinguish between what is merely an ordinary stone and what might hold a longer story behind its existence.

From that point, I felt that surveying is not just a field activity, but part of a learning process that gradually shapes the way I understand Bumiayu not only as a place, but as a space that continues to speak to anyone willing to study what exists within it.