Rentang means ‘disperse’ or ‘scattered’ in Malay. Hence “Scattered City or Fort” was a pre-Islamic and early Islamic habitation site that was part of a larger port settlement located on the Diski and Arangdalu river estuaries between the Deli plain and the coast fronting the Strait of Melaka. Kota Rentang (c.12th – 16th centuries) was probably associated with the historical kingdom Aru (Karo), a landfall and harbor along the northeast coast of Sumatra. Aru was later subdued by Aceh in 1613. A survey and excavation conducted in 2008, employed remote sensing and geophysical methods with ground penetrating radar and magnetometer, identifying pockets of house-mounds, and domestic middens, as well as quantities of timber posts for docking of boats.