On December 21, the National Museum of Indonesia opened its landmark exhibition titled “The Oldest Civilization on Earth: 130 Years After Pithecanthropus Erectus,” featuring a collection of Homo erectus fossils. The exhibition is the first time some of the original fossils are on public display, including skull fossils of Homo erectus.
Indonesia’s Minister of Culture Fadli Zon emphasized the region’s “important part of the grand narrative of human evolution” in his speech at the exhibition’s opening.
The exhibition features more than 20 collections and original fossils from the Bandung Geological Museum, the Sangiran Ancient Human Museum, and the Mpu Tantular State Museum. Among the main attractions are nine original fossils, including the Pithecanthropus soloensis from Sidoarjo, displayed to the public for the first time, as reported by Tempo.
The Pithecanthropus soloensis skull, discovered by Catur Hari Gumono in Ngawi, East Java, in 1987, was transported to Jakarta from the Mpu Tantular State Museum in Sidoarjo for the exhibition. One year after its discovery, the historical artifact was handed over to the museum, and it was since studied by scientists from Indonesia and abroad, revealing that the fossil is from an ancient human skull that lived about 300,000 years ago, according to Tempo.
The exhibition also presents the skull of Homo erectus Sangiran 17 (S-17), considered the most complete Homo erectus skull in Indonesia, with a brain volume of about 900 cubic centimeters and relatively intact facial bones, according to Tempo. Many reconstructions of Homo erectus faces refer to the shape of Sangiran 17. Usually stored separately at the Geological Museum in Bandung and the Sangiran Early Man Museum, this is the first time it was exhibited more completely.
Archaeological sites such as Sangiran, Trinil, and Ngandong uncovered fossils over 1.5 million years old, establishing Indonesia as a center of adaptation and innovation of ancient humans. About 60 percent of Homo erectus finds in the world were discovered in Indonesia, particularly on the island of Java, according to JPNN.
Other finds, such as the ancient fauna fossils of Mastodon and Stegodon, enrich the narrative of the early archipelago’s ecosystem, depicting a dynamic environment where various species coexisted, creating one of the most complex habitats in Earth’s history, as reported by Kompas.
The exhibition presents fossils and artifacts of historical value, including ancient elephant jaw fossils and buffalo fossils from up to 1.5 million years ago, according to Tempo. On December 20, 2024, Irma, a laboratory technician from the Krikilan Unit of Sangiran Museum in Sragen, performed maintenance on the head and tusks of a 0.16 million-year-old ancient elephant in preparation for the exhibition, as reported by Tempo.
Visitors are greeted with replicas of the skull cap and thigh bone of ancient humans discovered by Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois, who first discovered Pithecanthropus erectus in Trinil, Ngawi, East Java, in 1891, as reported by Tempo. Dubois’s discoery became a milestone in understanding human evolution, with Pithecanthropus erectus, meaning “upright-walking ape-man,” indicating an early form of human with unique physical and behavioral characteristics.
Dubois, began his journey to the Indonesian archipelago after enrolling as a military doctor in the Dutch East Indies, with his research taking place in Sumatra and Java, as reported by Tempo.
The height of Homo erectus was 165–180 centimeters, and their brain volume was 750–1,350 cubic centimeters—modern human average is 1,400 cubic centimeters—with a protruding face and thick nose, as reported by Tempo. “They began to recognize stone and bone as tools for hunting and self-defense, and also understood farming techniques,” said Sadari, the Head of Mpu Tantular Museum, according to Tempo.
“It is a treasure exhibition,” said Sofwan Noerwidi, Head of Indonesia’s Center for Archaeometry Research at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), accvording to Tempo. He explained that nine out of 235 Homo erectus specimens from Indonesia are displayed.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq
This article was originally published at www.jpost.com
