Position of the posterior skullcap fragment from Sendang Klampok (Sangiran Dome, Java, Indonesia) among the Javanese Homo erectus record

Abstract

Indonesia, and particularly Java island, has been the place of the longest occupation by Homo erectus' species. Since the first Homo erectus found by Eugene Dubois in 1891 in the Trinil site, the discoveries of human remains have been regular, allowing the gathering of the most important concentration of Homo erectus in the world spanning more than 1.7 million years. The new fossil specimen discovered near Sendang Klampok in the Sangiran Dome (Central Java, Indonesia), which represents the left infero-posterior part of a skullcap, supplements the more ancient sample from Sangiran dome. The metrical and morphological features observed on this specimen with in particular the length of the parietomastoid suture, the lower position of the temporal lines which relief is blunt and joining those of the mastoidal crest and lateral part of the transverse occipital torus constituting an extensive formation covering the junction of the temporal, parietal and occipital bones, the protruding mastoid process, external occipital crest well expressed and shape of cerebellar lobes are many characters closer to the Ngandong hominins, clearly different from those of Kabuh (Bapang) and Zhoukoudian Lower Cave specimens.