Some remarks upon: fossil man from Java, his age, and his tools

Abstract

It was at Trinil, a small village in Central Java, that Eug?ne Dubois found at the end of last century the skullcap and thighbone of an early hominid, namely Pithecanthropus erectus. Today we know that this ape-man was much more advanced than Dubois ever supposed. Pithecanthropus is now included in the genus Homo. To be more precise, Pithecanthropus belongs to the species Homo erectus; and th? specimen from Trinil (the first Homo erectus to be found anywhere in the world) forms within it the subspecies Homo erectus erectus. This hominid of Trinil no longer stands in isolation. Also at other places in Java fossil hominid remains have been found, which either belong to this subspecies Homo erectus erectus, or are included in other subspecies (e.g. in Homo erectus soloensis). The most prolific site of fossil hominid remains at the moment is Sangiran, situated some ten kilometres to the north of Surakarta, in Central Java. Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis on the grassy plains of Upper Pliocene and Basal Pleistocene East Africa some 2 million years ago, and from there he began his wanderings across the Old World. Java was in fact thus the end of a long trek for Homo erectus. But he obviously felt very much at home on Java. There he found a comfortable niche, in which he was able to survive for several hundred thousand years without undergoing many changes. The finds of hominid remains in Java have increased in recent years. This is due to the activities of the Indonesian archaeological service (Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional), as a result of which research on early man on Java is now proceeding in a coordinated and systematic