Indonesia has revealed some of the most significant finds in prehistory. These discoveries are helping paleo-anthropologists around the world to have a better understanding of our human origins.
Prehistoric Indonesia looked very different from the Indonesian archipelago of today, with it’s estimated 17,508 islands. Changing sea levels in the Pleistocene period transformed the islands into large landmasses like the ones seen above.
1. Homo erectus.
Homo erectus may have been one of the first hominids to inhabit prehistoric Indonesia. Eugene Dubois discovered the bones of the first Homo erectus at a site called Trinil in Java, Indonesia, between 1891 and 1892. The remains have been dated to between 1 million and 700,000 years old. At the time of discovery they were the oldest human ancestral remains ever found. The fossils were touted as representing the “missing link” between apes and modern humans and inspired many future paleoanthropologists to continue looking for intermediary species.
2. Homo floresiensis.
(Photo Credit)
Found in 2003 on the island of Flores in Indonesia, the remains of the first Homo floresiensis revealed an early hominid that stood just 1.1 m (3 ft 6 in) tall. Nicknamed “the hobbit” for it’s diminutive size, this hominid is thought to have lived about 80,000 years ago.
Some scientists at first believed the relatively short height and small brain of Homo floresiensis may have been due to pathology, or growth disorder in the already discovered Homo erectus species. Extensive research is now pointing towards insular dwarfism—an evolutionary process and condition whereby large animals reduce in body-size over time due to being isolated into a small environment—like the island of Flores. Pygmy elephants on Flores appear to have resulted from the same adaptation. The hobbit is, to this day, one of the most unique hominids ever found.
3. Oldest hunting scene.
In December 2017, scientists reported making the discovery of cave art depicting the oldest hunting scene in Pangkep, Indonesia. National Geographic reports that the cave art was discovered by an Indonesian spelunker named, Hamrullah—who is listed in scientific publications as simply, “unaffiliated”. While the circumstances surrounding this discovery are not totally clear, one this is for certain: the 43,900 year old painting has rocked the cave art world.
The painting appears to include several therianthropic figures (part human, part animal) hunting six different endemic mammals. The mammals are thought to be pigs, and dwarf buffalos. The human-like figures appear to be holding long thin objects which might be ropes or spears. The therianthropes suggest that whoever made these paintings had the ability to form imagined thoughts since part human, part animal beings do not exist. Many believe imagination is the basis for religious thinking. This means, the birthplace of religion may not have been in Europe as was previously thought, but perhaps it was in Indonesia.
4. Oldest Portable Art in Southeast Asia.
On March 16th, 2020, a team of archaeologists reported to having uncovered two stone plaquettes which may be the first known examples of ‘portable art’. The plaquettes date to between 14,000 and 26,000 years old.
One of the stones is said to contain a depiction of a water buffalo, and the other, a star, eye, or flower. The plaquettes are comparable in age to the earliest examples of portable art from the Levant and Africa. These are significant, however, because they are the first ones dated to the Pleistocene ever found in Southeast Asia.
5. Oldest evidence of shell tool use in the world.
José Joordens, a researcher in the Netherlands, with access to fossil remains taken from Java in the late 1800’s, has discovered deliberate scratch marks on a fossilized shell. This discovery has led many to believe that the scratch marks were created by Homo erectus (found near the shells in the same strata) at Trinil, Indonesia.
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Furthermore, in an article from the Smithsonian Magazine, Joordens said the shell had been sharpened, “the shell tool has a knife-like edge, so we assume that it was used for cutting and/or scraping”. The sediment in the shells date to between 540,000 and 430,000 years old.
Additionally, cut marks on Pleistocene mammal bones found at Sangrian, Indonesia (one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world) appear to have been made by clamshell tools. These bones have been dated to 1.6 and 1.5 million years ago. With these two types of evidence combined, it can be asserted that the oldest shell tool use in the world occurred in Indonesia.
Further resources:
Find a list of many notable Indonesian Archeological sites here.
Jenny Digs 
