‘Java Man’, first fossil find of Homo erectus, back in Indonesia
Iconic Homo erectus fossil welcomed with ceremony and museum exhibit in Jakarta
JAKARTA, Indonesia (MNTV) – After more than 130 years of its discovery in East Java, one of the most influential fossils in human history has finally returned home to Indonesia, reports National Geographic.
Through a repatriation agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia, the fossil finished its long journey to the National Museum in Jakarta.
“For too long – over a century – a significant part of our past has been held beyond the everyday reach of Indonesian society,” said Fadli Zon, Indonesia’s Minister of Culture.
“Scholars discussed it, museums displayed it, and a global narrative was shaped around it, yet the Indonesian people, especially the younger generation, could not see them at home. That era ends today,” said Fadli.
Excavated in 1891 by Dutch paleontologist Eugene Dubois, Java Man was later identified as a member of the early human species Homo erectus and spent decades in the collection of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands.
“The Java Man made headlines around the world in the 19th century and it is making headlines again today,” said Marcel Baukenbaum, the director of Naturalis.
The ancient human skeleton is just one of 28,000 fossils unearthed by Dubois in Indonesia between 1895 and 1920 that the Dutch government committed to repatriating back to their home country back in October—which Fadli called “the biggest repatriation project in the world.”
Baukenbaum carried the fossils in a sealed black suitcase from the Dutch embassy to the museum and was warmly welcomed by Indira Esti Nurjadin, the director of Indonesia’s Heritage Agency.
Surrounded by schoolchildren and journalists with cameras, they entered the museum, passed the Buddhist stone statues to the giant hall of Indonesia’s ethnic map, and then took a left turn and entered the new cave-like exhibition area called “Early History.”
There, Nurjadin and her team had prepared a special room for the Java Man, at the center of the exhibit and surrounded by a replica of the world’s oldest cave paintings and other important fossils.
“We want to prove that we are not receiving them only to be stored in hidden storage, but we are more than ready to make it part of our exhibition,” Nurjadin told National Geographic.
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