The Pseudodon shell DUB1006-fL or Pseudodon DUB1006-fL (540,000-430,000 BP) is a fossil freshwater shell of Pseudodon vondembuschianus trinilensis found at Trinil, Java, Indonesia. The shell has a zigzag engraving supposedly made by Homo erectus , which could be the oldest known anthropogenic engraving in the world. [1]
The shell is a part of an assemblage of fossil freshwater mussel shells, excavated by the Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist Eugène Dubois in 1890s from the Pleistocene layer at the Trinil site, Java, Indonesia. The assemblage, including the shell DUB1006-fL, is now at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, Netherlands.
Geometric engravings on the shell DUB1006-fL were discovered by a biologist Josephine Joordens (then at Leiden University) and her colleagues in 2014. Their analysis suggests that the engravings are made by Homo erectus between 540,000 and 430,000 BP. The engravings were probably made on a fresh shell specimen using a shark tooth. It is also suggested that all grooves were made by a single individual in a single session with the same tool. [1]
Joordens et al. do not give a direct interpretation of the engravings, but suggest that "engraving abstract patterns was in the realm of Asian Homo erectus cognition and neuromotor control." [1] In her interview, Joordens says that since the intentions of the individual who made the engravings are not known, it is not possible to classify these engravings as art. [2] "It could have been to impress his girlfriend, or to doodle a bit, or to mark the shell as his own property," says Joordens. [2]
The main discussion happens around the question of whether the engraving on the shell can be considered as art (which would make it the earliest known artistic expression of hominids in the world). Commentators of the original study by Joordens et al. [1] suggest their opinions, but do not study the engravings explicitly. Some commentators, similarly to the authors of the study, give a neutral description of the engravings, calling them a "doodle" [2] or "decorative marks". [3] Some other commentators suggest explicitly that these engravings are art. [4] [5] [6]
Tsion Avital, a philosopher of art and culture, makes a distinction between art and design and suggests that the engraving on Pseudodon DUB1006-fL cannot be seen as the former, but can well be the latter. He contests the description of the engraving by Joordens et al. who called it an "abstract pattern", saying that the terms "abstract" and "pattern" "hint obliquely at the possibility that these engravings possess some symbolic significance." "These engravings are in no sense abstract but rather are completely concrete marks," says Avital. [7]
The Indonesian government has requested the return of the complete Dubois collection (circa 40.000 fossils), because they regard it as goods that were looted by the Dutch during the colonial occupation. [8]
Homo ergaster is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Africa in the Early Pleistocene. Whether H. ergaster constitutes a species of its own or should be subsumed into H. erectus is an ongoing and unresolved dispute within palaeoanthropology. Proponents of synonymisation typically designate H. ergaster as "African Homo erectus" or "Homo erectus ergaster". The name Homo ergaster roughly translates to "working man", a reference to the more advanced tools used by the species in comparison to those of their ancestors. The fossil range of H. ergaster mainly covers the period of 1.7 to 1.4 million years ago, though a broader time range is possible. Though fossils are known from across East and Southern Africa, most H. ergaster fossils have been found along the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya. There are later African fossils, some younger than 1 million years ago, that indicate long-term anatomical continuity, though it is unclear if they can be formally regarded as H. ergaster specimens. As a chronospecies, H. ergaster may have persisted to as late as 600,000 years ago, when new lineages of Homo arose in Africa.
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois was a Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus, or "Java Man". Although hominid fossils had been found and studied before, Dubois was the first anthropologist to embark upon a purposeful search for them.
In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of record-keeping, or makes significant contact with another culture that has, and that makes some record of major historical events. At this point ancient art begins, for the older literate cultures. The end-date for what is covered by the term thus varies greatly between different parts of the world.
Meganthropus is an extinct genus of non-hominin hominid ape, known from the Pleistocene of Indonesia. It is known from a series of large jaw and skull fragments found at the Sangiran site near Surakarta in Central Java, Indonesia, alongside several isolated teeth. The genus has a long and convoluted taxonomic history. The original fossils were ascribed to a new species, Meganthropus palaeojavanicus, and for a long time was considered invalid, with the genus name being used as an informal name for the fossils.
Solo Man is a subspecies of H. erectus that lived along the Solo River in Java, Indonesia, about 117,000 to 108,000 years ago in the Late Pleistocene. This population is the last known record of the species. It is known from 14 skullcaps, two tibiae, and a piece of the pelvis excavated near the village of Ngandong, and possibly three skulls from Sambungmacan and a skull from Ngawi depending on classification. The Ngandong site was first excavated from 1931 to 1933 under the direction of Willem Frederik Florus Oppenoorth, Carel ter Haar, and Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald, but further study was set back by the Great Depression, World War II and the Indonesian War of Independence. In accordance with historical race concepts, Indonesian H. erectus subspecies were originally classified as the direct ancestors of Aboriginal Australians, but Solo Man is now thought to have no living descendants because the remains far predate modern human immigration into the area, which began roughly 55,000 to 50,000 years ago.
Homo is the genus that emerged from the genus Australopithecus and encompasses the extant species Homo sapiens and several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans, including Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The oldest member of the genus is Homo habilis, with records of just over 2 million years ago. Homo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably sister to Australopithecus africanus, which itself had split from the lineage of Pan, the chimpanzees.
Java Man is an early human fossil discovered in 1891 and 1892 on the island of Java. Estimated to be between 700,000 and 1,490,000 years old, it was, at the time of its discovery, the oldest hominid fossil ever found, and it remains the type specimen for Homo erectus.
Sangiran is an archaeological excavation site in Java in Indonesia. According to a UNESCO report (1995) "Sangiran is recognized by scientists to be one of the most important sites in the world for studying fossil man, ranking alongside Zhoukoudian (China), Willandra Lakes (Australia), Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania), and Sterkfontein, and more fruitful in finds than any of these."
Gustav Heinrich Ralphvon Koenigswald was a German-Dutch paleontologist and geologist who conducted research on hominins, including Homo erectus. His discoveries and studies of hominid fossils in Java and his studies of other important fossils of south-eastern Asia firmly established his reputation as one of the leading figures of 20th-century paleo-anthropology.
Human taxonomy is the classification of the human species within zoological taxonomy. The systematic genus, Homo, is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varieties of archaic humans. Current humans have been designated as subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, differentiated, according to some, from the direct ancestor, Homo sapiens idaltu.
Trinil is a palaeoanthropological site on the banks of the Bengawan Solo River in Ngawi Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia. It was at this site in 1891 that the Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois discovered the first early hominin remains to be found outside of Europe: the famous "Java Man" specimen.
Lantian Man, Homo erectus lantianensis) is a subspecies of Homo erectus known from an almost complete mandible from Chenchiawo (陈家窝) Village discovered in 1963, and a partial skull from Gongwangling (公王岭) Village discovered in 1964, situated in Lantian County on the Loess Plateau. The former dates to about 710–684 thousand years ago, and the latter 1.65–1.59 million years ago. This makes Lantian Man the second-oldest firmly dated H. erectus beyond Africa, and the oldest in East Asia. The fossils were first described by Woo Ju-Kan in 1964, who considered the subspecies an ancestor to Peking Man.
Ngawi Regency is an inland regency (kabupaten) of Indonesia, on the island of Java. Ngawi is well known around the world for its Pithecantropus erectus that was found by Eugene Dubois, a Dutchman. Ngawi is located in East Java Province, but adjoins Central Java province. Its capital Ngawi (city). Ngawi is also the main gate to enter East Java province since there are intersections that connect Surabaya–Bojonegoro–Ngawi (city)–Solo–Jogja–Bandung–Jakarta. The Regency covers an area of 1,394.74 km2 (538.51 sq mi), and had a population of 817,765 at the 2010 census and 870,057 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mid 2022 was 877,432.
Prehistoric Asia refers to events in Asia during the period of human existence prior to the invention of writing systems or the documentation of recorded history. This includes portions of the Eurasian land mass currently or traditionally considered as the continent of Asia. The continent is commonly described as the region east of the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea, Black Sea and Red Sea, bounded by the Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans. This article gives an overview of the many regions of Asia during prehistoric times.
Homo erectus is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Its specimens are among the first recognizable members of the genus Homo.
Margarethe Lenore Selenka, also known as Margarethe Zelenka, was a German zoologist, anthropologist, feminist and pacifist. She researched apes and led scientific expeditions to the Dutch East Indies.
The oldest undisputed examples of figurative art are known from Europe and from Sulawesi, Indonesia, dated about 35,000 years old . Together with religion and other cultural universals of contemporary human societies, the emergence of figurative art is a necessary attribute of full behavioral modernity.
Prehistoric Indonesia is a prehistoric period in the Indonesian archipelago that spanned from the Pleistocene period to about the 4th century CE when the Kutai people produced the earliest known stone inscriptions in Indonesia. Unlike the clear distinction between prehistoric and historical periods in Europe and the Middle East, the division is muddled in Indonesia. This is mostly because Indonesia's geographical conditions as a vast archipelago caused some parts — especially the interiors of distant islands — to be virtually isolated from the rest of the world. West Java and coastal Eastern Borneo, for example, began their historical periods in the early 4th century, but megalithic culture still flourished and script was unknown in the rest of Indonesia, including in Nias, Batak, and Toraja. The Papuans on the Indonesian part of New Guinea island lived virtually in the Stone Age until their first contacts with modern world in the early 20th century. Even today living megalithic traditions still can be found on the island of Sumba and Nias.
The region of Southeast Asia is considered a possible place for the evidence of archaic human remains that could be found due to the pathway between Australia and mainland Southeast Asia, where the migration of multiple early humans has occurred out of Africa. One of many pieces of evidence is of the early human found in central Java of Indonesia in the late 19th century by Eugene Dubois, and later in 1937 at Sangiran site by G.H.R. van Koenigswald. These skull and fossil materials are Homo erectus, named Pithecanthropus erectus by Dubois and Meganthropus palaeojavanicus by van Koenigswald. They were dated to c. 1.88 and 1.66 Ma, as suggested by Swisher et al. by analysis of volcanic rocks.