Ancient skull makes long journey back to Indonesia

Ancient skull makes long journey back to Indonesia

By Sri Wahyuni

YOGYAKARTA (JP): A prehuman skull, found in the unlikely
setting of a cozy antique shop on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan in New York, was returned to its place of origin in
Indonesia earlier this month.

Much credit goes to senior bioanthropologist Teuku Jacob of
Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, for bringing about the
return of the priceless fossil that could yield important new
information about human evolution.

"It took me months before I could bring the skull home," Jacob
told The Jakarta Post. He said the skull was now the subject of
research by the university's bioanthropology and
paleoanthropology laboratory which he chairs.

The skull was reportedly obtained by Columbus Avenue antiques
shop Maxilla and Mandible Ltd. from an unknown man in March. It
quickly became news among anthropologists in the U.S.

Jacob heard about the skull through his contacts with other
anthropologists around the world.

"I was embarrassed ... I've been campaigning against fossil
trading since 1962 and yet it's still happening."

Jacob said he knew of the whereabouts of the skull when it was
still in Indonesia. The fossil -- a nearly complete cranium which
is missing the upper and lower jaws -- was found in the Central
Java village of Sambungmacan, Sragen, in 1997.

Bioanthropologist Budi Hartono of the University of Indonesia
conducted research on the skull and presented his conclusions in
a seminar in the Central Java town of Surakarta in 1998.

"I don't know exactly how the skull got there (in New York)
but it must have been through a complicated and untraceable
route," Jacob said.

As an experienced anthropologist, he said he was moved to
ensure the return of the skull from the foreign antiques shop. It
was not his first experience in reclaiming Indonesian fossils; in
1975 he succeeded in bringing back dozens of prehuman fossils
from Germany. He returned Indonesian child fossil skulls, aged
about 1.8 million years, also from Germany three years later.

Through his network of contacts he asked for a slide of the
skull on display at Columbus Avenue. The skull pictured on the
slide matched the description of Budi Hartono.

Jacob said a Japanese colleague suggested a way to bring the
skull back to Indonesia. The Japanese would buy the skull from
the shop, keep it in a Japanese museum for 20 years and then send
it back to Indonesia.

"Of course, I don't have 20 years," said the 70-year-old
former rector of Gadjah Mada University.

With the support of the Directorate General of Culture of the
Ministry of Education and Culture and the cultural attache of the
Indonesian Embassy in New York, and after dozens of facsimile and
e-mail messages had been sent, he succeeded.

"Henry Galiano, the shop owner, was eventually willing to give
it for free." The handover ceremony was held at the shop on Aug.
30, 1999.

Fossil smuggling is a lucrative business. The middleman and
the trader, like the one in New York, could make a lot of money.
They buy the fossil from the digger, usually villagers and
farmers, for only a few dollars.

Jacob refused to say how much the skull would have cost on the
international market, but The New York Times reported that the
skull might have commanded a price up to US$500,000.

Anthropologists agree that the skull could be critical in
determining the place of Homo erectus in Asia to reconstruct the
human family tree. It could shed important information on where
and how modern humans evolved.

The skull, Jacob said, could be a missing link between Homo
erectus erectus and Homo erectus soloensis, two important
species known in the study of the development of Homo erectus.

"Its morphology is more developed compared to that of Homo
erectus erectus but not as developed as that of Homo erectus
soloensis."

Anthropologists generally divide the lineage of Homo erectus
into three species. Homo erectus robustus, the oldest straight
walking "monkey", Homo erectus erectus whose fossils have been
predominantly found in the central Java villages of Trinil and
Sangiran, and Homo erectus soloensis whose fossils have been
found in the villages of Ngandong and Sambungmacan, also in
Central Java. Homo erectus lived from 200,000 to two million
years ago.

Human evolution is also marked by three successive species,
namely Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Asia,
especially Indonesia and China, are seen as important places in
the study of Homo erectus as the species' fossils are mostly
found in the two countries.

Jacob said that the dark gray skull returned from New York may
belong to a young male. The thickness and the roughness of
certain points on the skull, which indicate the individual's
muscle development, are the main clues to its sex. The clearly
defined sutures in the man was young.

Volume of the brain, according to Jacob, was about 450 cc,
obviously much smaller than that of Homo sapiens but still within
the range of Homo erectus. Yet, he had a human-like forehead,
which is high and not sloping like that of Homo erectus.

The shape of the skull, Jacob added, suggested that Homo
erectus was developing the potential for language and speech.

"I'm not saying that he could speak like us. I'd rather call
it a pre-lingua or an early language." He added that the
individual would have still needed to use bodily signs, including
head and hand movements, in order to communicate.