Experts fuss over fossil discovery

Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta

Indonesia has always been of interest as a country with abundant prehistoric sites. Findings of ancient homo sapiens and animal fossils have continued to take place.

The latest finding was the fossilized remains of a Flores homo sapien last year. Prior to the finding, an anatomically intact female fossil was found in Song Keplek Cave, Punung district, Pacitan in East Java in 2000.

The most unique among the numerous findings was the fossil found in Song Keplek Cave.

"If this fossil is proven to be 7,000 years-old, then it will negate the Austronesian theory thus far espoused by experts," Truman Simanjuntak, a member of the exploration team, told The Jakarta Post.

Truman said the Mongoloid homo sapiens fossil was still undergoing tests to determine its age.

Up until now, there are many theories held by experts from various countries.

He was among some 30 noted experts in the fields of archaeology, genetics and linguistics as well as other disciplines from the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, who had convened in a two-day international symposium titled: The Dispersal of the Austronesian and the Ethnogenes of People in the Indonesian Archipelago, in the Central Java town of Surakarta this week.

Although there were no claims of reaching a final conclusion on the origins of a race or tribe, the experts proposed various analyses and hypotheses, including the origins of people living in the Indonesian archipelago now.

They used the origin of a language and its spread as a basis for analysis during the symposium.

Outer Taiwan, a classic theory held by many experts, stated that the spread of the Austronesian language originated from Taiwan, then spread to southern Philippines and later to Sulawesi.

However, another view indicated that the spread of the language in fact originated from Southeast Asia. The experts who maintain this theory hold that the spread of prehistoric human beings began when the Sunda plate sank 140 meters during the melting of the Ice Age 5,000 years ago.

A noted archaeologist from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, Teuku Yacob, was one of the experts that agreed with the theory.

Even though the arguments were of the same merit, no agreement was reached among the experts in determining the source of the Austronesian language which now covers 1,200 lingoes, spoken by 300 million people stretching from Madagascar in the west to Easter Island in the east.

The phonetics of several languages such as Javanese, Malay and Hindi, have recently been established as a basic guide for further research.

Genetic analysis, now being expanded through the DNA- mitochondria test, has only been used recently, whereas archaeological and ethnolanguage analysis have been developed much earlier.

"Many experts in diverse disciplines have done intensive tests and analysis. But it's only lately they have been able to sit together to test a hypothesis," said Truman.

The connection between the people of Bali and the Indians, for instance, is assumed by many to have been built only on religious links.

While, a genetics analysis conducted by Professor Stephen Lansing from the Department of Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Arizona, who was one of the speakers at the symposium, showed there was a lineage tie between the Indian and Balinese people, although its percentage was relatively low.

Based on the desire to trace the spread and origins of the races in the Austronesian area, scientists have agreed to establish the International Center for Prehistoric and Austronesian Studies (ICPAC).

According to head of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Umar Jenie, his office will allocate a plot of land in Cibinong, West Java, for the purpose.

"The experts will fight for the cause at the 33rd UNESCO international conference in October," said Umar.