Experts fuss over fossil discovery

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.