Govt selective in cooperation on archeology

Govt selective in cooperation on archeology

JAKARTA (JP): The government has been very selective in
accepting offers of cooperation in archeology and rejected
various proposals from abroad, a senior official of the Ministry
of Education and Culture said yesterday.

"There have been many offers without good intentions, which we
have had to reject," said Truman Simanjuntak of the prehistory
department of the National Archeological Research Center.

"These include offers which merely aimed at seeking local
partners for research, but other than that the proposals were not
of much benefit to us," Truman said.

Local partners are a pre-requisite to obtain the necessary
recommendations from the Indonesian Science Institute to carry
out archeological work in the country.

Truman said yesterday that a three-day workshop on prehistoric
projects will be held from Monday in Yogyakarta by the French
Embassy and the research center.

Among the topics of discussion will be projects in Sangiran
and Punung in Pacitan, East Java, and explorations in Kalimantan.

Speakers include Jacques Dumarcay of the French Institute of
Far Eastern Studies, who participated in the restoration of the
Borobudur temple in Magelang.

Truman said important findings in the French-Indonesian joint
project include further indications of how the Pithecanthropus
erectus lived.

"Hypotheses that the Pithecanthropus made his tools only out
of wood are now challenged," he said.

The Research Center has been working with a number of French
institutions such as the National Natural History Museum, which
started in 1984. (anr)