In search of ancestral origin

In search of ancestral origin

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Becoming a paleoanthropologist, a somewhat rare profession
nowadays, had never been Teuku Jacob's childhood dream.

In fact, Jacob did not find anthropology very interesting
until he was a college student.

Born in Peureulak, Aceh, on Dec. 6, 1929, Jacob is a professor
emeritus of anthropology at Gadjah Mada University. He heads the
Laboratory of Bioanthropology and Paleoanthropology at the
university's School of Medicine.

Jacob came to terms with anthropology after studying anatomy
while he was finishing his studies at Gadjah Mada University's
School of Medicine (1950-1956).

He continued his study of anthropology at the University of
Arizona in Tucson, Arizona (1957-1958) and at Howard University
graduate school in Washington D.C. (1958-1960), where he fell in
love with the subject.

"Anthropology is very important for Indonesia, especially
because it is one of only few countries in the world where human
skeletal remains of early man have been found," Jacob told The
Jakarta Post.

His hands on study was done at Sangiran, a famous
archeological site in the Central Java town of Sragen, some 15
kilometers north of Surakarta. He began exploration work there in
May 1962.

He chose Sangiran because it was the nearest archeological
site from Gadjah Mada University, where he was then teaching.

Another reason for the choice was more of a financial one. A
financial crisis was crippling Indonesia at that time; inflation
was extremely high and transportation was a dire problem.

He later found out that Sangiran, which covers an area of some
6 kilometers by 8 kilometers, was not only the country's widest
but also Indonesia's richest archeological site.

Jacob said over 60 of an estimated 70 remains of prehistoric
skeletons found in Central and East Java had been unearthed in
Sangiran. The rest were discovered elsewhere in the same general
area, such as Ngandong, Sambungmacan and Trinil.

Apart from the finds, his team has also discovered hundreds of
ancient stone tools and thousands of animal fossils over the last
40 years of excavations.

Before Jacob began his excavation projects in Sangiran, other
researchers had found the fossilized remains of 20 individuals
but no stone tools had ever been found.

"What we have found proves that Sangiran is the biggest
archeological site ever found in the country," said Jacob, who
received his doctoral degree in paleoanthropology from the
Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands in 1968.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) in 1996 named Sangiran a world heritage
site, essential to the understanding of human evolution.

During the early years of his excavation activities in
Sangiran, Jacob usually went to the site once a week, with the
university jeep. Sometimes he would spend up to two months on the
site from the beginning to the end of a particular dig.

At present, however, he only occasionally returns, usually to
select a particular spot for further exploration or to see a new
discovery.

"I let the younger people do the physical activities now,"
said Jacob, who has written more than 20 books on anthropology,
culture, medical subjects and countless articles.

The biggest Sangiran excavation project took place in 1964 for
almost nine weeks. The most important finding was the discovery
of a skull he code-named "Sangiran 10" in 1963. In 1973, he
discovered a new archeological site in Sambungmacan village.

"My heartbeat quickened upon realizing that we found the first
cheek bone of a prehistoric man in the country," Jacob said,
adding that it was, in fact, in Sambungmacan that many remains
had been found.

The study of prehistoric people, according to Jacob, is very
interesting although many tend to consider this particular
science a limited field of study.

"That's not true. The study on prehistoric people covers a
wide range of subjects, such as their lifestyle, economy,
environment, demography and so forth," he said.

Jacob insists that people need to learn about the history of
their origin, their ancestors so as to project their future. What
people are facing at present is nothing but the result of the
past and it will develop in the future. Only by studying about
the past will people become more civilized.

"No one can see exactly what will happen in the future, but we
can make a better future by doing good things now," the lecturer
said.

"Working in this particular field of study is just like
playing detective. We investigate, looking for the missing parts,
reconstructing something based on what we have in our hands, and
try to reveal what might be behind all the findings. In a
criminal investigation a piece of hair can help solve a
complicated murder case. In paleoanthropology, similarly, a piece
of bone can reveal many things."

On Aug. 15, Jacob received the Bintang Mahaputra Nararya award
from the government in recognition of his outstanding
contribution to the country's cultural promotion.

In 1993, he received a gold medal from the Indian Boards of
Alternative Medicine. He was also a recipient of the 1984
Researchers Award from the of Indonesian Medical Association
(IDI) and in 1983 he received Paul Broca Medal from French Center
for Scientific Research on anthropology.

His important discoveries of fossils include, Homo erectus,
Homo erectus palaeojavanicus, Homo sapien (Sangiran archeological
site), Homo erectus soloensis (Ngandong and Sambungmacan), Homo
sapien (Trinil and Tamiang).