Prehistory Human

.From .Sangiran Museum-Central Java
Sangiran Museum and Early Man Site is actually an archaeological excavation site located in the island of Java in Indonesia. The site covers a area of about 48 square kilometer and it is only 15 km away from north of Surakarta in the Bengawan Solo River valley. Excavation in the area began in the year 1934, when renowned anthropologist Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald commenced his examination of the site. In the succeeding years, excavations in the area unearthed fossils of some of the first known human ancestors, Pithecanthropus erectus, which is also dubbed as the “Java Man”. Excavations in the area continued till 1941 and during these years, 50 fossils of Meganthropus palaeo and Pithecanthropus erectus/Homo erectus were discovered. All these fossils add up to almost half of all the world's known hominid fossils.

Sangiran has emerged as one of the key sites for the understanding of human evolution and today it has become one of the most visited sites in the country. The importance of the site can be further understood from the fact that UNESCO recognized Sangiran as a site of World Heritage in 1996.