Fundamental study for the chronology of hominid fossils from Sambungmacan, Java

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In September 1977 a geological survey was conducted under the Indonesia-Japan Joint Research Project CTA-41 (see Watanabe & Kadar [eds.]: Special Pub., No. 4, Geological Research & Development Center (GRDC), Bandung, 1985) at the Solo River short-cut canal site near Sambungmacan, where a skull of Solo man type was discovered in 1973. A well-fossilized shaft fragment of human tibia has been recognized among vertebrate bones collected during this 1977 fieldwork and stored in GRDC.The sediments exposed at the site consist of 4 units; Unit-Sbl(correlative with the Kalibeng Formation), Unit-Sb2(cor. with the Kabuh Formation), Uint- Sb3(late Pleistocene terrace deposits) and Unit-Sb4(recent alluvial deposits) in ascending order (Indonesia-Japan Joint Study Team: GRDC, 1989). While the exact findspot of the tibia specimen (surface find) is unknown, the degree of fossilization (macroscopic view) and the fluorine content of the specimen compare well with those of bones from the lower to the basal part of the Kabuh equivalent at the site. Provided that the tibia derives from these parts of strata, it should be comparable in age to early Javanese hominids such as pithecanthropines.Further stratigraphic and chronological investigations are required to clarify the provenances of the Sambungmacan hominid specimens.