Palaeoanthropological Study of Homo erectus Fossils in Java

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Since Dubois'first find of a Pithecanthropus in Central Java, Indonesia has yielded a number of Pleistocene hominid fossils.Thanks to these rich materials, this country has always been the most important place for human evolutionary study in East Asia.The main pupose of the present research is, by investigating Pleistocene hominid remains recovered in Indonesia, to make a contribution to understanding on the nature of evolutionary history of East Asian populations.Main activities performed during this research period are as follows :1.Morphological observation on the hominid fossils housed in Quaternary Geology Laboratory, Bandung.2.Measurements of the hominid fossils for comparative studies.3.Cast making of the Sangiran 17 housed in Quaternary Geology Laboratory.4.Reconstruction of the Sangiran 17 using these casts.5.Reconstruction of the Sangiran 17 original specimen based on the results of 4.6.General survey at the major hominid fossil bearing sites in Java (Trinil, Sangiran, Ngandong, Sambungmachan, Perning, Punung, Pacitan, Wadjak, Miri, PatiAyam, Sonde, Kedungbrubus, Ngawi, Widodaren).Two new hominid fossils were obtained from the Sangiran region during this survey.7.Confirmation of findspots for several hominid fossils from the Sangiran region.8.Examination of stratigraphic conterxt for these fossils in the field.9.Examination of stratigraphic context for these fossils by multielement analyzes of bones.10.Test excavation in the Sangiran region.Morphological data obtained through the above activities were analyzed in Japan and the results habe been published in a few papers listed elsewhere.Results of the other activities will be reported in near future.