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Sangiran: Man, Culture, and Environment in Pleistocene Times: Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Sangiran, Solo-Indonesia, 21-24 September 1998. Truman Simanjuntak, Bagyo Prasctyo, and Retno Handini, eds. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia. 442 pp. 78 b/w photographs; 10 tables; bibliography. Softcover. ISBN 979-464-382-7.
Sangiran, a truncated dome of PlioPleistocene sediments in the Solo Depression of Central Java, is a prolific source of fossils, which span about one million years and include the majority of the world's Homo erectus finds. The site is rightly listed with the World Heritage as an area of great geological, paleontological, and archaeological significance.
There has been a long history of scientific work at Sangiran beginning in 1893 with the visit of Eugene Dubois, who had just previously found the type specimen uf Pithecanthropous (now Homo) erectus at tlio nearby site of Trinil on the Solo River. Dut the person who really put Sangiran on the map was Ralph von Koenigswald, who between 194 and the coming of the second World War in 1941, found the first Middle Pleistocene hominid remains and associated stone artifacts, used fossils from Sangiran to help describe the biostratigraphic sequence for Java, and was the first to apply the Kahbeng, Pucangang, Grenzbank, Kabuh, and Notopuro Stratigraphie sequence to the site.
Since then, many prominent researchers have worked at Sangiran right up to the present day. Jacob, Soejono, and Sartono, for instance, have all made significant contributions, as have many younger generation researchers, including Fachrocl Aziz, Hisao ISaba, Tony Djubiantono, Francois Semah, Anne-Marie Semah, Truman Simanjuntak, and Harry Widianto, to name just a few. Many of these have authored papers in this volume, which resulted from an International Colloquium on Sangiran held in Solo, Java on 21-24 September 1998. The aim of the International Colloquium, organized by the Indonesian National Research Centre of Archaeology, was to make Sangiran better known, to take stock of research results from a range of disciplines, and to provide a platform for further work.
The book comprises thirty papers divided into seven sections: Introduction, Early Man, Culture, Environment, Dating, Site Conservation and Museum Management, and Research Perspective. The papers range from general syntheses to very specific descriptions of individual finds. It is the former that are particularly useful. For instance, Harry Widianto's description...