Sangiran Site

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Sangiran is an archaeological site located in Central Java, 15 kilometers north of Surakarta, in Solo River valley, at the foot of Mount Lawu. The area comprises about 48 km². In 1977, Sangiran determined by the Minister of Education and Culture of Indonesia as a cultural heritage, and in 1996 the site was listed in UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Sangiran Early Man Site is one of the key sites for the study of human evolution. A second occurence of 'Java Man' was discovered here (first discovered in 1891 at Trinil by Dutchman Dubois).



In 1934 the anthropologist von Koenigswald (Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald) started to examine the area. During excavations in the next years he found fossils of some of the first known human ancestors, the 'Java Man' Pithecanthropus erectus (now known as Homo erectus). About 60 more fossils have since been found here, making it the most fruitful of the early hominid sites that have been named a WHS. The skull and bone pieces have been discovered by both archeologists and locals in quite a large area.

Based on the research, initially Sangiran was a hill known as the 'Sangiran Dome'. The dome was later eroded at the top to form a depression. In the depression, the layers of the soil naturally exposed. This is where the experts get the most complete information about past lives.