Solo Man

As Homo soloensis (also: solo man or Ngandong human ) fossils are known which were found in the east of the island of Java in the river terrace of the Solo and the species Homo erectus to be assigned. In other Java discovered like old hominin fossils they are also known as Java man.

Finds

The shore terraces along the Solo River were already at the end of the 19th century known as a rich archaeological site of fossils from different species. Already in 1891 Eugene Dubois had discovered at Trinil hominin fossils on the river bank, which today are also referred to as Homo erectus.

The times referred to as "Solo Man" skull fragments were 1931/32 on the banks of the river solo near the city Ngandong, 10 km north of Ngawi, discovered under the direction of geologist Carel ter Haar and by the Dutch geologists Willem Oppennoorth initially named as Homo soloensis. However, the similarity of the solo fossils with the earlier finds of hominin fossils in Java and with the Peking man eventually led to interpret the solo fossils as a variant of Homo erectus; occasionally they are - also referred to as Homo erectus soloensis - for the purpose of reference to the locality.

As early as the 1930s, parts of at least eleven skulls (archive number I solo to solo XI) and two shin bone (tibia A and B) were found. Later, the designation of the finds was changed to Ngandong 1 to Ngandong 12 (plus tibia A and B), while a third system, the fossils today as Ngandong 1 names to Ngandong 14, with the tibiae as Ngandong 9 and 10; Ngandong 1 (= Solo I ) is the type specimen of Homo soloensis be of custody is the Geological Research and Development Centre, Bandung. At all the skulls lack the facial bones, the bones of many of the skull base. Like other finds of Homo erectus also have the solo fossils thick bones and massive browridges. The basis of the fragments reconstructed cranial capacity averages 1135 cm3.

Other fossils are from a reference in the village Sambungmacan, which is also at the Solo River, including the 1977 salvaged and later identified in a New York souvenir shop of Eric Delson skull Sm3 and salvaged in 2001 directly on the reference skull Sm4.

Dating

It remained unclear for a long time the exact age of the finds: Your embedding in the sediments of the Solo River spoke for a rather young age, her looks but for a very great age. Since it was stranded fossils, was not ruled out that they had been reburied several times over the millennia. For example, it has been argued in a 1997 study published in Science that some of the fossils could possibly be 27,000 years old. However, in 2011, then gave a 40Ar - 39Ar dating of a lower age limit of 143,000 ± 20,000 years and a top of 546,000 ± 12,000 years.

Thus, now seems to be a given that finds of Homo erectus also fall from this locality in an era that dates back much longer than the migration of Homo sapiens into present-day Indonesia.