Sangiran
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How it came to be
Sangiran is an area of low hills in Central Java, about 15 km north of Solo, covering about 56 km². A dome raised by tectonic uplift was worn down by erosion, exposing layers that span some two million years. Hominids have lived here for at least 1.5 million years.
In 1934 chalcedony flakes found at Ngebung drew scholars to the area. From 1936 to 1941 G.H.R. von Koenigswald led an intensive campaign that produced the first hominid fossil. Fossils of Homo erectus, then called Pithecanthropus erectus, and of Meganthropus followed, most of them chance finds by local people rather than products of excavation.
In 1977 the Indonesian government made 56 km² around Sangiran a protected area, and in 1988 a small site museum and conservation laboratory opened. Sangiran was inscribed in 1996, and a new museum and visitor centre opened in 2011.
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