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A corner of Indonesia’s mountains is a hill dotted with stone terraces where people from all over the country gather to perform Islamic and Hindu rituals. Some say the place has a mystical feel, or even that it may contain buried treasure.
Gunung Padang, a partially excavated ruin, is a relaxing place to spend an afternoon. It is also the center of intense debate.
Archaeologists say the hill is a dormant volcano and pottery found there so far suggests humans have been using the site for hundreds of years. But some Indonesians, including earthquake geologists and the president who left office in 2014, suggest the site may have been built much earlier by an ancient civilization that has yet to be discovered. Their story has been circulating domestically for more than a decade, but until recently it had not spread much outside the country.
In 2022, the Netflix documentary series “Ancient Apocalypse” depicted episodes about Gunung Padang based on the research of geologists. And in October, the geologist published a paper in an international scientific journal that stirred up international controversy over issues of science, ethics, and ancient history.
The archaeologists have made the most controversial conclusion of the study: that Gunung Padang is the “oldest pyramid in the world,” as its deepest layer appears to have been “carved” by humans no earlier than 27,000 years ago. The conclusion that it is possible is problematic because it is not based on physical evidence, he said. . They say Indonesia has no history of pyramid building, and humans were unable to build pyramids during the Paleolithic era, which ended more than 10,000 years ago. (Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza are only about 4,500 years old.)
The study’s New Jersey-based publisher says it is currently conducting an internal investigation, meaning the journal is “investigating concerns shared by the archaeological community.” Several archaeologists publicly voiced their concerns, saying the study was “not worthy of publication” and that the geologists’ claim that the hill was built by humans “makes absolutely no sense.”
In response, seismic geologist Danny Hillman-Natawidjaja, the study’s lead author, said the study was misunderstood. His supporters include British journalist Graham Hancock, who appeared on the Netflix series and argued to his own critics that archaeologists should be more open to theories that challenge academic orthodoxy. .
“The judge, jury, and executioner model of archaeology, which allows us to define what is and is not evidence, what is acceptable as evidence, and what is not, will advance human knowledge in the long run.” It is of no use to,” Hancock said in a phone interview.
Is there gold in that hill?
Gunung Padang is located near the city of Bandung on the island of Java, Indonesia’s most populous island. Excavation began in the early 1980s, said Lutfi Yondri, an archaeologist with the Bandung provincial government.
Lutfi said Indonesian youths, inspired by Bosnia’s bizarre efforts to find lost pyramids, later popularized the idea that the lost pyramids could be hidden in the steep hills. It is said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s staff organized a forum to explore this question and unproven speculation that there may be buried treasure at Gunung Padang.
Archaeologists pushed back from the start. But Yudhoyono’s government continues to fund excavations at Gunung Padang, and after a visit in 2014 near the end of his 10-year term, Yudhoyono said it was “the world’s largest prehistoric structure.” He said it could become.
Noel Hidalgo Tan, an archaeologist at the Southeast Asian Regional Archeology and Art Center in Bangkok, said the pyramid story “has a nationalist dimension, supported by the former president.”
“That’s why this is a myth that refuses to die,” he said.
Yudhoyono’s aides referred questions to Andy Arif, who previously organized a forum on Gunung Padang as a member of the presidential staff. Arif responded to the inquiry but declined to be interviewed.
Science or fantasy?
Natawidjaja, the geologist who led October’s expedition, said he began investigating the site in 2011. At the time, he was studying active faults in the area and noticed that Gunung Padang’s pointed shape made it stand out in the landscape. Eroded hillside.
President Joko Widodo cut funding for research after taking office in 2014. Mr. Natawidjaja subsequently published his findings in the latest edition of Archaeological Perspectives. He said in a Zoom interview that the research’s methods and principles are the same as those used to analyze earthquakes.
“We just changed the topic from active faults to pyramids,” he said.
Archaeologists said the main problem with the study was that it dated human presence at Gunung Padang based on soil radiocarbon measurements taken from excavation samples, rather than artifacts recovered from the site. He said that.
“The lesson is that radiocarbon dating is not magic, and there are important caveats to its interpretation,” archaeologist Rebecca Bradley wrote in a 2016 critique of Natawidjaja’s preliminary findings. I’m writing this. (She said in her email that she felt his recently published study was “a more systematic reproduction of the same old one.”)
Bangkok archaeologist Tan called the study’s attempt to link soil age to human activity “the biggest logical error.” The age of the soil is not surprising because soil accumulates over time and deeper layers tend to be older, he added. “But it is not the soil that is involved in construction activity. It is not the soil that is associated with a fire pit, or the soil that is associated with a burial site, for example.”
“It’s just dirt,” he said.
Mai Lin Joa Bonatu, an archaeologist working in Indonesia, said pottery and other evidence from the upper levels of Gunung Padang suggests that humans were present there as early as the 12th or 13th century. He said this indicates that the structure was built on top of a natural rock formation. .
“There may have been some people before, but so far we haven’t left anything to date,” said Choa Bonatz, a professor at Humboldt University in Berlin.
Indonesian archaeologist Harry Truman Simanjuntak also said the study’s claims of pyramids were baseless.
“There are always scientists who are illusionists and practice pseudoscience, seeking knowledge that is not based on data,” he said.
Under investigation
Internal research in the Archaeological Prospection paper was confirmed by the journal’s publisher, Wiley. Eileen G. Arnenwein, the magazine’s co-editor, declined an interview request.
Natawidjaja defended his work in an email, saying the investigation was about “a matter of scientific disagreement.” He said the soil used by ancient builders was also used to wrap human-built structures, and the soil samples are valid evidence to assess human involvement at Gunung Padang. he added.
“The process by which our research results are published in a trusted journal after undergoing rigorous peer review underscores the scientific validity and merit of our work,” he wrote.
Mr Hancock, who described himself in Ancient Apocalypse as “archaeologists’ enemy No. 1”, said the program was certain to rise to the level of “slander and attack” that Mr Natawidjaja is currently facing over his research. He said he contributed to.
In 2022, the Society of American Archaeology, in an open letter to Netflix and the show’s producer ITN, said the series “devalues the archaeological profession based on false claims and disinformation.” However, Mr. Hancock vigorously refuted this claim. Netflix and ITN declined to comment for this article.
Mr Hancock said archaeologists have ignored the possibility of lost ancient civilizations, partly because so much land was submerged when the last ice age ended around 11,700 years ago. He argued that it shouldn’t be done.
“If you’re saying not enough work has been done, we need more work to solve this problem, and that’s fair enough,” Hancock said of the recent study. “But to basically trash the whole thing from the beginning and say this is a ridiculous claim that ignores everything we know about the past? That’s not helpful.”
On a recent afternoon in Gunung Padang, the site’s custodians said Natawidjaja’s research confirms what our ancestors have always said: the site is the handiwork of an ancient civilization. Some people have reported seeing mystical visions of prehistoric figures there.
“I’m sure this is not natural, but man-made,” Zenal Arifin, one of the caretakers, said over a cup of sweet coffee near the site’s information center.
President Joko Widodo’s administration has largely, but not entirely, stayed out of the fray.
Hilmar Farid, director of the Department of Culture at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, said the ministry was not involved in the debate over Gunung Padang’s age. But he also said that the latest research on the site is “clearly insufficient to support the theory that this is a man-made pyramid.”
“From the perspective of someone like me who has to mobilize resources to support certain activities, this is definitely the last priority,” he said.
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