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The first large excavation of ancient human remains in Indonesia, in the 1890s, were done with great care 鈥� according to an analysis of unpublished documents from the dig.

The original excavations revealed that Homo erectus on Java lived in a lush valley alongside a range of large animals, including antelope and elephants. Researchers including at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands have analysed the records, and they say the animals in the fossil bed may all have perished in a single cataclysm, probably a volcanic eruption. Later, a volcanic mudslide swept all their bones down the valley to a single site.

Homo erectus was one of the first of , to which our species, Homo sapiens, belongs, and the first known to have lived outside Africa. It was first described by Eug猫ne Dubois, a Dutch researcher who, in the late 19th century, travelled to what is now in search of fossils of the 鈥�missing link鈥� between apes and humans. Between 1891 and 1893, at a site called on the banks of the Solo river on Java, 鈥檚 team excavated the first recognised remains of what he called Pithecanthropus erectus 鈥� now known as H. erectus.

The initial report was based on three pieces: a molar tooth, a skullcap and a femur or thigh bone. The discovery helped kick-start the study of human evolution, but many researchers have long been sceptical about the femur. 鈥淚t looks too much like Homo sapiens,鈥� says Albers. This has led to suggestions that that had sunk deep into the soil.

Albers and his colleagues have gone back over the original Trinil documents, most of which were never published. They include letters between Dubois and his site staff, letters from Dubois to the Indies government (as it was then called) and notes Dubois scribbled on unpublished photographs.

The team concludes that Dubois ran a careful excavation, particularly by the standards of the time. 鈥淗e was well ahead,鈥� says Albers. For instance, although his published papers provide only scanty information about the geological setting, during the excavation he was one of the first to divide a site into metre-by-metre squares, ensuring each discovery could be precisely localised. This rigorous approach suggests the femur really is H. erectus, says Albers.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to revisit some of these older sites,鈥� says at Midwestern University in Arizona.

In the same sediments where the H. erectus remains were found, Dubois and his colleagues also discovered bones of large mammals. They included an antlered deer called Axis lydekkeri, an antelope-like creature called Duboisia santeng and an elephant called Stegodon trigonocephalus. All these animals are now extinct, but roamed the Solo river valley alongside H. erectus . Albers says it is likely that H. erectus ate at least some of them, as the species is known for hunting large animals, but there is no direct evidence of that at this site, so we can鈥檛 be sure.

This is all 鈥減retty consistent with what a number of people have said鈥�, says Baab.

All in all, Indonesia offered a rich ecosystem for H. erectus, but it also had dangers, as revealed by the types of rock Dubois excavated at the site. The islands are volcanically active, and Albers and his colleagues think that is why the Trinil bone bed was so rich.

Dubois noted that many of the animal bones are broken, but don鈥檛 have much surface damage, and there are no cut marks that would suggest they were killed by H. erectus. This suggests the animals experienced something catastrophic, but that their bones didn鈥檛 spend much time being bounced around in the Solo river 鈥� so they must have come from nearby.

The most likely explanation is a volcanic eruption that killed hundreds of animals at once, says Albers. They may have died from breathing toxic fumes, he says. Afterwards, there was a lahar, a mudflow filled with rocks ejected from the volcano. The lahar swept the bones to the same site and entombed them in mud.

鈥淧eople have talked about it potentially being related to lahars, but I thought that was a nice addition to knowledge that we had before,鈥� says Baab.

Reference: BioRxiv, DOI:

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