MORPHOLOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE HOMO ERECTUS FROM JAVA.

A recent study on the Sangiran 17 skull reconstructed by the authors revealed tow morphological features which were regarded as functional adaptations. One is an extraordinal development of the nuchal area, suggesting the presence of thick neck and back muscles. This implies that the individual of Sangiran 17 was at least twice (muscularly) stronger than usual recent humans. The other is a facial structure in regard to the masseter of Sangiran 17 was short, thick and located anteriorly, near to the teeth, which means that the individual of Sangiran 17 should produce a strong chewing force but he could not open the mouth wide. He might have eaten tough vegetables. In regard to the pattern of cusp sizes in the molar tooth crown, the Sangiran series had much closer resemblance to the early African Hominids than to the modern sapiens. An analytical study using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectrometry and ICP mass spectrometry, has produced minor and trace element data on bone remains of Sangiran. Evaluation of the newly obtained data suggests that several elements as Na and Sr seem promising for discriminating the original statigraphic provenance of the bone specimens from Sangiran, in addition to fluorine which has been previously certified to be an index element for the provenance discrimination. This geographical dating approach based on multielement analyzes was applied to some of the Sangiran hominid remains, and the results have given some implications on the tempo and in evolution of the early Javanese hominids.