Javanese Dancing

Archaeological discoveries indicate that the first Indonesian man lived on the island of Java. Excavations by archaeologists have produced fossils of ancient men in Java and the remains of their culture. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century fossils of men were found from the Old Stone Age

(Palaeolithic) like the Pithecantropus Erectus in Trinil, a village in the region of Madiun, the Homo Mojokertensis in Mojokerto close to Surabaya, and the Homo Soloensis in the village of Ngandong on the river-bank of the Solo river at Madiun.

Most of the creatures of the Palaeolithic still display features and characteristics of "semi-apes". it is only the last one, the Homo Soloensis, that can in fact be called a real human being. The culture of Palaeolithic man was still very low. The remains of this culture at present available, look just like pieces of stone but they functioned as an axe or a breaking implement. Considering the very primitive level of the remains of these tools, it can be said that men of this age did not possess a culture yet.

The following Period was the Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic. From the remains of this period which have not only been found in Java but also in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and other islands, we can say that men from the Mesolithic in Indonesia were in fact real human beings. Men from this period appear to have possessed