Is the oldest pyramid in the world in Indonesia?

Gunung Padang is a megalithic site located in Karyamukti village, Cianjur regency, West Java Province of Indonesia, 50 km south-west of the city of Cianjur or 6 kilometers from Lampegan station. It is the largest megalithic site in South-Eastern Asia.

Gunung Padang (Indonesia) wasrediscovered in 1914 by Dutch colonialists, the megalithic ruins of almost covered hills Gunung Padang is known as the place with the most megalithic buildings in Indonesia. Currently, geologists and archaeologists are keen to test theories, according to which the hill is supposed to be artificial in origin despite its vegetated surface and is among the oldest pyramids in the world today

One of many megalithic monuments on Gunung Padang If geologist Dr Danny Hilman is correct, buried beneath the megalithic jumble is an ancient pyramid . According to Hilman, the structure is “older than 9000 [years] and could be up to 20,000 old.

The villages closest to the site are Cimanggu, Ciwangun and Cipanggulakan. Two routes are possible to get there:

Located at 885 metres above sea level, the site covers a hill in a series of terraces bordered by retaining walls of stone that are accessed by successive steps (about 400 andesit steps = 95 metres). It is covered with massive rectangular stones of volcanic origin. Local people consider the place as sacred and believe the site as a result of King Siliwangi attempt to build a palace in one night. The asymmetric Punden Berundak is facing up to northwest, to Mount Gede, meaned constructed for the purpose of worship and built in a position that has been noticed geomantic and astromantic factors. Based on megalith shape the site is built in 1,500 years Before Christ.

The existence of the site is mentioned in Rapporten van de Oudheidkundige Dienst (ROD, “Report of the Department of Antiquities”) in 1914. The Dutch historian N. J. Krom also mentioned it in 1949. Employees of National Archeology Research Centre visited the site in 1979 for a study of archaeology, history and geology.

Danny Hilman from the Indonesian Centre for Geotechnical Research has a theory that has so far at least convinced the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Other archaeologists have shown interest but so far are still reluctant to accept the age. No wonder because if his theory on age is proven then the 100 meters high pyramid predates all other early civilizations by millennia. “The Pyramid” say the researchers’ show radiocarbon dating older than 9,000 years, and could be up to 20,000 years old. As crazy as it sounds this is what the data shows according to Hilman’s research.

As the “Sydney Morning Herald“ reported, Hilman suspects that the pyramid was built in three phases over millennia by three different cultures.

Should he be so right, this fact would rewrite the previous archaeological history.

Supported by government agencies and even by the labor and equipment from the Indonesian army, Hilman’s work was declared by that nation’s President to be an issue of national importance. .

Reconstruction of the alleged pyramid of Gunung Padang.

Credit: unbek

Modern equipment has detected rooms, steps and terraces beneath the ground. To researchers and scientists that is evidence of the artificial nature of the hill and planning indicating intelligent human design.

The Indonesian pyramid stirs controversy comparable to the controversy surrounding the alleged Bosnian pyramids in Visoko. There is fierce resistance to Hilman’s theory and activism of the President: 34 Indonesian archaeologists and geologists have turned in a petition to Yudhoyono in which they indeed ascribe Gunung Padang, the rank of the most important megalithic site of Indonesia and probably all of South Asia, but they are no more convinced of a pyramid as assume that normal volunteers are involved in the work. Instead, the undersigned urge the observance of appropriate scientific standards and methods so as not to endanger the cultural heritage. Instead of a prehistoric pyramid some geologists believe rather that it is the remnants of a nearby volcano at Gunung Padang.

Another critic of Hilman’s theory points out that recently found bone tools found in a close lying cave were dated to an age of 9,500 years, . The critical arguement is if people were there 7,000 BC. and were only able to make bone tools, then “how should a culture that should be up to 20,000 years old, have built such a pyramid?”

The structure beyond the Mount Padang structure is older than the upper structure. In depth of 1-4.5 meters by Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Dating (BETA) the older (below) structure is built in 4,500 BC, whether the upper structure in 500 BC. At 4.5 meter depth there are stones with specie which consist of 45 percent ferrum, 15 percent clay and the rest silica. The surveyor found a 10 centimeter steel fraction.

The Independent Research Integrated Mount Padang Team, facilitated by the Special Staff of President for Social Assistance and Disaster, found man-made stone structures beneath the ancient site of Mount Padang, at Karyamukti Village, the District of Campaka, Cianjur Regency. According to the result of survey of team who did an archaeological excavation and geoelectric surveys on the eastern slopes of the hill in March 2013, the structure of colum andesite stone was found with near horizontal position elongated east-west. {fact}

“From the horizontal position of the column andesite rocks and its line direction, we can conclude with certainty that the column stones or” columnar joints “is not in a natural condition,” said Danny H. Natawidjaja, Coordinator of The Independent Research Integrated Mount Padang Team in Jakarta, Tuesday (2/4). In excavation, the archaeological team which is led by Ali Akbar from the University of Indonesia found the evidence to confirm the hypothesis of team that there are man-made structures in the basement of Mount Padang. The building structure is the same as with the structure of the stone terrace which has been revealed and become cultural sites on the hill.

The excavation also found a filler material among the stones columns, also a stone column that had been shattered but styled and put together again by the filler material as ancient cement.

The ancient cement has also been found on canyon railroads between the porch steps one and two, and also on drill core samples from a depth of 1 to 15 meters of drilling conducted by the team in 2012 and then on the site.

The geologist team and also the center coaches of Indonesian Association of Geologists center, Andang Bachtiar discovered previously unknown facts about the composition of the site. The cement material has a primary composition of 45% of iron mineral and 41% of mineral silica. The rest is 14% clay minerals and there is also a carbon element. “This is a good composition for strong cement adhesive, perhaps combining between the concepts of resin or modern strong adhesive made from silica materials and the use of concentration of the iron element which become as brick amplifiers,” said Danny H. Natawidjaja.

The high content of silica indicates that the cement is not the result of weathering of column andesite rocks which is surrounded by a poor of silica. Then, the levels of iron in nature, even in the rocks at the ore mineral mining, generally the content of iron is not more than 5%, so iron levels in “Gunung Padang cement” is many times higher than natural conditions. Therefore it can be concluded that material which is lied between the columns andesite stones are man-made grout. So the technology of that time seems to have known metallurgy. One common technique to obtain a high concentration of iron is to carry out the combustion process from the broken rocks with very high temperatures. Similar to the making of bricks, which burn caolinite and illite clays to produce a high concentration of iron on the brick, explain Andang.

Indications of ancient metallurgical technology is more strengthened by the findings of a lump of metal materials sized 10 inches by the team of Ali Akbar at the depth of 1 meter on the eastern slopes of Mount Padang. The rusty metal material possessed a rough surface with a hollow-small cavity on the surface. Presumably this material is a metal dough residue (“slug”) that mixed with carbon material from the combustion of wood, coal or other. Cavities are likely to occur due to the release of CO2 when burning. The team will conduct further laboratorium analysis to investigate.

The results of radiometric analysis of the content of the carbon element in some samples of cement in drill core from the depth of 5–15 meters which was conducted in 2012 at the prestigious Laboratory, BETALAB, Miami, USA in the mid-2012 shows its age with a range between 13,000 and 23,000 years BP. Previously, the results of carbon dating which carried out in the BATAN laboratory, the dominant quartz sand that fills the voids between the columns of andesite at the depth of 8–10 meters below the terrace of five also showed the same age range is about 13,000 years ago.

Data from drilling conducted by Andang Bachtiar and microscopic analyzes of rocks from drill core samples were carried out by Andri Subandrio, geologist of volcanic rocks of the Petrology laboratory ITB. it can be assured that the high resistivity body rock is andesite lava rock, the same rock type as the column of the site of mount Padang.

Another thing discovered from the petrological analysis is the finding of many microscopic cracks in the thin section of andesite stone columns that are allegedly non-natural because the cracks cut its constituent mineral crystals.

Danny H. Natawidjaja stated that mount Padang has same potency with Borobudur, even it is more meaningful because it can be a breakthrough of knowledge about “the cradle of civilizations” in this century, as a proof of the great monuments of the oldest civilizations in the glorious world that destroyed because of catastrophe thousands of years ago in the pre-history of Indonesia.

“It is not impossible anymore if Indonesia as archipelago nation has civilization as advanced as the ancient Egyptian civilization, even in the much older”, said Danny H. Natawidjaja.

The latest research found that the site consists of 4 layers, first layer age was 600 years BC, the second layer age was 4,900 years BC, and the third and the fourth layers are still being researched by Terpadu Mandiri (Indonesian Unified) Research Team

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“Tim Terpadu Riset Mandiri: Gunung Padang Truly Extraordinary”. June 28, 2012.

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Situs Gunung Padang di Cianjur.go.id

Artikel mengenai kemungkinan alat musik purba di situs Gunung Padang