New taphonomical approaches: The Javanese Pleistocene open-air sites (Sangiran, central Java)

Since the 1960s, the National Indonesian Center for Archaeological Research, in collaboration with the Gajah Mada University, has been organizing field excavations on open-air sites in the Sangiran dome, one of the most famous places of palaeoanthropological discoveries in Southeast Asia. That project led to the discovery of Homo erectus fossils, and the collection of numerous mammal fossils in localities such as Tanjung, Sendang Busik, Ngrejeng Plupuh, Grogol Plupuh, and Bukuran. During the 1990s, a French–Indonesian team excavated the Ngebung 2 locality. Most of the bone assemblages from these sites come from the volcanic–sedimentary Kabuh layers (Middle Pleistocene) deposited in a fluvial context. The best-represented mammal species are large bovids and smaller cervids. The taphonomical study of the collections is the first carried out on Javanese sites. The degree of fragmentation is high. The teeth and the extremities prevail in most of sites. Water action, either chemical or mechanical, is predominant in the origin and the modification of the assemblages. Carnivores are almost absent in the material and the traces of their actions are rare. Anthropic influence is obvious at Ngebung 2, according to archeozoological studies, correlated to the occurrence of lithic artefacts.