History of Homo Wajakensis and its Characteristics (Complete)
As Indonesian people, we should be proud because our homeland is rich in historical heritage. In almost every area of the country you can find artifacts from the past.
There are various types of historical evidence found in Indonesia. One of them is a relic from ancient human times. Many types of ancient humans were found in Indonesia, including Homo Wajakensis.
Homo Wajakensis is arguably the first early human to approach complete evolution. This is because Homo Wajakensis has characteristics that are more like humans today than other prehistoric humans.
What are these characteristics? Below will be discussed the history of the discovery of Homo Wajakensis and the characteristics that distinguish it from other ancient humans and humans today.
Definition of Early Man
Early humans or prehistoric humans are types of humans who lived in ancient times. Antiquity is the period before the existence of letters. Historians estimate that prehistoric humans began to inhabit the earth since 4 million years ago.
Early humans were very different from today’s humans. Early humans were larger and primate-like compared to modern humans. The brain volume is also larger, although the thinking abilities of modern humans are much more advanced.
The way of life of ancient humans is so simple that it is called primitive. There are many ancient humans found in Indonesia, so many scholars from abroad came to conduct research in this country.
Evidence of the existence of ancient humans in Indonesia can be seen from two types of relics. The first is artifact relic in the form of equipment used by early humans in everyday life. The second one is ancient human remains which have become fossils.
The types of ancient human fossils in Indonesia include the genera Meganthropus, Pithecanthropus, and Homo. Meganthropus is the oldest, while homo is the closest to modern humans.
One of the ancient human fossils found is Homo Wajakensis. This species is one of the youngest of all prehistoric humans.
History of the Discovery of Homo Wajakensis
Wajakensis Homo fossils were first discovered in 1889 by the Dutch van Riestchoten. The site of the discovery is located on the slopes of a mountain in the northwest of Campurdarat, Tulungagung, East Java.
The Campurdarat area at that time was called Wajak. So, archaeologists call early humans Homo Wajakensis or humans who came from Wajak.
van Riestchoten found the fossil in the upper Pleistocene layer. From the layer where it was found, it can be estimated that Homo Wajakensis lived approximately 15,000-40,000 years BC.
Its characteristics indicate that this human was quite advanced for prehistoric human size. Van Riestchoten’s discovery was the first major discovery in the Dutch East Indies at that time.
Hearing the news, a researcher named Eugene Dubois who also came from the Netherlands became interested in Homo Wajakensis. A year later, in 1890, a team led by Dubois found a second Homo Wajakensis fossil.
The fossil consists of pieces of the skull, neck bones, upper and lower jaws, shins, and femurs. excavated in a location that is still close to the first site. Currently, the fragments are kept at the Wajakensis Museum in Tulungagung.
When compared, the skull structure of Homo Wajakensis is very different from the skull structure of the native Indonesians. This ancient human has the same shape of the upper and lower jaws with the ancient humans of the Australoid race who lived in Papua and Australia.
It can be concluded that they have a common ancestor with the Australian Aboriginal people. Experts also estimate that they came from Australian territory.
Homo Wajakensis belongs to the genus Homo. This genus is the youngest and compared to other ancient humans found in Indonesia.
The genus Homo is very different in appearance and thinking ability compared to Pithecanthropus.
Pithecanthropus is an older genus and has physical characteristics in the form of an ape-like hairy body and has not been able to stand upright. While the Homo genus consists of humans who stand tall and have more advanced reason and intelligence.
Not only that, scientists classify Homo Wajakensis as a subspecies of Homo sapiens. Thus, Homo Wajakensis is already one species with modern humans, which is called Homo Sapiens subspecies Sapiens in scientific language.
There are also scientists who think that Homo Wajakensis is actually the same as other ancient humans found in Java, namely Homo Soloensis or Solo humans.
Both are from the High Pleistocene. Therefore, the features of their body shape already bear a resemblance to that of today’s humans.
Characteristics of Homo Wajakensis
Overall, Homo Wajakensis was much more similar to today’s humans than to prehistoric human species from other genera. Thus, Homo Wajakensis is considered as one of the early humans who are closest to perfect evolution.
However, Homo Wajakensis had several distinctive features that set it apart from modern humans. Here are those characteristics.
- First, the face shape of this human species is flat and broad, with the forehead protruding inward. In addition, his forehead was also slightly tilted. While above the eye there is a longitudinal and visible brow bone.
- The shape of the root of the nose of Homo Wajakensis is also wide like the shape of its face. Between the nose and the protruding part of the mouth there is a considerable distance. While the cheeks protrude to the side. You could say in terms of facial features, Homo Wajakensis still has similarities with apes.
- Homo Wajakensis body shape also somewhat resembles an ape. However, these early humans were able to stand and walk upright, unlike primates.
- The muscles and bones were large, larger than modern humans. His height is between 130-210 cm with a weight in the range of 30-150 kg.
- Like humans from the genus Homo in general, Homo Wajakensis has a more advanced way of thinking when compared to its predecessor species.
- This ancient human had a brain capacity of about 1300 cc with a brain volume ranging from 1350-1450 cc. The volume is roughly the same as today’s humans, although modern human thinking abilities are much more complex.
- Homo Wajakensis is a hunting species. They hunted their prey with primitive tools made of bone and stone. However, they no longer eat raw food.
Research shows that Homo Wajakensis only ate cooked food. How to cook it is still very simple.
Read also : Pithecanthropus Mojokertensis
However, this shows the superiority of this early human thinking ability over the older early humans.
Scientific classification of Homo Wajakensis
Scientists classify Homo Wajakensis in the genus Homo, which is the most advanced human genus in terms of development. Homo Wajakensis is also a subspecies of Homo sapiens.
- Kingdom : Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammals
- Order: Primates
- Sub Order : Haplorhini
- Family: Hominidae
- Sub Family : Homininae
- Nation: Hominini
- Genus : Homo
- Species : Homo Sapiens
- Subspecies : Homo Wajakensis
That’s the history of the discovery of Homo Wajakensis and its complete characteristics that we review for you. If it’s useful, don’t forget to share it on social media ok.
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