AN ANCIENT PYRAMID BURIED IN INDONESIA MAY BE THE OLDEST IN THE WORLD

Sat 04 October 2023:

A massive pyramid concealed in an underground hillside in Indonesia is probably among the oldest megalithic structures ever built by humanity, predating both Egypt’s Giza Pyramids and England’s Stonehenge, the archaeologists said.

Gunung Padang is the name of this megalithic site located in Indonesia. Locals on the Indonesian island of West Java admire the hillside covered in ancient stone constructions, which they refer to as a ‘punden berundak,’ or stepped pyramid, because of the terraces that slowly rise to the peak.

The largest megalithic site in all of Southeastern Asia, Gunung Padang. (Ade lukmanul Hakim/Getty Images)

The site’s surface has barely been brushed by the archaeologists, and already it is shaping up to become a “remarkable testament” to human ingenuity.

It was found by Natawidjaja and other researchers that Gunung Padang was created in complex and sophisticated stages and its deepest part lies 30 meters down.

The structure’s core part was probably created between 25,000 and 14,000 BCE, however, it was later abandoned for several millennia.

The megalithic stones seen on the surface of Gunung Padang. (Natawidjaja et al., Archaeological Prospection, 2023)

“The builders of Unit 3 and Unit 2 at Gunung Padang must have possessed remarkable masonry capabilities, which do not align with the traditional hunter-gatherer cultures,” said the team of researchers.

“Given the long and continuous occupation of Gunung Padang, it is reasonable to speculate that this site held significant importance, attracting ancient people to repeatedly occupy and modify it,” they added.

As per experts, Gunung Padang is the world’s oldest pyramidal structure and was built atop an extinct volcano before civilisations existed and humans delved into agriculture.

Simple reconstruction of Gunung Padang with all four units and their various burial levels. (Natawidjaja et al., Archaeological Prospection, 2023)

As per new data found by scientists in Indonesia, its interior hides large open chambers which contain many unknown elements.

An extensive analysis of Gunung Padang, which is known as the ‘mountain of enlightenment’ in the local language, has suggested that the natural hill of lava was “meticulously sculpted” by an ancient civilization into the core of a pyramid-like structure after a long time.

The site’s first radiocarbon dating indicated that initial construction started in the last glacial period, which was more than 27,000 years ago. The results of Gunung Padang’s current study have come after carrying out many years of careful analysis.firing reported

Archaeologists decode the complex structure of Gunung Padang

In the years between 2011 and 2015, a variety of techniques like ground penetrating radars, core drilling and subsurface imaging were used by a team of archaeologists, geophysicists and geologists, headed by geologist Danny Hilman Natawidjaja at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency to investigate the cultural heritage site.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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