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KEDUNGBRUBUS(Kedung Brubus)
LO CATION
Rver sediments near Kedungbrubus, Kendeng Hills,
Tjaruban, Java, Indonesia. Some 35 km SE of the
Trinil site.
DISCOVERY
E. Dubois. 1890.MATERIAL
Fragment of R mandibular corpus of juvenile.DATING AND STRATIGRAPHIC CONTEXT
Exact provenance of the specimen is unknown. Mam-
malian fossils from the same general locality suggest
that the Kendeng sediments from which the mandible
is derived are “Kabuh equivalent” (von Koenigswald,
1934). Guesses as to absolute age center on a “Middle
Pleistocene’’ age of 0.5 Ma, though in the light of re-
cent ages from the Sangiran Dome the specimen could
be older than this. Hooijer and Kurten (1984) found no
reason to consider the Kedungbrubus fauna younger
than that from Trinil, as had been suggested by de Vos
et al. (1982).ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
None.PREVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS AND ANALYSES
In 1891, E. Dubois favored a designation of Homo sp.
indet. for this inscrutable small fossil, but in a fullerdescription in 1924 he associated it with his Pitbecan-
tbropus collection from Trinil. Most other commenta-
tors have found the specimen to be frustratingly
incomplete (see summary in Tobias, 1966), but likely
to be associated in some way with the Trinil ho-
minids. Tobias (1966) was the first to recognize that
this is a juvenile jaw fragment; in his analysis he
returned to the designation of Homo sp. indet.MORPHOLOGY
Very small fragment of R mandibular corpus with
m/d compressed, deep alveolus for C (preserving
small piece of root far down), root of P1 (m/d com-
pressed, b/l wide, possibly long), alveolus for P2 (b/l
wide). Bears long, posteriorly facing digastric fossa,
which is as long as the fragment. Small portion of
internal surface indicates that corpus was moderately
thick across region of fossa.REFERENCES
de Vos, J. et al. 1982. The fauna from Trinil, type locality of
Homo erectus: a reinterpretation. Geol. Minb. 61: 207-211.
Dubois, E. 1891. Voorlopig bericht omtrent het onderzoek
naar die Pleistocene en Tertiare vertebraten-faunen van
Sumatra en Java, gedurende het jaar 1890. Natuurk. Tid-
schr. Ned Ind 51: 93-100.
Dubois, E. 1924. On the principal characters of the
cranium and the brain, the mandible and the teeth of
Pithecanthropus erectus. Proc. Konikl. Acad. Wetenscb. 27:
265-278.421