NGAWI
LOCATION
Left bank of Bengawan Solo River, in Selopuro
Village, Ngawi Regency, eastern Java, Indonesia.
DISCOVERY
Local student, 1987; remitted to officials in 1988.MATERIAL
Adult cranium with damaged cranial base.
DATING AND STRATIGRAPHIC CONTEXT
The hominid fossil was a surface find in the river bed,
so its stratigraphic origin is unknown. According to
Sartono (1990), the cranium could have originated ei-
ther from Ngandong-equivalent river terraces or from
sediments of the Kabuh Formation. On morphological
grounds, the younger attribution has generally been
preferred, but the specimen remains without definitive
(or even approximate) provenance.ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
None.PREVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS AND ANALYSES
The few commentators who have reviewed this speci-
men (e.g., Sartono, 1990; Grimaud-Hervt and Wid-
ianto, 1993; and Zeitoun and Widianto, 2001) have
been impressed by a perceived close resemblance to
the Ngandong and Sambungmacan fossils. Generalattribution is to Homo erectus. Harry Widianto (per-
sonal communication) has measured an endocranial
volume of 870 ml.MORPHOLOGY
Adult calvaria with damaged cranial base. Missing zy-
gomatic arches. Matrix still adheres to much of nuchal
region and cranial base, so much detail obscured. Spec-
imen heavy and well permineralized; may not have
been thick boned.
Moderately a/p long skull, not very s/i tall but
quite wide. In profile, long frontal rise originates from
just behind glabellar/supraorbital region and arcs
steeply up to bregma. Behind bregma, contour flattens
out to halfway along sagittal suture, slopes gently
down to lambda, and then slopes more steeply and
flatly to region of external occipital protuberance.
From this point, the quite long nuchal plane angles
steeply down and forward. Seen from rear, vault
arcs widely and smoothly from side to side, to re-
gions of temporal lines where sides become straighter,
angling slightly outward to widest points on upper
parts of bulky supramastoid crests. From above, skull
widens gently and quite straight from modest postor-
bital constriction to supramastoid crest; then curves
quite smoothly around back.
Frontal weakly domed; dome emphasized on
either side by longitudinal thickenings of bone that
originate close to temporal lines, then run above
them for short distance. Laterally (as seen best on R),
a low temporal line arises high up on lateral toral467