THE SEDIMENT SPEAKS: COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NGANDONG HOMO ERECTUS SITE, CENTRAL JAVA, INDONESIA

The Ngandong site in Central Java, Indonesia is located on a Late Pleistocene fluvial terrace along the Solo River. Fossiliferous deposits of Late Pleistocene macrofauna, including Homo erectus, make this site particularly interesting for paleontologists and paleoanthropologists. This study takes a comprehensive geomorphological approach to this site by pairing mineralogical, sedimentological, and bulk geochemical analyses with luminescence dating techniques to better understand how and when the site formed. These results improve our understanding of the Solo River paleoflow dynamics during the Late Pleistocene and may aid in the exploration for yet undiscovered fossiliferous deposits in this region.