Nov 29, 2023 05:47 PM
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03546-w
EXCERPTS: A headline-grabbing paper claiming that a structure in Indonesia is the oldest pyramid in the world has raised the eyebrows of some archaeologists — and has now prompted an investigation by the journal that published it, Nature has learnt. The paper, published in the journal Archaeological Prospection on 20 October, garnered headlines around the world. Its central claim is that a pyramid lying beneath the prehistoric site of Gunung Padang in West Java, Indonesia, might have been constructed as far back as 27,000 years ago.
[,,,] It’s exactly such claims that have left many fellow researchers cold. Lutfi Yondri, an archaeologist at BRIN in Bandung, Indonesia, says his work has shown that people in the region inhabited caves between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago, long after the pyramid was supposedly built, and no excavations from this period have revealed evidence of sophisticated stonemasonry.
“I'm surprised [the paper] was published as is,” says Flint Dibble, an archaeologist at Cardiff University, UK. He says that although the paper presents “legitimate data”, its conclusions about the site and its age are not justified.
RELATED (scivillage): A prehistoric pyramid may have just rewritten human history, scientists claim
EXCERPTS: A headline-grabbing paper claiming that a structure in Indonesia is the oldest pyramid in the world has raised the eyebrows of some archaeologists — and has now prompted an investigation by the journal that published it, Nature has learnt. The paper, published in the journal Archaeological Prospection on 20 October, garnered headlines around the world. Its central claim is that a pyramid lying beneath the prehistoric site of Gunung Padang in West Java, Indonesia, might have been constructed as far back as 27,000 years ago.
[,,,] It’s exactly such claims that have left many fellow researchers cold. Lutfi Yondri, an archaeologist at BRIN in Bandung, Indonesia, says his work has shown that people in the region inhabited caves between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago, long after the pyramid was supposedly built, and no excavations from this period have revealed evidence of sophisticated stonemasonry.
“I'm surprised [the paper] was published as is,” says Flint Dibble, an archaeologist at Cardiff University, UK. He says that although the paper presents “legitimate data”, its conclusions about the site and its age are not justified.
RELATED (scivillage): A prehistoric pyramid may have just rewritten human history, scientists claim