While the Guinness Book of Records officially lists the Djoser Step Pyramid in Egypt as the oldest pyramid in the world (ca. 2,630 BC), an article published in October claimed that a layer of the Gunung Padang Pyramid in Indonesia was built as early as 25,000 BC – although doubts have since been raised as to whether the structure was ever built by human hands.
In a study led by Danny Hilman Natawidjaja of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and published in the journal Archaeological prospectionThe scientists write that “the core of the pyramid is composed of carefully shaped massive andesite lava” and that the “oldest structural element” of the pyramid “probably originated as a natural lava mound before being shaped and subsequently architecturally encased.”
They write: “This study sheds light on advanced masonry skills dating back to the last Ice Age. This discovery challenges the conventional view that human civilization and the development of advanced building techniques only emerged … with the advent of agriculture about 11,000 years ago.
“Evidence from Gunung Padang and other sites such as Göbekli Tepe (in Turkey) suggests that advanced building practices were already in place when agriculture may not have been invented yet.”
The scientists also claim that the builders “must have had remarkable masonry skills,” but a British archaeologist dismissed the paper, saying he was “surprised that it was published as it is.”
Flint Dibble of Cardiff University told the magazine Nature that there is no clear evidence that the buried layers were constructed by humans.
“Material rolling down a hill is, on average, self-orientating,” he said, adding that there was no evidence that it was “working or displaying anything else that would suggest it was man-made.”
Meanwhile, Bill Farley, an archaeologist at Southern Connecticut State University, is said to have explained: “Although the 27,000-year-old soil samples from Gunung Padang have been precisely dated, they show no trace of human activity, such as charcoal or bone fragments.”
Natawidjaja responded to the criticism by saying: “We are really open to researchers from all over the world who want to come to Indonesia and conduct a research program on Gunung Padang,” while the co-editor of Archaeological prospection has confirmed that an investigation has been launched into the newspaper.
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