Sundalan Rising: Indonesia's mysterious lost civilisation

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SPECIAL ISSUE Vol.8 No.1

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gene Savoy & His Search for the Secrets of Vanished Civilisations

The Real Atlantis?

Imhotep the AfricanArchitect of the Cosmos

Decoding the Secrets of the

Nebra Sky Disc

gunung Padang: Indonesia’s Mysterious Lost Civilisation?

EXCLUSIVE REPORTErich von Däniken uncovers Remnants of the gods

Special Issue Vol.8 No.1 ■ NEW DAWN 3www.newdawnmagazine.com

Sundaland RisingGunung Padang: Indonesia’s Mysterious Lost Civilisation?

— B y R O B E R T M . S C H O C H , P H . D . —

Twenty thousand years ago, during the depth of the last ice age when sea levels were as much as 130 metres lower than the present, the cur-rent Java Sea was not a sea at all, but fertile land. Here lay plains and forests bounded by

the mountains of Java to the south and the mountains of Borneo to the north, and through this land a major river system ran from west to east. With the rise of sea levels at the end of the last ice age (progress-ing rapidly from about 18,000 to 8,000 years ago, with a large rise in sea level just after 12,000 years ago), the land was overtaken by ocean water. This now inundated area was the southern portion of the ancient sub-continent known to geologists as Sunda-land, but what about the ancient people who surely inhabited this land? Who were they, and what happened to them as their territories “sank” beneath the waves? Was this the region referred to as Atlantis by Plato and other classi-cal ancients? The Indonesian geologist Danny Hilman Natawidjaja (Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, focusing on Active Tectonics and Earth-quake Geology) makes just such an argument in his recent book Plato Never Lied: Atlantis is in Indonesia.1 Is this just idle speculation on the part of Dr. Hilman Natawidjaja? Is it just one more reading and reinterpreta-tion of Plato, attempting to make one’s preferred place (in this case, Indonesia) fit Plato’s description? Other authors, most notably Stephen Oppenheimer in his book Eden in the East2 have argued, based on a variety of geological, archaeo-logical, genetic, linguistic, and other data, that populations spread from Sundaland as it was inundated at the end of the last ice age. What substantial contribution does Dr. Hilman Natawidjaja have to add to the discussion? Genu-ine physical remains: A megalithic site on Java, known as Gunung Padang, which may actually date back to the time of Sundaland/Atlantis!

Over the past couple of years I had heard about Gunung Padang and read a few brief articles describing the site, some of which dismissed it as either a natural feature mis-interpreted as human-made, or accepted that it was an arti-ficial construct but estimated its age at no more than a few centuries to a few millennia. This hardly seemed to be proof of Atlantis or ice age civilisation! Then unexpectedly in early November 2013, I received an email from Dr. Hilman Natawidjaja. Having read my book Forgotten Civilization,3 he was aware of my interest in the concept that advanced

civilisations go back to before the end of the last ice age (that is, before circa 9700 bce),4 which could lend support to the reality of Plato’s Atlantis. Dr. Hilman Natawidjaja extended to me an invitation I could not refuse – he requested my presence and participation during a professional field trip to Gu-nung Padang, followed by a conference devoted largely to evaluating the site, during which I would be asked to give my comments on what I had seen. On 3 December 2013 my wife Katie (Cath-erine Ulissey) and I left for Jakarta. We attended the official site visit to Gunung Padang on 5 December and the next day I spoke at the International Cultural Con-ference and Festival, GotraSawala 2013.5

MounTain of EnlighTEnMEnT

Gunung Padang, which can be translated rather literally as Mount Padang, or Mount “Meadow/Field,” is also said to connote in Sundanese “Mountain of Light” or “Mountain of Enlightenment.”6 Today many local people consider it a sacred area, a tradition that may stretch back to antiquity. The site is located about 65 kilometres west of Bandung and about 80 kilometres south of Jakarta (6° 57’ S; 107° 1’ E) on the top of Mt. Padang at a height of approximately 885 metres above sea level (the top of the site is about 110 metres above the modern road and parking lot at the base). Java is a land of earthquakes and active as well as dormant volcanoes; Gunung Padang fits into the latter category. The mountain is composed of igneous andesite lava rocks, which formed some

This now inundated area was the

southern portion of the ancient sub-

continent known to geologists as

Sundaland...

EXCLUSIVE REPORT BY DR. ROBERT M. SCHOCH

4 NEW DAWN ■ Special Issue Vol.8 No.1 www.newdawnmagazine.com

millions to tens of millions of years ago. As the lava cooled, it created structures known as columnar joints, and this is the key to understanding Gunung Padang. Columnar jointing forms as lava cools, contracts, and cracks propagate through the rock. This results in columns, which are tightly packed together and generally roughly hexagonal in cross-section (quadrilaterals, pentagons, heptagons, and octagons are also found). A key point is that these natural columns form vertically, and that is how they remain if not rearranged by humans or tilted en masse by geological processes. In some well-documented cases, such as Nan Madol on the island of Pohnpei, Micronesia, similar natural rock columns were used to build stone structures, rather like building a log cabin, but in this case the “logs” are stone. At Gunung Padang I observed the same building techniques. Rock columns had been care-fully separated from each other and used to build a structure that overall appears to be a rough step pyramid, referred to in Indonesian as a “punden berundak” building. Very telling, and in my opin-ion definitively demonstrating this is genuinely a human-made structure, is that many of the rock columns are arranged horizontally as walls and also apparently as roofs over chambers that have been detected inside the structure. In my short reconnaissance of the site, I did not find any rock columns in their original natural positions. Where did the stone columns come from? Were they transported to the site to build the structure? I suspect not. Rather, the rock columns found at Gunung Padang may have originated from this site. The natural lava columns may have been disassembled on the spot and then reassembled to build the punden berundak. Presently the structure on Gunung Padang consists of five distinct levels, or terraces. Via a modern path, first constructed in the 1980s, one climbs a series of stairs on the northern face of the mountain to reach Terrace I. About eight to ten metres above, and to the south, sits Terrace II. Terraces III, IV, and V rise gradually to the south above

Terrace II by several more metres. The five terraces together cover an area about 150 metres long by 40 metres wide and the long axis of the terraces is oriented approximately N 17° W, pointing north in the direction of Gunung (Mount) Gede, a mountain 30 kilometres away that many local peo-ple consider a sacred spot. In some respects the megalithic remains found at Gu-nung Padang today are not particularly impressive, appear-ing more like a jumble of stones rather than well-preserved ancient buildings. However, looking carefully, one sees the walls that define the terraces, particularly the major wall

that rises above Terrace I to Terrace II, and the walls running along the sides of the five terraces in a roughly north-south direction. And on the terraces are outlined what appear to be the founda-tions of structures as well as apparent pavements. Exploring below the surface, there is more evidence of human-made structures.

DaTing ThE layErs

Under the auspices of the “Tim Terpadu Riset Mandiri” (Independent Integrated Research Team), since 2011 Dr. Hilman Natawidjaja and his colleagues have car-ried out non-invasive geophysical studies (ground penetrating radar, electrical re-sistivity, and low energy seismic analy-

ses) and core drilling (boreholes) at Gunung Padang. Using these combined techniques, below the surface the group has identified various layers of rock and sediment that may represent distinct building phases and surface topographies. These have been numbered, working down from the present surface, as Layers 1, 2, 3, 4A, 4B, and 5, where Layer 1 is the youngest and Layer 5 is the oldest. Based on borehole data and geophysical data, human activity (taking the form of lay-ers of columnar rocks used to create artificial structures) at Gunung Padang appears to be recorded down to a depth of 10 to 15 metres below the current surface. My personal interpretation of the data I was shown combined with my observations on-site is that there is evidence of human activity in Layers 1, 2, 3, and 4A – an

Rock columns had been carefully

separated from each other and used to build a structure that

overall appears to be a rough step

pyramid...

Gunung Padang Megalithic Site is located close to Indonesia’s capital Jakarta. Above map shows extent of land area before the end of the last ice age.

© 2

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assessment with which Dr. Hilman Natawidjaja agrees. In fact, based on the preliminary data, it appears that the structures of Layer 2, although older than Layer 1, are better constructed and more sophisticated than those found in Layer 1 on the surface. In particular, Dr. Hilman Natawidjaja pointed out to me a sandy looking stratified filling, which he believes may be an artificial mortar or filler, between some of the horizontally placed columns attributable to Layer 2 (see image on page 8). He also found, in a borehole core, material he interprets as artificial ce-ment filler. In my opinion, Layers 4B and 5 may record the natural geomorphology and topography of the site prior to human constructions, or possibly record the earliest period of human activity in the area. Within Gunung Padang various cavities, chambers, or voids have been identified using geophysical techniques. These may be natural lava tubes in the volcanic rock, but they may also have been modified and used by ancient humans (on Easter Island I have observed natural lava tubes which were artificially modified and used). A major chamber ap-pears to lie about 20 to 30 metres under the top of the moun-tain; as seen in the geophysical cross-sections, it has a length of roughly 15 metres and a height of roughly 10 metres. It may be flanked by smaller cavities. There is evidence of an entrance to the cavity or chamber from Layer 3, which was subsequently covered over or buried by Layers 2 and 1, and also evidence of collapsed constructions within Layer 3. What are the ages of the various layers, and thus the dating of the structures and human activity, at Gunung Pa-dang? Dr. Hilman Natawidjaja and his group have collected a number of samples taken from the boreholes and prelimi-nary archaeological excavations, which they have used to obtain radiocarbon dates. As expected, the deeper layers in general yield older dates (there is one anomalously old date between younger dates, but this could be due to geological intrusion, mixing, and contamination). Dates from the site range from about 1000 to 500 bce in shallow archaeologi-cal excavations to dates going back to the range of 20,000 bce in the boreholes at depths below 11 metres – the latter dates placing Gunung Padang well into the last ice age.

Here I will highlight a few of the more significant, and I believe more relevant and meaningful, radiocarbon dates that have been obtained at Gunung Padang. In Drill Core 1, toward the bottom of Layer 2 (at a depth of about 4.5 metres) a date of circa 4700 bce was obtained. In Core 2, at a depth of 3.9 metres, which I believe corresponds to approximately the lower region of Layer 2, a date of 7820 to 7600 bce was obtained. One should understand that in comparing the different cores, the layers are not necessar-ily of the same thickness from core to core, as is typical in many geological and archaeological sites, so the older date at 3.9 metres in Core 2 as compared to the younger date at 4.5 metres in Core 1 is not necessarily a contradiction. In Core 2 a date of circa 11,600 bce was obtained at a depth of 8 to 10 metres, which I believe corresponds to Layer 3. A metre or so above this sample, in Core 2, a date of circa 26,310 bce was found, but in this case I suspect that the sampled material was intrusive and reworked, and thus the date is not valid. Also in Core 2, at a depth of 11.3 metres (corresponding to Layer 4A or 4B?) a date of 21,630 bce was obtained. Returning to Core 1, at a depth of 11.15 metres (corresponding to the top of Layer 4A), a date of 14,840 to 14,690 bce was found. What do we make of these dates? The first important observation is they indicate the site of Gunung Padang goes

Entrance to the stairs leading up to Gunung Padang.

Robert Schoch ascending the stairs to the top of Gunung Padang.

Continued on page 8...


Gunung Padang Megalithic Site Java, Indonesia

Photos this page: Top left: Well at the base of the stairs leading up to Gunung Padang. Top right: Robert Schoch at Terrace 1 of Gunung Padang with the wall and elevation to Terrace 2 in the background. Bottom: Terrace 1 of Gunung Padang with the wall and elevation to Terrace 2 in the background.

Photos opposite page: Top left: Looking down on Terrace 1 from Terrace 2. Top right: Overview of the top (upper Terraces) of Gunung Padang.Middle left: Construction details of Gunung Padang. Middle right & bottom: Robert Schoch examining construction details of Gunung Padang.


EXCLUSIVE REPORT BY DR. ROBERT M. SCHOCH


back to before the end of the last ice age, circa 9700 bce. Based on the evidence, I believe that human use of the site began by circa 14,700 bce (corresponding to Layer 4A). Possibly the earliest use of the site goes back to circa 22,000 Bce or even earlier – we just do not know. In my assessment, Layer 3 includes the period of the very end of the last ice age, circa 10,000 to 9500 bce, when major climatic changes took place, with dramatic global warming, rising sea levels, torrential rains, increased earthquake and volcanic activity, widespread wildfires, penetrating radiation due to solar outbursts, and other catastrophes occurring across the surface of Earth. I believe these changes were initiated by solar activity, and in par-ticular at the end of the last ice age our Sun went through a period of major, but sporadic, solar outbursts that would have affected the entire globe.7 The best place to seek refuge would have been in caves and underground shelters, and Layer 3 at Gunung Padang appears to correspond to the use (as evidenced by an entrance) of the chamber found within the mountain. Remember too that there is evidence of collapsed structures in Layer 3, possibly the result of the tumultuous conditions at that time.

ParallEls To göbEkli TEPE

Visiting Gunung Padang, pondering the dates and evidence of collapse and rebuilding that may have occurred here, I could not help but think about another major site – representing very ancient civilisation – that spans the end of the last ice age, namely Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. I have made the case that the circle of megalithic stones at Göbekli Tepe known as Enclosure D dates back to at least circa 10,000 bce (that is, before the end of the last ice age, circa 9700 bce).8 Dr. Klaus Schmidt, the lead ar-chaeologist at Göbekli Tepe, has stated he believes portions of Göbekli Tepe, as yet not fully excavated, may date back 14,000 years (circa 12,000 bce, some two thousand years before the end of the last ice age).9 At Göbekli Tepe there is evidence of fallen and broken pillars that were re-erected, hastily built walls between the pillars that may have served as protective shelters, and Schmidt has reported that there is a cave associated with Göbekli Tepe,10 which was entered and apparently used by the ancient inhabitants of the site. This activity at Göbekli Tepe was occurring at the same time, as best we can determine, as the possible use of the cave or chamber at Gunung Padang. The evidence of catastrophe at Göbekli Tepe (collapsed pillars and crude reinforcement walls) appears to correlate with the collapsed structures of Layer 3 at Gunung Padang. I also think of Egypt and my own work on re-dating the Great Sphinx. The extreme weathering and erosion seen on the proto-Sphinx (the head was re-carved and the monument reused during dynastic times), caused by torrential rains, could have been a result of the extreme climatic changes at the end of the last ice age. Furthermore, there is a chamber in the bedrock under the Sphinx.11 Putting together the evidence of Gunung Padang with

Detail of filler material between horizontally placed stone columns at Gunung Padang.

On site at Gunung Padang, “the Mountain of Light,” West Java, Indonesia. Photo shows Danny Hilman Ph.D. (centre) senior geologist at Indonesia’s Geotechnology Centre, Robert Schoch (left of picture) and author/researcher Graham Hancock, at the right of the picture. Dr. Hilman is showing some of the remote sensing results his team have obtained at Gunung Padang over the past two years of research. Graham Hancock has commented that “this part of Indonesia stands at the southern edge of what was once the vast Ice Age continent known to geologists as Sundaland, a continent that was submerged very rapidly by rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age, and a landmass that, when intact, was certainly large enough to have supported the emergence of a high civilisation.” Photo courtesy of Graham Hancock.


that derived from Göbekli Tepe, the Sphinx of Egypt, and other sites and lines of data from around the world,12 I believe we are coming closer to understanding the cataclys-mic times and events at the end of the last ice age. Genu-ine civilisations of a sophisticated nature existed prior to circa 9700 bce, which were devastated by the events that brought the last ice age to a close (in my opinion, caused ultimately by major solar outbursts orders of magnitude more powerful than anything seen in the last few thousand years).

‘Musical rocks’ & golD MinEs

Returning to Gunung Padang, Layers 2 and 1 corre-spond, in my assessment, to post-ice age habitation and reuse of the site. At some point it may have been abandoned and forgotten – or did it live on, visited secretly by the locals as a holy place and relic of distant ancestors? In modern times Gunung Padang was rediscovered and recorded in a 1914 report on the antiquities of the area. But it was effectively forgotten again until 1979 when three farmers (named Endi, Soma, and Abidin) once more redis-covered the punden berundak on Mount Padang.13 Since 1979 Gunung Padang has become a modern pilgrimage area and tourist site. Some consider it a sacred area and use it for ritualistic purposes; accompanied by a “juru kunci” (care-taker or “key master”), the devotees first purify themselves at a natural spring found at the base of the stairs before making the holy ascent to the mountaintop. At the top of

the site, I watched as visitors rapped or pounded with their knuckles and fists on an andesite column that lay on the surface. I had to try it myself – the column rang like a bell. Similar “musical rocks” are found at other ancient sites, such as a famous partial obelisk at Karnak in Egypt which more than a few tourists have hit with their fists to make it “sing.” It is an interesting phenomenon, but as a geolo-gist I do not find it particularly exceptional in that given their makeup, I would expect the rock columns of Gunung Padang to have resonant qualities. Among the hills around Gunung Padang tea plants are cultivated. I was told that the region is known for gold, and gold mines and tunnels commonly occur deep below the surface where the tea is grown. Could the gold deposits have any relationship to the ancient megalithic remains of Gunung Padang? Or could the earliest operations have been for purposes of shelter at the end of the last ice age, and only subsequently were the tunnels used for mining the gold that had been discovered in them? I wonder. Gunung Padang is fast being regarded as part of the very ancient heritage of the Nusantara (literally “archi-pelago,” referring to the Indonesian identity) civilisation, a source of nationalistic pride. Various local authorities and members of the public are actively promoting the site. A banner placed across the road welcomed us to Gunung Pa-dang, and upon our arrival, we were met by local dignitaries who were eager to have us visit. Dr. Hilman Natawidjaja and his group hope to continue researching Gunung Padang, including carrying out detailed archaeological excavations at the site. But not everyone agrees or approves. On my way to Gunung Padang I saw a large banner posted by the side of the road reading “Stop …!!! Penelitian Gunung Padang”

Artistic conception of the layers or terraces of the site.

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RObeRT M. schOch, Ph.D., is renowned for his work on re-dating the Great Sphinx. Based on his geological studies, he determined that the Sphinx’s origins date prior to dynastic times. Since his original work on the Sphinx of Egypt, Dr. Schoch has studied ancient cultures and monuments around the globe, includ-ing in Turkey, Bosnia, Romania, Wales, England, Scotland, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Chile (Easter Island), Indonesia, and Japan. His research has been instrumental in spurring renewed attention to the interrelationships between geological and astro-nomical phenomena, natural catastrophes, and the early history of civilisation. Dr. Schoch is an author and coauthor of both technical and popular books, including Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations (1999), Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America (2003), Pyramid Quest: Secrets of the Great Pyra-mid and the Dawn of Civilization (2005), and Forgotten Civilization: The Role of Solar Outbursts in Our Past and Future (2012). Website: www.robertschoch.com

(“Stop Research on Gunung Padang”). Some believe that the site should be left undisturbed, either out of respect for the past or because they simply do not want to face new knowledge that might upset their current worldview – for the implications of advanced civilisation in Indonesia before the end of the last ice age force us to rethink what we believe we know about the origins of civilisation. Gunung Padang is further evidence that the standard story concern-ing the rise and trajectory of sophisticated culture is not quite right.

All photos courtesy of Robert M. Schoch and Catherine Ulissey except where noted otherwise.

fooTnoTEs

1. Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, Plato Never Lied: Atlantis is in Indonesia, Jakarta: Booknesia, 2013.

2. Stephen Oppenheimer, Eden in the East: The Drowned Conti-nent of Southeast Asia, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1998; see also: Robert M. Schoch, Voyages of the Pyramid Builders, New York: Tarcher/Penguin, 2003.

3. Robert M. Schoch, Forgotten Civilization: The Role of Solar Out-bursts in Our Past and Future, Rochester, Vermont: Inner Tradi-tions, 2012.

4. For the dating of the end of the last ice age (Pleistocene – Holocene boundary) to circa 9700 bce, see: Mike Walker, Sigfus Johnsen, Sune Olander Rasmussen, Jørgen-Peder Steffensen, Tre-vor Popp, Philip Gibbard, Wim Hoek, John Lowe, John Andrews, Svante Björck, Les Cwynar, Konrad Hughen, Peter Kershaw, Bernd Kromer, Thomas Litt, David J. Lowe, Takeshi Nakagawa, Rewi Newnham, and Jakob Schwander, “The Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Holocene Series/Epoch (Qua-ternary System/Period) in the NGRIP ice core”, Episodes, vol. 31, no. 2, 264-267 (June 2008). Available at http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/920/Lowe%20stratotype.pdf?sequence=1 Accessed 24 December 2013.

5. The conference was held at the Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel, Bandung, West Java.

6. As related to me by native Indonesians on site and at the conference.

7. See Schoch 2012 [note 3, above].

8. See Schoch 2012 [note 3, above]. Here it is important to review some of the most recent evidence pertaining to the dating of Göbekli Tepe. A radiocarbon date on crude secondary walls at Göbekli Tepe (constructed perhaps centuries after the original pillars were erected) of circa 9745 to 9314 bce (Olivier Dietrich, 2013, “PPND - the Platform for Neolithic Radiocarbon Dates: Gö-bekli Tepe”. Available at www.exoriente.org/associated_projects/ppnd_site.php?s=25 Accessed 24 December 2013) strongly sug-gests that the earliest, and most sophisticated, portions of the site date before the close of the ice age. This is in agreement with my analysis of an Orion alignment at circa 10,000 bce for Enclosure D of the site (Schoch 2012, Forgotten Civilization [note 3, above]). Robert Bauval and Anu Nagappa concluded that the “Vulture Pil-lar” of Enclosure D indicates that the summer solstice was in the constellation Scorpio when the structure was erected (R. Bauval, personal communication, 7 November 2013), which further cor-roborates a date of about 12,000 years ago for this portion of the site. Other portions of Göbekli Tepe may date to as much as 2,000 or more years later; thus the site spans the end of the last ice age. Alignments at Göbekli Tepe have also been suggested relative to Cygnus, circa 9400 bce (Andrew Collins, 2013, “Göbekli Tepe: Its Cosmic Blueprint Revealed”. Available at www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Gobekli.htm Accessed 24 December 2013), and Sirius, circa 9100 bce (Giulio Magli, 2013, “Sirius and the project of the megalithic enclosures at Gobekli Tepe [sic]”. Available at http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1307/1307.8397.pdf Accessed 24 December 2013). Based on my analyses, these are either sec-ondary alignments or the researchers are simply mistaken.

9. As relayed by Graham Hancock in a posting on Facebook dated 10 September 2013.

10. Klaus Schmidt, Göbekli Tepe: A Stone Age Sanctuary in South-Eastern Anatolia. Şanlıurfa,Turkey: ArchaeNova / ex oriente e.V. Berlin (special edition produced by ArchaeNova and printed in Turkey by Kurtuluş Matbaası, Şanlıurfa, 2012; copy purchased on site at Göbekli Tepe, June 2013), 103.



13. Lufti Yondri and M. Hum, “Punden Berundak Gunung Padang”, brochure distributed during the site visit to Gunung Padang on 5 December 2013.

Sundalan Rising: Indonesia's mysterious lost civilisation

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