It is a name of human’s cranium. For convenience, I labeled it as TANA, is acronym of “Tanpa Nama” (Indonesian; means no name). It had ever been considered previously as a fossilized cranium. But, in term of its preservation, we supposed that it was recent. Therefore, Tana is fully modern Homo sapiens. The announcement of Tana had ever been arranged at the 30th IAGI Annual Conference and GEOSEA 2001 in Yogyakarta, September 17-19, 2001.
The historical find of Tana is rather unique. It was not found from the excavation site or cemetery but from the art shop in Bandung in 1999. According to Sujatmiko who bought this cranium, the owner of the art shop told that Tana was found in the forest in West Papua by somebody. If so, it was considered that the Tana’s race was aborigine New Guinean (Papuan).
This cranium is now housed at Sujamiko’s office in Bandung. He is the owner of Gem-Afia, a former governor of Indonesian Rotary period of 2006-2007 and the general secretary of “Masyarakat Batumulia Indonesia (MBI)” (Indonesian Gems Society).
Among the interesting point of Tana is the existence of small hole of about 7 mm in diameter on the right parietal bone. However, we haven’t yet known what its cause was, whether it was a clue of violence or clue for the cultural practice among tribal groups?
In general, the whole part of cranium’s bones is extant but the entire teeth were lost. There are usually three main questions for physical anthropologists if they deal with the human’s craniums: “can they tell about their age, sex and race?”
By far the most valuable age indicators in the skull (cranium plus mandible) are the teeth. Since the entire teeth of Tana were missing, so we used another indicator. The age of Tana can be estimated roughly on basis of maxillary sutures, in particularly, incisive and interpalatine sutures. By visually determining the amount of maxillary sutural obliteration, an approximate age range may be calculated.
The appearance of Tana’s incisive suture is obliterated about more than one-half, some obliteration of the interpalatine suture and surface texture appears somewhat smooth. Based on those features, we assumed that Tana was adult (+18 years old). For comparison, we also noticed how the fusion between basi-occipital and basi-sphenoid. In Tana, the contact between basi-occipital and basi-sphenoid is almost completely fused. It indicated that Tana’s age was about 20-23 years old. At last, based on maxillary suture we supposed that the age of Tana was adult, approximately above 18 years old.
The skull (cranium plus mandible) probably is the second best area of the skeleton to use for determination of sex. However, the absolute differences between male and female seldom exist and many intermediate forms are found. For determining the Tana’s sex, we used the morphological features on cranium bones.
The glabella of Tana is rather protruded, the size of mastoid process is medium but the posterior end of the zygomatic process doesn’t extend as a crest. In addition, the mark of muscle ridges on the occipital bone and that of posterior temporal line seem somewhat strong. Therefore, we supposed that Tana as a male individual (in 2001, we considered as female).
The skull is the only area of the skeleton from which an accurate estimation of racial origin may be obtained. Determinations of race from the skull mainly have been confined to the facial skeleton and have followed two major approaches: (1) morphological and anatomical variations of the bone structure; (2) anthropometric measurements.
Tana’s race should be attached to Mongoloid since he has a much flatter face as can be defined where his cheek bones extending much further forward compared to Caucasoid. Usually, the flatness is indicated by the projection of the median portion of the face to the corresponding lateral portions in the para-horizontal plane. Moreover, his cranium size was more close to Javanese male. He had a broad or rounded cranium (brachycrany), a high cranium (hypsicrany) and broad palate (brachyurany).
Considering cranial morphology in modern Homo sapiens, there are two morphological types of Homo sapiens in Indonesian archipelago namely Sunda type (Chinese and Javanese) that mostly distributed west-ward of the Wallacea line, and Sahul type (Papuan and Australian aborigine) which distributed east-ward of the Weber line. Since the morphological trait of Tana was similar to that of Javanese thus Tana has Sunda type. If so, the statement that Tana was found in West Papua forest is questioned.
References
Baba,H., S.Narasaki, S.Ohyama.1998.Minatogawa hominid fossils and the evolution of Late Pleistocene humans in East Asia. Anthropological Science 106 (supplement):27-45.
Bass, W.M. 1987. Human osteology: a laboratory and field manual. Special publication, n.2, Missoury Archaeological Society.
Brothwell, D.R. 1963. Digging up bones. British Museum (Natural History)
Strom, P. 1995. The evolutionary significance of the Wajak skulls. Scripta Geologica, Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden, the Netherland
