Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Gunung Padang (Encore)

Starting point is 00:00:00 The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. Located on the island of Java in Indonesia, just about 100 kilometers from the capital of Jakarta, lies what might be one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. While it's been known to locals for centuries and to professional archaeologists for over 100 years, it's only been seriously studied in the last several decades. Some of the estimates of the age of the site, if true, would radically transform what we know about early human civilization. Learn more about Gungung Padang, perhaps the oldest and largest pyramid in the world, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

Starting point is 00:00:55 ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us. Every week on the ThruLine podcast. from NPR. Oftentimes when I do an episode about a famous location around the world, I'm able to throw in some sort of personal anecdote about my travels there.

Starting point is 00:01:25 In the case of Gunung Padang, I don't have any. And it isn't because I haven't been to Indonesia. I have. I've been to Jakarta and I could have easily visited Gunung Padang on a day trip if I had so desired. The problem is that I had no clue that Gunung Padam existed until several years after my trip to Jakarta. I'm guessing that many of you are probably in the same boat. Either your awareness of Gunung Padang came recently, or you've never heard of it at all until now. So, unlike other noteworthy archaeological sites around the world, it's probably worth giving a brief

Starting point is 00:01:57 explanation of what Gunung Padang exactly is. Gunung Padang is a structure situated on a hill that consists of five different terraces built on top of each other. Each terrace has retaining walls which are made out of stones of long columns of volcanic rock. These terraces give the structure and appearance closer to that of a ziggurat like a like those found in Mesopotamia. On top of everything are littered thousands of hexagonal stone columns, similar to those that make up the retaining walls. Many of these are laid out in the shape of a rectangle or a square at the top, indicating that they form the outline of a building or a structure

Starting point is 00:02:31 of some sort. The entire structure is 110 meters or 360 feet tall, it sloped at an approximately 45-degree angle, and there are 370 steps that will take you all the way to the top. The name Gunung Padang means mountain meadow or alternatively mountain field in Sundanese. For everything I just said, I have to qualify it with maybe. The reason for the qualification is that there just may be a whole lot more to the site than what we currently know. More on that in a bit. One of the reasons why Gunung Panang hasn't captured the attention of the world is because, unlike other famous megalithic structures, Gunung Panang is situated in the middle of a thick forest.

Starting point is 00:03:13 Trees cover most of the structure, which from a distance makes it look like a naturally occurring hill. It's been dubbed Indonesia's Macupichu. Gunung Padang has been known to the people who live in the area for centuries, but it wasn't a site that was regularly visited, given its location. Many locals probably didn't even know exactly where it was located, as it wasn't a place that was high in their priority list. According to Sundanese tradition, the Sundanese being the native of people who live in Western Java, the structure was built by King Silawangi in a single evening. King Silawangi was a legendary Hindu king who ruled prior to the arrival of Islam in Indonesia. He had a status similar to that of King Arthur in England. It's doubtful he actually existed,

Starting point is 00:03:56 but he may have been modeled after one or more actual rulers. The earliest written reference to it occurred back in 1891, when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony. It was referenced in a history Book of Java and mentions a single visit made by a man the year prior known only as Mr. DeCourt. Despite the fact that the site was known, almost nothing was actually known about it. It was subsequently forgotten until 1979 when some local farmers rediscovered it. With its rediscovery, it immediately came to the attention of antiquities and archaeology authorities in Indonesia. Initial research was conducted in the 1980s, and in some very limited digs, they managed to find evidence of pottery and other small artifacts. The initial dating of the pottery found at the site

Starting point is 00:04:40 put it somewhere between 45 BC and the year 22, or about 2,000 years old. However, the pottery discovered at the site only puts a ceiling on the age of the site, not a floor. Someone could have been occupying the site 2,000 years ago and left the pottery, but it doesn't mean that they built the site. Subsequent estimates have pushed the date back to about 500 to 800 BC. One of the largest and certainly most controversial studies of Gunung Padang began in 2010 by an Indonesian geologist by the name of Danny Nadawaja. Nadawaja and his team deployed tools which had not previously been used at Gunnipedong before. In particular, ground penetrating radar and seismic tomography. Here I should note that Nadawaja is an accomplished geologist. He's one of the best seismologists studying the Indonesian

Starting point is 00:05:28 archipelago and a graduate of Caltech. However, he is not an archaeologist. As part of his research, excavation of the site using a backhoe. Archaeology has advanced a lot over the last century. Many of the archaeological digs conducted in the 19th century were extremely destructive. Since then, standard archaeology techniques involve taking a very slow and methodological approach to digging up artifacts. If you've ever been witnessed to an actual dig, you'll notice how archaeologists will painstakingly use brushes and dental picks to carefully remove objects so they aren't damaged. and they also don't want to miss something which, even though small, could be extremely important.

Starting point is 00:06:09 The only thing worse than using a backhoe in the world of archaeology would probably be dynamite. The excavation immediately caused an uproar around the world and the archaeological community. The excavation ended soon after it began in 2014. However, as bad as the dig was in terms of archaeological best practices, it did discover many things. Coins were found that were claimed to have been dated back about 5,000 years. They eventually stopped digging when they hit a layer made of sand. The biggest controversy occurred when Nada Juea and his team released their findings. They didn't actually release them in a formal academic paper, which is how almost all research is made public.

Starting point is 00:06:49 Nada Juaida released his data in a report to the government and then in a poster which was displayed at the 2018 meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The conclusions that they reached were startling and had the potential to upend everything we know about early human civilization. Just a few minutes ago when I was describing Gunung Panang, I used the word maybe. That's because this giant complex built on a hill may in fact not be built on a hill, or at least not built on a hill as large as we think it is. According to Nada Jueida, what we can see is simply the top layer of a multi-layer structure. The various layers were built on top of each other over an extended period of time.

Starting point is 00:07:31 The top layer, he believes, is about 3,000. 500 years old. Below that is another layer which is built of similar basalt columns which can be seen on the surface. These basalt columns, the researcher claims, are held together with a mortar made of clay, iron, and silica. This second layer is about 8,000 years old. The third and bottom layer may have caverns or other hollow spaces, and this layer may be between 9,500 to 28,000 years old. These last two claims about the age of the second and third layers would shatter our notions of early human civilization if true. For the longest time, archaeologists thought that civilizations and megalithic structures only began about 6,000 years ago. If you remember back to my episode on Golbeki Tempe and Turkey,

Starting point is 00:08:19 that has been dated back 11,000 years. The discovering and dating of Golbeki Tempe completely rewrote what we knew about ancient people, and it even took a while for everyone to accept it. What's being claimed about Gunung Padang would be even more revolutionary if it was true. Needless to say, there has been a great deal of skepticism about this claim. For starters, the research team still hasn't published anything or made all of their findings public. Second, if you're going to make extraordinary claims, like human civilization is twice as old

Starting point is 00:08:50 as we think it is, you need extraordinary evidence. Right now, there isn't anything which can prove this theory beyond a reasonable doubt. Third, there isn't any sort of corroborating evidence anywhere else. No archaeological digs in the area have found anything which would indicate a culture that was capable of creating such structures so early. Finally, politics might be coming into play. The funding for the project was from the Indonesian government and the results of the research were first given to the government. If the findings are true, then it means that Gunung-Pedang would be both the oldest and largest pyramid in the world, bigger than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

Starting point is 00:09:27 It would be a huge coup for Indonesia, both in terms of international prestige, and tourism revenue. The vast majority of mainstream archaeologists have been very skeptical of the claims made by Nadajuwea. Other alternative and pseudo-archologists have embraced the theory, as it supports many of their preconceived notions for when civilization began. What we can say for certain right now is that there has been very little research conducted at Gunung Padang since its rediscovery in 1979.

Starting point is 00:09:55 If the claims of Daniel Nadawaja are true, then proving them will require a lot more evidence than what we currently have. And it will require excavations using much better techniques than what they used. What pretty much everyone can agree on is that Gunung-Panang is a very special place that is deserving of more study. As it currently stands, Gunn-Pan-Pan is pretty much still a giant mystery. We don't know who built it, we don't know when it was built, and we really don't even know how big it truly is. Hopefully, more funding and attention will be spent at the site over the next several decades to help answer many of the outstanding questions which surround Gunung Padang. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers

Starting point is 00:10:41 are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Gunung Padang (Encore)

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