VOL. 56, No. 5 421

A Human Mandible from Anjar Urn Field, IndonesiaTEUKU JACOB, M.S., M.D.

National Paleoanthropological Research Project,Gadjah Mada University College of Medicine,

Jogjakarta, Indonesia

INTRODUCTION

ON a bad day in 1954, after a heavy shower,a teacher by the name of Munich Munir

found in front of his house in Anjar (WestJava), about 600 feet from the shore, an urnwith human skeleton in it.' The following yearthe site was excavated by the Archeological Sur-vey, resulting in the finding of potsherds, beads,and urns containing a human mandible, a maxilla,skull fragments and long bones, and fragmentsof goat bones.The skeleton found earlier was damaged during

transportation to Djakarta. The excavated boneswere forwarded to Dr. Snell in Surabaja forstudy, but we are not aware whether it has re-sulted in a published paper and we do not knowthe whereabouts of the material.

According to van Heekeren' the bones in oneurn were well preserved and slightly mineralizedThe skull was low vaulted and had a thicknessup to 10.4 mm. The mandible was robust, withstrong, normal sized teeth, probably of a male.

In addition, another urn contained a distinteg-rated female skeleton, suggesting artificial skulldeformation. Van Heekeren considered the ceme-tary to be of protohistoric Indonesia dating around200-500 A. D.Urn burials were found in wide-spread areas

in South and East Asia, ranging from South Man-churia, Korea, Japan, Formosa, Vietnam, thePhilippines, Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan (Borneo),Sulawesi (Celebes), Sumba, and Salajar. Usually,the urn fields are located close to shore, and theburial is either primary, with complete skeletonsin squatting position, or secondary, with onlyskull and limb bones found in the urns.3 4 1,2The urn burial custom is thought to be asso-

ciated with the Dongson culture and with Aus-tromelanesian physical types. Snell, studying theskull from Melolo urn field, East Sumba, cameto the conclusion that the population represented

Negroid and Malay elements with considerableintermixture.2, 3

In July 1958 the Archeological Survey foundat Anjar another human mandible (cataloguenumber DP 731), which will be described in thispaper. The specimen is completely fractured atthe symphysis, left of the median line, and theupper portions of both rami are wanting. Theleft half contains the premolars and molars, andsockets of the medial incisor and canine. On theother hand, the right half has all the teeth exceptthe medial incisor of which only the alveolus re-mains.

In general, the bone is light-brown in colorwith some matrix of brown sand. It is not fos-silized, but heavy and robust. Before giving itdetailed description, however, we will first makea brief review of Indonesia's racial history.

RACIAL HISTORY OF INDONESIA

The raciology of Indonesia is still a contro-versial problem, and there is still much to bedone in solving the question of successive migra-tions that took place in that part of the Pacific.

Birdsell, quoted by Comas5, suggests threewaves of migration through the west Pacific toAustralia, namely the Negrito, the Murrayian(Australo - Melanesoid) and the Carpentarian(Veddoid). On the other hand, Hooton6 takesinto account five successive layers of popula-tions occupying Indonesia: the Proto-Australoidand Negrito, the Indonesian, the Proto-Malay,and the Malay. Hooton6 himself considers onlythree strata, respectively the Negrito-Australoid,the Indonesian, and the Malay. Von Eickstedt7presents six successive migrations, i. e. the Austra-lid, the Palae-Melanesid, the Neo-Melanesid, theWeddid, the Polynesid, and the Palae-Mongolid.And de Zwaan, as cited by Schoonheyt8 proposesfour layers of populations: the Negrito, theWedda-Austromelanesian, the Proto-Malay, andthe Deutero-Malay.

422 JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION SEPTEMBER, 1964

Multiple hypotheses, of course, indicate thatthe problem is far from being solved. And multi-plicity of terms and synonyms leads us to con-clude that the physical types are not clearly de-fined. For example, in his Austromelanesian raceSaller9 includes the Australians, the Tasmanians,the Melanesians and the Papuans. Thus, the Mur-rayians (Birdsell), the Negroids (Dixon), theNegrito-Australoids (Hooton), the Australids,the Palae-Melanesids and the Neo-Melanesids(von Eickstedt), and the Wedda-Austromelane-sians (de Zwaan) could be more or less similar.The Proto-Malays and the Deutero-Malays arelumped together by von Eickstedt into his Palae-Mongolids, because he considers the latter whoinhabit the coastal areas are more affected by otherracial elements, but otherwise not distinguishablefrom the former, now living in inland areas. Wenotice that the Veddoids are grouped by someauthors with the Austromelanesians, but keptseparately by others because of their infantileprimitivity.To simplify the terminology and to make the

problem dearer, we have only these racial ele-ments to consider the Negrito, the Austromelan-esian and the Malay.The Negritos are viewed as the oldest layer

due to the marginal distribution of the Pygmies,in Africa and in the Pacific. But Vallois (Comas5)regards them to constitute two independent typesresulting from a mutation at the end of theNeolithic period. So far there has been noNegrito remains ever found in Indonesia or any-where else, except the one reported by Ver-hoeven'0 as Proto-Negrito in Flores. But wehave to wait for a detailed account from Huizinga(Utrecht, Holland) to whom Verhoeven entrust-ed the skeletons. Mijsbergt' and Snell3' 4 are in-clined to drop the idea of a Negrito layer inIndonesia, and with existing one feels prone toagree with them.Now let us look at the Austromelanesian ele-

ment. During the Upper Paleolithic or Mesolithicperiod Indonesia was inhabited by Homo wadja-kensis, regarded by Dubois as Proto-Australoid,due to its similarities to Keilor and Talgai menand the Australoids. Weidenreich12 puts a directline of descent between them. Several archeolog-ical skeletal remains in South East Asia displayAustromelanesian characteristics (Snell4). And

the Melanesian element is still present in thepopulation of Indonesia.

There remains, then, the problem of the Proto-Malays and Deutero-Malays. As mentioned pre-viously, von Eicksted puts both of them in hisPalae-Mongolids. Mijsberg" is of the opinionthat differences between them are not well de-fined.

Taking into account all of the above we areinclined to agree with Snell2 that there are onlytwo main racial elements to consider in Indonesia'sracial history, the Austromelanesian and theMalay. Before other convincing evidences are putforward, only these two elements are importantin any racial differential diagnosis of archeolog-ical skeletons in Indonesia. Multiple synonyms,too much emphasis on slight variations, and theever present urge to create new terms, merelycomplicate the approach and obscure the problem.

DESCRIPTION

The Anjar mandible has a median, positivechin, and the anterior contour of the symphysisand the mandibular angle point toward the fe-male sex. The lateral prominence is pronounced,especially on the right side. In vertical view, themental protuberance and the internal margin ofthe base are visible, denoting the relative positionof the incisor row. The alveolar arch is parabolicin shape and narrow, while the dental arch isirregular on the right side due to crowding of theanterior teeth.On both sides the mental foramen open su-

periorly, laterally and posteriorly. It is situatedbelow the second premolar and 15.0 mm fromthe base, and 26.0 mm from gnathion on theright and 29.0 mm on the left side. The thicknessand height of the corpus and the robusticity in-dex are tabulated in Table 1. We notice that themeasurements confirm the observed massivenessof the mandible.

In profile, the posterior portion of the thirdmolar is covered by the ramus, stressing the re-lation between the dental and alveolar arches.There is slight gonial eversion and the contactpoint of the base with the horizontal plane islocated at the boundary between the posterior andmiddle thirds.

Internally, the mylohyoid crest and groove arevery well developed. Due to the damage at thesymphysis, the mental spines and the surrounding

VOL. 56, No. 5 Indonesian Mandible 423

TABLE 1. ROBUSTICITY OF THE CORPUS OF THEANJAR MANDIBLE

Thick- Robust-Point of ness Height icity

Side Measurement in mm in mm Index

At Foramen Mentale 16.0 32.0 50.0Left

Between M1-M2 19.0 30.0 63.3

At Foramen Mentale 15.0 31.0 46.5Right

Between M1-M2 22.0 30.0 73.3

area cannot be described with any certainty. Thesublingual fovea is well defined.

Metrically, the bigonial width is 4- 83.0 mmand the gonion-gnathion distance is + 80.0 mmwhich give a high corpus index of ± 96.6. Thedirect length of the corpus is 91.0 mm and themental height 30.0 mm. The mandibular angle is+ 127', and the angle between the alveolar planeand the anterior border of the ramus is 1030.Now we proceed to describe the teeth. The

total length of the cheek teeth is 46.0 mm onboth sides, but the length of the molars is 32.0mm on the right and 31.0 mm on the left side.Table 2 shows the measurements of individualteeth.

It can be observed that the first premolar islonger than the second, and that the molars de-crease in size mesiodistally. The occlusal surface

TABLE 2. CROWN DIMENSIONS OF THE TEETHOF THE ANJAR MANDIBLE

Breadth* Lengtht Crown AreaSide Tooth (mm) (mm) (mm2)

Left P1 8.0 7.5 60.0

P2 8.0 6.0 48.0

Ml 11.0 10.0 110.0

M2 10.0 9.0 90.0

M3 10.0 9.0 90.0

Right 12 6.0 6.0 36.0C 7.0 7.0 49.0Pi 8.0 7.0 56.0P2 8.0 6.0 48.0

Ml 11.0 11.0 121.0

M2 10.0 10.0 100.0

M3 10.0 9.0 90.0* Maximum buccotingual diameter.t Maximum mesiodistal diameter.

patterns of the molars are the same bilaterally,i. e. + 5, + 4 and + 4 respectively from thefirst to the third molar. We notice a phenomenonof crowding on the right side involving the canineand the premolars (Fig. 1). The right lateral in-cisor and canine are slightly shovel-shaped, theformer having a basal tubercle. Due to abnormalalignment the right second premolar is worn offonly buccally.To determine the stage of abrasion we utilize

the classifications of Lysell13, Murphy 14 and Phil-ippas 15, and the results are shown in Table 3.The difference in degrees of abrasion between

the left and right premolars is mainly due to themalalignment of the teeth on the right side. Theocclusal surfaces of the first and second molarsare high lingually and low buccally. As anticip-ated, both first molars are located more highlyin the alveolar ridge, and their crowns are lowercompared with those of other molars. From thestages of wear we can derive the sequence oferuption as follows: M1I2 (CPP) M2M3. Of thelast molars only the left one shows slight enamelabrasion, so that the age of the individual couldbe estimated as being in the late twenties.

In the second molars the entoconid is well de-veloped, and no protostylids are present. Thereis no sign of caries and marginal enamel frac-tures in any tooth.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

From the above description it is evident that

TABLE 3. STAGES OF DENTAL ABRASION INTHE ANJAR MANDIBLE ACCORDING TO

DIFFERENT CLASSIFICATIONS

Murphy Philippas LysellSide Tooth (1959) (1961) (1958)

Left Pi b 3 2

P2 b 3 2

ml c 4 2

M2 a 2 1M3 0 1 0.5

Right 12 c 3 2C b 3 2P1 a 2 1P2 0 1 0.5ml c 4 2

M2 a 2 1M3 0 0 0.5

424 JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION SEPTEMBER, 1964

.~~.

Fg 1 (top OcciuSal vie of a reen Jaans madil th Ana mndil an th mnile

B of P_thecanthropus ere _ Xg l |cgCtu(cast)||..Fig (middle) Anterior view of the same mandb _M lFig 3 (bottom) The three mandibes viewed from the ri__.g

§ _ lSc_1 _ | _ K _ | cg|_ | s--| 11| _ l.eq_..

.c-ce--sw ....... e l ||| f , :; '-' > --"; :.-:: t:' ;:' :' :.: :::;::'^i ....'. d..2. ..........:.e...

- #: S " .: 0: k ', 5 Ee Z....... o.X...................... .. ........... .. ........ ... .. ...

:49 5. .u:e;u8.; =e ; t ] - ... .........

B;z igof Pihcnhou eretu (at). 0Fig.........2.. (middle).............Anei. vie of........... . thesammadbe.g

Fig.3.(otm h he adblsve e rmtergt

the dolichognathic mandible represents a femaleadult in her late twenties. The great height andthickness of the corpus with normal sized teethassociated with urn burial cultural complex re-mind one of the mandible found earlier at Anjarand other jaws discovered at Gua Kepak, Pugerand Melolo, regarded as being Austromelanesianin physical type (Table 4).As far as the dentition is concerned it exhibits

no difference from the present population. Dimen-sions are in the range of the Javanese and ofMelolo (Table 5). The processes of reductionare observed in the measurements of premolars,the decrease in size of molars mesiodistally, themolar occlusal surface patterns, the position ofthe incisor row and of the third molars, and the

phenomenon of moderate crowding. Furthermore,the sequence of eruption is similar to that ofpresent day populations (Garn and Koskil6).As is the case with other archeological speci-

mens, the degree of abrasion is more advancedthan in modern man of the same age. The firstmolar, which receives most stress in mastication,shows the highest degree of abrasion by its wearpattern, its shorter crown and its position in thealveolar ridge. From the wear of the incisor it 'sevident that the occlusion is edge-to-edge asusually found in primitive peoples. For a femalethe masticatory muscles seem to be quite strong,but this fact is not unusual, considering therough diet of the past.The fossula supraspinata said to occur very fre-

VOL. 56, No. 5 Indonesian Mandible 425

TABLE 4. ROBUSTICITY OF THE ANJAR MANDI-BLE COMPARED WITH RECENT AND FOSSIL

MANDIBLES

Thick- Robust-ness in mm Height

Mandible in mm icity Index

Anjar (right) 15.0 31.0 46 5Melolo II* 16.0 33.5 47.8Sinanthropus GIt 16.4 34.0 48.5Pithecanthropus B (cast) 17.0 33.5 51.3

New Guineanst 13.0 28.0 45.4Biak* 12.0 29.5 40.2Java (females)* 10.9 27.8 39.7Parisianst 12.7 31.2 40.8Gua Kepakt 15.0

Pugerl 15.1New Caledonianst 12.7-14.7Australoidst 11.0-14.7

* Snell (1948)t Tobias (1962)20* Snell (1948)

quently in Austromelanesian mandibles cannot beobserved due to the symphysial fracture. Snell3never noticed such structure in Javanese jaws, butwe have seen it in several recent Javanese mand-ibles in the collection of Gadjah Mada UniversityCollege of Medicine.The significance of the find lies in the fact

that an Austromelanesian mandible was foundagain in West Java associated with urn burialcomplex. These heavy-jawed people seemed to in-habit a large area in South and East Asia, andthe Anjar mandibles link the sites in Malaya withthose in East Java.

In addition, the association of normal sizedteeth with robust mandibles is very interesting.It is impossible to determine from the specimendescribed whether this phenomenon is due toracial intermixture or to "mocroevolution in situwith diminution in size, parallel to that foundin the animals of Malaysia" (Hooijer17). It isgenerally held that the reduction of the dentitionis associated with the reduction of the jaw, andthat the jaw reduction precedes the dental reduc-tion (Shapiro18). We observe that at the base,the Anjar mandible is thicker than mandible Bof Pithscanthropus erectus, but in maximumthickness the latter exceeds the former. The alve-olar process, however, is remarkably thick inPithecanthropus, whereas it approaches the dimen-sion of the recent Javanese in the Anjar mand-

TABLE 5. COMPARISON OF THE DENTAL CROWNDIMENSIONS OF THE ANJAR AND MELOLO*

MANDIBLES (IN MM)

Breadth LengthTooth

Anjar Melolo Anjar Melolo

12 6.0 6.0- 7.2 6.0 5.6- 6.5C 7.0 7.0- 9.2 7.0 6.5- 7.8P1 7.0- 7.5 8.0- 9.3 7.0- 7.5 7.1- 8.3P2 8.0 7.3- 9.5 6.0 7.0- 8.0

Ml 10.5-11.0 10.2-11.6 10.0-11.0 10.7-12.5M2 10.0 9.6-11.6 9.0-10.0 9.5-12.2M3 10.0 9.7-10.7 9.0 9.6-12.2

* Snell (1948)

ible. To obtain a metrical comparison, we takea thick, Javanese mandible (Plate II), and meas-ure the maximum thickness of the upper andlower fourths of the corpus at the foramen men-tale, and match the results with those of the Anjarand Pithecan'thropus (cast) mandibles. The thick-ness of the upper fourth, which roughly indicatesthe thickness of the alveolar process, -in the AnjaLmandible is 15.0 mm, in the Javanese 14.0 mmand in Pithecanthropus 18.0 mm. On the otherhand, the thickness of the lower fourth in theAnjar specimen is 15.0 mm, while in the Javan-ese and Pithecanthropus it is only 11.0 mm. Thus,the robusticity index, perhaps like any other index,commonly employed in comparative studies hasa very limited value.

These facts support the thesis brought up byWashburn'9 that different regions of the lowerjaw vary independently. Hence, we might say thatit is the alveolar process that varies with the den-tition, or it is the reduction of the alveolar processthat preceeds the reduction of the teeth. Conse-quently, the tempo of evolution and genetic con-trol are not the same for all parts of the mandible.It is a weakness in the current osteometric tech-nique that it does not measure the thickness ofthe alveolar process separately.

In conclusion, we hope that further studies ofarcheological mandibles found in West and Cen-tral Java, and Bali, which hitherto have neverbeen described, and further excavations in otherparts of Indonesia to be carried out with specialcare to preserve skeletal remains, will shed muchlight on the evolutionary changes affecting themandibles and dentition as well as on the origin

426 JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION SEPTEMBER, 1964

of the Indonesians and the migrational waves thatoccurred in western Pacific.

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

We are indebted to archeologist R. P. Soejono, headof the Prehistoric Section, Institute of Archeology andNational Monuments, Djakarta, for entrusting the Anjarmandible to us for study; and Mr. Soejono of the In-stitute's Prambanan Office has been helpful with hisphotographic services.We wish to thank Professor R. Radiopoetro, head

of the Department of Anatomy, Gadjah Mada Univer-sity College of Medicine, Jogjakarta, for the facilitiesrendered in the present study, and Dr. W. MontagueCobb, professor and head of the Department of An-atomy, Howard University College of Medicine, Wash-ington, D. C., for critical reading of the manuscript.

Finally, we wish to express our appreciation to theDepartment for National Research of the Republic ofIndonesia for its grant which partially supports ourpresent work.

LITERATURE CITED

1. VAN HEEKEREN, H. R. Note on a Proto-HistoricUrn-Burial Site at Anjar, Java. Anthropos, 51:194-200, 1956.

2. VAN HEEKEREN, H. R. The Urn Cemetery at Melo-lo, East Sumba (Indonesia). Berita Dinas Purba-kala, 3:2-24, 1956.

3. SNELL, C.A.R.D. Human Skulls from the Urn-Field of Melolo, East - Sumba. Acta NeerlandicaMorphologiae Normalis et Pathologicae, 6,3:1-20,1948.

4. SNELL, C.A.R.D. Menselijke Skeletresten van GolBa It, Sungai-Siput, Perak, Maleisch Schier-Eiland.Ned. Nat. Bureau voor Anthropologie, 372-6,1948.

5. COMAS, J. Manual of Physical Anthropology. CharlesC Thomas, Springfield, Ill., 1960.

6. HOOTON, E. A. Up from the Ape. The MacmillanCompany, New York, 1950.

7. VON EICKSTEDT, E. F. Rassenkunde und Rassenge-schichte der Menschheit. Ferdinand Enke Verlag,Stuttgart, 1934.

8. SCHOONHEYT, L.J.A. Bijdrage tot de Anthropologieder Bevolking van Batavia en Naaste Omstreken.Doctoral dissertation, Batavia-C., 1937.

9. SALLER, K. Leitfaden der Anthropologie. Verlagvon Julius Springer, Berlin, 1930.

10. VERHOEVEN, T. Proto-Negrito in den Grotten auf

Flores. Anthropos, 53:229-32, 1958.11. MJSBERG, W. A. De Bevolking van Nederlandsch-

Indie, Anthropologisch en Praehistorisch Besch-ouwd. Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indie, 97:61-77, 1937.

12. WEIDENREICH, F. Apes, Giants and Man. The Uni-versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1956.

13. LYSELL, L. Qualitative and Quantitative Deter-mination of Attrition and the Ensuing Tooth Migra-tion. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica, 16, 3:267-92, 1958.

14. MURPHY, T. The Changing Pattern of DentineExposure in Human Tooth Attrition. Am. J. Phys.Anthrop., n. s., 17, 3:167-78, 1959.

15. PHILIPPAS, G. G. Influence of Occlusal Wear andAge on Formation of Dentin and Size of PulpChamber. J. Dent. Res., 40, 6:1186-98, 1959.

16. GARN, S. M., and K. KOSKI. Tooth EruptionSequence in Fossil and Recent Man. Nature, 180:442-3, 1957.

17. HOOIJER, D. A. Fossil Evidence of Austromelan-esian Migrations in Malaysia. SW J. Anth., 6:416-22, 1950.

18. SHAPIRO, H. L. The Anthropologic Backgroundsof Dental and Oral Morphology. Oral Surgery,Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology, 16, 4:458-65,1963.

19. WASHBURN, S. L. The New Physical Anthropology.Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences,Series II, 13, 7:298-304, 1951.

20. TOBIAS, P. V. A Re-examination of the KanamMandible. Actes du IVe Congres Panafricain dePrehistoric et de l'Etude du Quaternaire, 341-60.1962.

see alsoBJORK, A. Some Biological Aspects of Prognathismand Occlusion of the Teeth. Acta OdontologicaScandinavica, 9, 1:1-40, 1950.DAHLBERG, A. A. Clinical Aging Patterns in Teethof Different Population Groups. Oral Aspects ofAging, 357-66.JENSEN, E. and M. PALLING. The Gonial Angle.Am. J. Orthodon., 40, 2:120-33.KENNEDY, R. Island and Peoples of the Indies.Smithsonian Institution War Background Studies,14, Washington, 1943.SCHULTZ, H. E. Ein Beitrag zur Rassenmorphologiedes Unterkiefers. Aeitschrift fur Morphologie undAnthropologie, 32:275-366, 1933.

Help our N.M.A. WOMEN'S AUXILIARY help us in ourTalent Recruitment Program.