​When you see a study that reports the discovery of a 27,000-year-old pyramid, it’s quite frankly jaw-dropping. Especially if it’s published in the somewhat respectable scientific journal (not the biggest in the world, but still respectable since it has an impact factor of about half that of PlosONE), Archaeological Prospection, you’d think the “forks” studying before publication should be quite strict.

And what exactly does this study say? He says a series of datings at the Indonesian site, Gunung Padang by its name, show that the hill there is actually a pyramid built in three stages separated by millennia. The oldest structure, located at a depth of about 30 meters, was built about 16,000-27,000 years ago. Later, the first builders would abandon it all because some evil prehistoric people buried the whole structure with a huge amount of earth about 9900 years ago.

Reasons? We will never know. Apparently, this ruin spoils the aesthetics of the place. This has nothing to do with it, because about 8,000 years ago, some local architects reworked the pyramid and added new levels. Somehow they also left their jobs for unknown reasons. The last builders, about 4000–3100 years ago, came and built some of the megalithic structures that are still visible on the surface today.

How did you arrive at these truly incredible dates? Carbon dating of the soil 14. Great attention! Soil that would contain biological traces of those times. Where did the acquaintance take place? In one of the best laboratories in the world. Accordingly, at the BETA Analytical Laboratory in Florida, Oxford and the Indonesian National Nuclear Energy Agency BATAN. Please, the relevant labs only date what you send them, it’s not their job to tell you if you’re wrong. Finally.

Who undertook these studies, which, according to the authors themselves, fundamentally change history and prehistory to show what skills were possessed by people who had not even invented the bow? Well, the name of the leader of the explorers, the chief tartor, if you can call him that, is Danny Hillman Natavijaya. The man works at the Indonesian Disaster Center and is an expert in geotectonics. More precisely, he is an expert in the study of earthquakes. Therefore, it has nothing to do with archeology.

The problem is that the information presented by him and his colleagues, who are all Indonesian, got not only into the tabloids, but even into a scientific journal. And if this happened, then we need to work a little, because a burned-out Indonesian cannot come and mock our Dacian tunnels. We also have the honor of being the first civilizers of the world. No?

Madness is the cradle of human civilization

You don’t even need to do much, because information about the site in question, and especially about the person doing research there, begins to appear quickly. First, Dr. Natavijaya is well-known and well-known in his country after he developed a real obsession with the pyramid in question in the late 90s, and after he left his studies related to earthquakes to devote himself to archeology in which he has no qualifications.

Moreover, man managed to touch an extremely sensitive chord of local nationalism, exponentially increasing the testosterone level of the individuals there, apparently inversely proportional to the number of neurons. We know! Among those caught up in the mirage of the idea of ​​being descendants of the first human civilization is the president of Indonesia. A person who not only allocated huge funds for the study of the monument, but also sent the army to help in the excavations. After all, a person visited this place and officially declared it the “cradle of human civilization.” So that there are no comments, right?

As if this was not enough, with the first announcements related to this site, in the 90s, as I said, two dubious authors, Aricio Santos and Tefen Oppenheimer, published a book each talking about Indonesia as the real Atlantis Thanks to some clever connections, Santos came to the conclusion that Plato was writing about Indonesia when he had an imaginary dialogue with Timaeus and Critias. Oppenheimer added Noah’s flood, and thus Indonesia became the remnant of a vanished continent on which a great prehistoric civilization flourished. The crown jewel would be, you guessed it, the huge pyramid at Gunung Padang.

And because the land was fertile and Indonesians were mercilessly buying up these books while the nationalist current grew more like a leavened husk, local author Fahmi Basya published another sensational bestseller in 2015, in which he mentioned the famous temple in Borobudur as the real temple of Solomon. And not only did he do that, but he also found some connections in the Qur’an that proved his claim beyond doubt, since man was of the Islamic religion.

You’re getting the idea, I’m sure.

What is Gunung Padang really?

There is, however, a megalithic complex in Gunung Padang. The one that was discovered by Europeans back in the 19th century. More precisely, by the Dutch, because Indonesia was part of the East Indies.

A little later, the Dutch also conducted small research there, around 1914. Only in 1980, local archaeologists began excavating here. And from the 90s, Dr. Natavijaya also appeared.

The idea is that professional archaeologists have confirmed the existence of surface megalithic structures, some of which they have dated to around 2000-2800. As for what is at the bottom, the so-called pyramid, it is said that it is simply a former volcanic cone.

All their results came to naught on Saturday when Dr Natavijaya got down to business. And when you have the support of the most influential person in the state, it is difficult to contradict you. In fact, several dozen local archaeologists signed an official petition condemning not only Natavijaji’s excavation methods, but also his conclusions.

And the people rightly called him a pseudo-archaeologist. Also, his dates would have been ultra-contaminated, because unfortunately that’s what happens when you look for the remains of organic matter among the fresh roots and through the channels through which the water flowed from the mother of fire. At least dates from the future didn’t come out to make this possible. But their complaints were heard only externally.

And from abroad came other studies that simply destroy the nationalist speculations of the team led by Natavijaja and see them no further than the cheap sensationalism of authors such as Erich von Daniken, Zacharia Sitchin or Juris Zarins.

Natawidjaja, I forgot to emphasize this from the beginning, this is by no means the first feat of newly published research. No! A person comes up with the same nonsense every few years. It’s easy to do a Romanian Google search for “oldest pyramid in the world” and you’ll see when the information was taken here and especially by whom.

The summit, including part of the Indonesian media, blames the assumptions and methods of the Indonesian seismologist. And to top it all off, Nature magazine also published a manifesto letter by local journalist Dean Rochmyaningsih, in which the poor man laments the situation where pseudoscience has become state policy in Indonesia. From the Gunung Padang pyramid to the treatment of oncology with static electricity, some of which were awarded by the local minister of health, but never underwent clinical trials and were not recognized by the international scientific community.

Returning to “the world’s oldest pyramid and the cradle of civilization”, sorry to blow you away, but you will be stuck with the uncomfortable Dacian tunnels as a civilizational diva for a while. By the way, if they were still a primitive civilization, why didn’t those prehistoric Dacians also walk on the surface like ordinary people?