In 1891 Dubois' laborers found a skull cap along the Solo river near the village Trinil, Java. A year later and approximately 50 ft. away from the skull cap he found a femur. At the time the authorities were of divided opinions; they regarded the find as from a man, ape, or ape-man. Dubois promoted the find as a the missing link and allowed others to examine the fossils until about 1900 when he withdrew the fossils and refused to allow anyone to see them.
Prior to this, two human skulls had been found at Wadjak (Wajak) about 65 mi. away from Trinil. Wadjak I was found by a Dutch mining enginner in 1888 while prospecting for marble. Wadjak II was found by Dubois in 1890. These finds were only reported in the quarterly and annual reports to the Dutch East Indies government but not to the scientific community at large (Lubenow 1992,103-104). This throws red flags, for if the human skulls could be associated with the Trinil finds, their credibility would be severely diminished. Dubois did publicly announce skulls in much later in 1920 when another researcher claimed to have discovered the first "pro-Australian".
A later expedition to the Trinil site conducted by Frau Selenka in 1907-8 excavated 10,000 cubic meters, down to 40ft. below the surface at the same location as the original Trinil site without finding any more remins of Pithecanthropus. In the same stratum in which P. was found, splinters of bones and tusks, foundations of hearths and pieces of wood charcoal were discovered. About two miles away from the Dubois' original discovery was found the crown of a human molar (Lubenow 1992, 116).
Today Java man is classified as Homo erectus but questions still remain, one of which is whether the skull cap and femur are from the same specimen. Recent opinions suggest that the femur is a modern type which leads to a dilemma for evolutionists. If the skull cap and femur belong together, how do you maintain a species difference between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens? If however, the skull cap belongs to Homo erectus and the femur to Homo sapiens it shows that the two forms were likely contemporaries (Lubenow 1992, 98).
Updated: 8/15/95
References: Lubenow 1992, 86-112 Bowden 1977, 124-148 Gish 1985, 180-184Continue with: Early Man: Piltdown Man