Ape Skull -- Java, Surakarta

[FF7_Yuffie]

Hello, does anyone know apes? I am itnerested in this ape skull from Surakarta (also known as Solo City), Java, Indonesia. Is it Orang Utang?

 

29 cm long.

17 cm wide

3 kg in weight.

 

Thanks

 

[Misha]

This is not an ape skull, this is some monstrous amalgamation/sculpture and not a real fossil.

 

The texture is completely off, the object's shape is bizarre and many features do not match any animals.

The zygomatic arches are waay too thick, the teeth look completely unlike any primate, or even mammal for that matter, the pits near the nasal opening are huge, unlike that of any primate, the jaw shape is very strange, the brow is not like that in modern primates. The bottom of the 'skull' looks terrible also.

 

Orangutans have jaws that stick out further, a brow that is nowhere near that thick and a prominent sagittal crest, which is absent here

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

Although I wouldn't have been able to define what's wrong with the skull persé, I agree with @Misha that this is a fake. Just looking at the images this just doesn't look right.

[jpc]

Misha’s analysis is very good

[Mahnmut]

Agree,

just some details to add: The sagittal crest is only present in male Orangs.

This one looks as if it had two rows of incisors, what could be true for a juvenile including unerrupted second teeth, but not arranged like this. Part of the skull may be carved from real fossil bone, showing some porosity.

Best Regards,

J

[grandpa]

Alas poor Yorick.

[sjaak]

I agree. I have seen more of these “hominid” skulls from Indonesia on the Internet. I once saw one for real in a museum. The owner bought it in Indonesia for fun. It was cut out of fossil elephant  bone and with reshaped pig mollars. That one looked more convincing than this one. According to the owner, it was even convincing enough for a “hominid expert” from a certain museum who thought it was real. So, buyer beware!

Edited November 7, 2022 by sjaak

[FranzBernhard]

As a side note, despite being not a real skull, I would strongly recommend not bringing it out of that country and bringing it into your country. I don´t know the laws in these countries concerning export / import of primate material etc. I would not like to go into the struggle explaining at customs that this is not a skull of any kind, but just a piece of artwork.

Franz Bernhard

Edited November 7, 2022 by FranzBernhard