R EWRITING P REHISTORY
AT G UNUNG P ADANG
After a series of
amazing discoveries
since 2011 at what is
potentially the
most significant
archaeological site
on the planet,
research at
Gunung Padang
in West Java
has stalled due to
a delay in promised
funding, academic
resistance and
national politics.
by Narada Firebird Vantari and
Pratima Mumford-Sephton
© February 2016
Email: nexus@aNewSci.com
Websites:
www.aNewScienceOfEverything.com
www.aNewSci.com/nexusarticle
APRIL – MAY 2016
ecent archaeological and geological discoveries are shaking modern
R society's beliefs about our prehistory. Even establishment academics
are saying that the textbooks urgently need to be rewritten, but few of
them realise just how radical the required changes are. Advances in
ground-penetrating scanning technologies are giving us a clearer picture of
what lies buried beneath the sands of time, and decades of work by
independent researchers threatens to overthrow the established dogmas of
academia.
A plethora of new evidence from around the world suggests that there was
at least one previous globe-spanning civilisation, and that it was destroyed
during the great coastal flooding at the end of the last glacial period around
11,600 years ago. Inundation of coastal cities that were the main centres of
this civilisation could be what our culture remembers as "the sinking of
Atlantis". Over the last decade it has been proposed by some mainstream
geologists, and become increasingly accepted, that a comet impact in North
America was at least partially responsible for the sudden changes in climate
and the mass extinctions of megafauna around that time.
The prehistory we were taught at school or university was pieced together
in the middle of the last century without access to this explosion of new
information. If we look at the evidence without preconceptions, then where
and when modern humanity originated is really an open question, and so are
the locations and dates of the first civilisation. These dates are consistently
being pushed further back in time.
However, any evidence that there was a global civilisation before our own is
routinely and automatically covered up or ridiculed into obscurity. The
discovery of yet another anachronistic megalithic site, such as Gunung
Padang in Indonesia, is like another big elephant entering the already
crowded room of academic anthropology and archaeology.
What is Gunung Padang and Why Is It Important?
Gunung Padang is a large pyramidal megalithic site in West Java. Just the
top section alone is 150 metres long and 40 metres wide—6,000 square
metres in area. Its name in the local Sundanese language means Mountain
of Light or even Mountain of Enlightenment. It is set in a majestic hilltop
location surrounded by lush tropical volcanic peaks. On a clear day you can
see that Gunung Padang is aligned with the active volcano Gunung Gede 20
kilometres to the north. For as long as anyone can remember, the locals have
held ceremonies in the ancient ruins on top of this auspicious hill.
However, Gunung Padang's astonishing size and antiquity were only
realised in 2011 when Dr Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, senior geoscientist at
the Research Center for Geotechnology of the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences in Bandung, arrived to do some geological surveying. It was quickly
www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 1

Artist’s impression of Gunung Padang circa 2500 BP
apparent to his trained eye that it is not just the surface
ruins that are interesting: the entire top of the hill is
evidently an artificial construction.
Thousands upon thousands of columnar andesite
plinths have been laid together to create the enormous
stepped pyramidal structure. The hexagonal plinths are
found in many places and are presumably natural, but in
nature they always occur vertically, never horizontally.
Geologists agree that the six-sidedness comes from the
"flower of life" or "honeycomb" type of geometric fracturing
that results as the volcanic magma cools. Andesite is a
heavy, dense volcanic rock similar to granite and difficult to and earned his PhD at the California Institute of
shape with modern tools. Yet many of the plinths have
unexplained indentations and intriguing markings.
Investigations revealed at least two earlier layers
beneath the surface ruins of Gunung Padang. Each thick
Dr Danny Hilman Natawidjaja and some of the andesite plinths
2 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com
layer of construction is made of a
metre or more of interwoven plinths.
They are stuck together with what is
probably an artificial mortar. The
layers of plinths are separated by a
layer of loose soil and gravel that
varies between a few tens of
centimetres to several metres in
depth.
It seems that many thousands of
years after the first layer was
constructed, the whole hilltop was
manually buried beneath countless
tonnes of rocks and dirt. A new layer
was then constructed, similar to the
first layer. Then, even more strangely,
thousands of years later the process
was repeated, burying and remaking
a new structure. The ruins strewn
about on the current surface layer
date to around 3,000 years before present (BP) and are
the least sophisticated construction. The whole place is
quite mind-boggling to contemplate. It's a giant puzzle
that humbles the mind as to who built it, why they built
it and what is really going on here.
Journey to Gunung Padang
Dr Danny Natawidjaja is the main person responsible
for the rediscovery of Gunung Padang, and his
credentials are impressive. He gained his MSc degree in
geology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand,
Technology. He is an expert in Quaternary and
earthquake geology, and is listed online as one of
Indonesia's top dozen academics. It was his geological
training that allowed him to quickly recognise what
others had missed from examining
the surface ruins: the unique and
unnatural nature of the entire hilltop.
After countless emails back and
forth, we arranged to meet Dr
Natawidjaja in September 2015 at his
office at the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences in Bandung. He juggles his
interest in Gunung Padang with a
full-time job and his family, including
a new baby. It was soon clear to us
that he is a deeply spiritual person
and a sincere, open-minded scientist.
After answering our pages of
prepared questions in a two-hour
interview, he then treated us to his
mind-blowing slide presentation of
the scientific data gathered over the
last four years and how he thinks it
fits into world history.
As it was already late evening after
APRIL – MAY 2016