Indonesia Expects Dubois Fossils Next Year

Why this is here: The Dubois collection includes 28,131 identified fossils, with researchers still working to identify roughly 2,000 remaining items.

Indonesia’s Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Fadli Hasan, announced in Jakarta that the Dubois fossils will arrive from the Netherlands next year. The collection, amassed by Dutch anatomist Eugene Dubois, currently totals 28,131 identified fossils out of an estimated 30,000. Dutch officials are covering all transportation costs for the shipment, which is expected to require four to six containers.

The fossils include remains of Homo erectus, known as Java Man. Indonesia has prepared exhibit space at both the National Museum and the Samiran Museum to house the collection. Officials plan to present the fossils with a new narrative, diverging from the hologram technology used at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands.

About 2,000 fossils remain unidentified, and the process of cataloging the entire collection is ongoing. The government anticipates a two-month shipping period after the fossils leave the Netherlands, but a firm arrival date remains uncertain.