New Evidence Suggests Buried Indonesian Structure is World's Oldest Known Pyramid

The structure, which is located in Indonesia's West Java Province, carries a name that translates to “Mountain of Enlightenment.” So far, new findings hint it's living up to its name for scientists.

A new study involving the collaborative efforts of archaeologists, geophysicists, geologists, and paleontologists alongside institutions in Indonesia, has suggested the structure known as Gunung Padang may be the oldest known pyramid across the globe.

Using seismic tomography, electrical resistivity tomography and ground-penetrating radar, the team’s data showed that older parts of the pyramid were constructed some 25,000 years ago.

The timeline offered by researchers would put the pyramid’s initial construction in the last Ice Age: imagine cave paintings, spears, and the extinct species of the Neanderthals roaming what is now Europe, while Denisovans were found across Siberia and Asia.

“A Prehistoric Pyramid May Have Just Rewritten Human History, Scientists Claim”

“Gunung Padang, a pyramid in Indonesia, is at least 16,000 years old, roughly 10,000 years older than the pyramid of Djoser in Egypt, long thought to be the world’s oldest” https://t.co/HcB1w0lzTW

— Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) November 7, 2023

“Radiocarbon dating of organic soils from the structures uncovered multiple construction stages dating back thousands of years BCE, with the initial phase dating to the Palaeolithic era,” officials noted in their study.

The site, which has long been treated as sacred by its locals, was declared a cultural heritage site in 1998. For a long time the structure was believed to have been a naturally occurring hill, but through extensive research that first began in 2011, researchers determined the megalith was built in complex, sophisticated stages by human hands. However, it's of note that it wasn’t until 2018 when researchers suggested the structure may be man-made.

“This study strongly suggests that Gunung Padang is not a natural hill but a pyramid-like construction,” the authors write.

Not only was the structure built by human hands during the Ice Age, its continued construction also spanned thousands of years of progress. The study’s authors detailed the pyramid was built in four distinct stages over thousands of years.

Officials found that the deepest part of the Gunung Padang lay 30 meters (nearly 100 feet) beneath its peak, and believe the form (which they refer to as Unit 4) most likely originated as a natural lava hill that was then “meticulously sculpted” into its present form.

The archaeological team working at Gunung Padang, Indonesia released their long awaited paper two weeks ago. The team of archaeologists, geologists & geophysicists, led by geologist Danny Hilman Natawidjaja at Indonesia's National Research & Innovation Agency, used a variety of… pic.twitter.com/rBa0PBcmPz

— Ancient Hypotheses (@AncientEpoch) November 3, 2023

After this initial form was constructed, the next area, referred to by the researchers as Unit 3, was built using columnar blocks and was “arranged like bricks in a building,” and was constructed some time between 6,000 and 5,500 BCE. The final piece, Unit 1, was built between 2,000 and 1,100 BCE.

The discovery also dramatically opposes the assumption that sophisticated building techniques were first developed alongside the emergence of agriculture, which occurred about 11,000 years ago.

"The builders of Unit 3 and Unit 2 at Gunung Padang must have possessed remarkable masonry capabilities, which do not align with the traditional hunter-gatherer cultures," write the team of researchers.

The team also found that the entire structure had been deliberately buried several times in order to “possibly conceal its true identity for preservation purposes,” perhaps explaining why it had been mistaken for a naturally occurring hill. The team also discovered “hidden cavities or chambers within the site,” one of which was estimated to be 10 meters high (32 feet), 10 meters long, and 15 meters wide (50 feet).

Danny Hilman, a geologist of Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency who led the study, is advocating for further excavations to include these chambers so researchers may discover their hidden secrets. The future studies may help researchers discover who built the pyramid and how, as the answer to that question currently remains unknown.

“Gunung Padang stands as a remarkable testament, potentially being the oldest pyramid in the world,” Hilman writes. “Further investigation and interdisciplinary research will uncover its hidden secrets and shed more light on the ancient civilizations that thrived in this enigmatic site.”