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US lab validates Cianjur ‘ancient structure’ theory

A recent analysis of carbon-dating by the Miami-based Beta Analytic Lab has apparently validated findings by a government-sanctioned team that a man-made structure, buried under Mount Padang in Cianjur, West Java, is older than the Giza pyramid

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Mon, November 5, 2012

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US lab validates Cianjur ‘ancient structure’ theory

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recent analysis of carbon-dating by the Miami-based Beta Analytic Lab has apparently validated findings by a government-sanctioned team that a man-made structure, buried under Mount Padang in Cianjur, West Java, is older than the Giza pyramid.

Carbon-dating test results from the Miami lab show that the structure could date back to 14,000 BC or beyond.

The lab used samples of sand, soil and charcoal found at a depth of between three and 12 meters beneath the mountain’s surface.

The Giza pyramids were constructed around 2,500 BC.

“The analysis of the Miami lab dismisses doubts over an earlier test conducted by the National Nuclear Agency [Batan]. There is no more doubt that the structure beneath Mount Padang is older than the Giza pyramid,” geologist and member of the Mount Padang research team Budianto Ontowirjo said on Sunday.

A group of researchers, coordinated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s special advisor on disaster mitigation and social assistance Andi Arief, commissioned a study about the ancient “structure” “buried” under Mount Padang at the beginning of this year.

Andi reportedly believes Indonesia was inhabited by people with sophisticated technology after he found much evidence beneath the land and sea around Sumatra, Java and Bali. Yudhoyono has given his support to the project.

In February, the group published its findings, claiming that the structure might change the history of the nation as we know it. Indonesia’s history might well start before 4 AD.

“If the structure beneath the mountain is naturally constructed, then the age revealed by carbon-dating process should have been much greater,” Budianto said.

Any natural material buried between three and 12 meters under the surface should have been millions of years in age, Budianto said.

The fact that the material beneath Mount Padang is relatively young indicates that it probably is man-made.

Besides the result of the carbon-dating, Budianto and his colleagues also claim that they had found other concrete evidence to show that pre-historic men might have erected structure in the mountain.

“We found motives in the forms of tiger’s claws or a kujang [dagger], which are engraved on the stones there. We suspect they are letters to mark the stones,” he said.

Earlier this year, the preliminary finding was met with criticism and objections by a larger group of geologists and archeologists. Activists have also called the project a waste of the state’s budget as it has spent billions of rupiahs. Environmentalists, meanwhile, have expressed concern that the research could damage the ecosystem around Mount Padang.

Meanwhile, archeologist Ali Akbar of the University of Indonesia said that it was premature to conclude that the Mount Padang structure was man-made.

Ali said that before drawing such conclusion, the team would need to start a massive excavation project to unearth the whole structure beneath the mountain.

Early indications show however, that the structure was probably man-made.

“Found at the site were blocks of stones which are neatly placed three meters beneath the ground. I suppose they were not naturally placed there,” Ali said. (riz)

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