September 28, 2025 | 07:07 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Netherlands announced on Friday that it will give back a collection of thousands of fossils to Indonesia.
The collection is made up of over 28,000 fossils, including some of the so-called "Java Man" bones. These are the first known fossils of Homo erectus, an ancestor to the Homo sapiens species.
"At Indonesia's request, the Netherlands is transferring more than 28,000 fossils from the Dubois collection," the Dutch government said.
The soon-to-be-retrieved fossils are known as the Dubois Collection, named after the Dutch anthropologist Eugene Dubois. Dubois extracted the fossils from Indonesia in 1891, time during which the country was a Dutch colony.
The "Java Man" part of the collection is considered to include the first fossils to ever show links between apes and humans. It often receives that name because its discovery was made on the Indonesian island of Java.
"This collection is an important resource in research into human evolution," the Dutch government said.
Fossils ‘of Spiritual and Economic Importance’ to Indonesia
Friday's announcement comes after the Dutch Independent Colonial Collections Committee found that "the circumstances under which the fossils were obtained" and came to the conclusion that "it is likely they were removed against the will of the people, resulting in an act of injustice against them."
it recommended that the fossils be repatriated to Indonesia.
"Fossils were of spiritual and economic significance to the local population," said the Dutch Culture Ministry.
This is not the first case involving Indonesia, which already received more than 200 returned items from the Netherlands two years ago.
Indonesia became independent from the Netherlands in August 1945. The Netherlands had occupied the Southeast Asian archipelago for three centuries and did not accept the independence of the territory after four years later, in 1949.
Netherlands Reckons With Colonial Collections
This is the sixth time the Netherlands has returned items based on the recommendations of the Dutch Independent Colonial Collections Committee.
The Dubois collection is the latest example, however, the Netherlands have also been gradually returning other pieces once obtained from former colonies.
Earlier this year, for example, the Dutch government returned 113 of the ancient Benin Bronzes collection to Nigeria.
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