A Long Way to World Heritage

The Pacific War has finished. On August 17th 1945, the Dutch East Indies proclaimed the independence with a new name: Indonesia. The life of the nation was rising. The exploring of Sangiran prehistoric life was gradually continued. Teuku Jacob, Sartono, dan Soejono were the students of von Koenigswald who continued research in Sangiran. Fossils were continuously founded through their research. The quality and quantity of vertebrate and hominin fossils were constantly lifted from the prehistoric layer of Sangiran. This prosperity had brought Sangiran into one of the prominent hominid sites in the world. Realizing this supreme potential, the Indonesian Government submitted a nomination proposal for Sangiran Site as a World Heritage to UNESCO in 1995. The implementation toward the world admittance passed various tests and valuations from ICOMOS in 1996. The result of such visit contributed recommendation to the World Heritage Committee to admit Sangiran as the World Cultural Heritage. The outstanding valueis that Sangiran as a key site for understanding human evolution through the findings of human fossils and palaeolithic tools. Sangiran also contributes data of life from the Lower Pleistocene remained in the earth layers. On December 5th, 1996 in Merida (Mexico), Sangiran is inscribed as the World Cultural Heritage by the World Heritage Committee numbered C593. Since then, Sangiran does not only belong to Indonesian, but also to the world.