THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Dutch government has agreed to return thousands of fossils to Indonesia from a world-renowned collection, after a commission ruled that they were removed in the colonial era “against the will of the people,” the education ministry announced Friday.
The historically significant trove known as the Dubois Collection includes a piece of skull uncovered from the Solo River on the island of Java that is regarded as the first fossil evidence of Homo erectus, which is generally considered to be an ancestor of our species, Homo sapiens. The fossils are often referred to as “Java Man.”
The decision to return more than 28,000 fossils to Indonesia is the latest act of restitution by the Dutch government of art and artifacts taken — often by force — from countries around the world in colonial times.
The fossils were excavated in the late 19th century by Dutch anatomist and geologist Eugène Dubois, when present day Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands.
After extensive research, the Dutch Colonial Collections Committee concluded that “the circumstances under which the fossils were obtained means it is likely they were removed against the will of the people, resulting in an act of injustice against them.” Fossils held spiritual and economic value for local people, who were coerced into revealing fossil sites.
Minister of Education, Culture and Science Gouke Moes sealed the agreement Friday with his Indonesian counterpart Fadli Zon at the Naturalis museum in Leiden where the collection is currently housed.
“The committee’s advice is based on extensive and thorough research,” Moes said in a statement. “We will apply the same level of thoroughness in working with Naturalis and our Indonesian partners to ensure the transfer proceeds smoothly. Indonesia and the Netherlands believe it is important for the collection to remain a source of scientific research.”
Homo erectus arose in Africa about 2 million years ago and spread widely there and in Asia, and possibly into Europe. It reached Java more than 1.5 million years ago, and dating techniques suggest it died out at least 35,000 years before the arrival there of our own species, Homo sapiens.
Some Western nations are returning looted artifacts and other objects as part of a reckoning with their often brutal colonial histories. Earlier this month, Madagascar received three skulls of Indigenous warriors returned from France, including one believed to be of a king killed by French troops 128 years ago. The repatriation marked the first use of a 2023 French law regulating the return of human remains to its former colonies.
In recent years, a Berlin museum announced that it was ready to return hundreds of human skulls from the former German colony of East Africa and France said it was returning statues, royal thrones and sacred altars taken from the West African nation of Benin. Belgium has returned a gold-capped tooth belonging to the slain Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba.
