Scientists discover ‘world’s oldest’ pyramid: New carbon dating shows Gunung Padang in Indonesia was built 10,000 years ago – making it THREE TIMES OLDER than Stonehenge and Egyptian pyramids

Archaeologists have discovered that the Indonesian pyramid, a 98-foot-deep megalith submerged inside a hill of lava rock, ranks as the oldest pyramid in the world.

Gunung Padang, which was first rediscovered by Dutch explorers in 1890, may actually also be the oldest known man-made structure of its size, at least, according to the latest radiocarbon dating of the ancient site.

Tests determine the early construction of the pyramid, with its hundreds of steps carved from andesite lava, dating back more than 16 thousand years, during the last ice age.

This means that Gunung Padang is likely to be more than 10,000 years old and not only All the great monuments and pyramids of Giza in Egypt, but also the legendary Stonehenge in England.

As with recent evidence suggesting that the Egyptian Sphinx was built with clever use of wind erosion, the hunter-gatherers who built Gunung Padang made the architectural virtue of working with, not against, their local conditions.

The researchers found that the first and deepest layer of the Indonesian pyramid was carved from the site’s natural wealth of cooled lava flows.

Tests identify the early construction of the pyramid, with its hundreds of steps carved from andesite lava, dating back to more than 16,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age.

It may prove that “Gunung Padang” is thousands of years older than the “megalith” discovered in Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, and is the last of the early candidates for “oldest in the world.”

The structure promises to upend conventional wisdom about how “primitive” hunter-gatherer societies actually were, revealing “the true engineering capabilities of ancient civilisations”, scientists said.

Scientists have spent more than a century debating whether the underground structure known as Gunung Padang (which means “Mountain of Enlightenment” in the local language) truly constitutes a man-made pyramid, and not just a natural geological formation.

But between 2011 and 2015, geologist Danny Hillman Natawijaga, of Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency, led a crew of archaeologists, geophysicists and geologists to literally get to the bottom of this ancient mystery.

Using ground-penetrating radars to capture subsurface images, core drilling and “trenching” techniques, Natawedja and his fellow researchers were able to delve into the first layers of Gunung Padang – which lies more than 9 stories (98 feet, or 30 metres) high. Under its surface.

“This study strongly suggests that Gunung Padang is not a natural mound,” the archaeologists wrote last month in the journal. Archaeological excavation“But it’s a pyramid-like structure,” she said, after years of analyzing data from those past flights.

At the heart of the pyramid, the team found what they described as “finely carved” and “massive” lava stone structures made of andesite: a type of fine-grained igneous rock.

This inner chamber, called Unit 4, “likely arose as a natural lava mound, before being carved out and then architecturally encased during the last glacial period,” sometime between 16,000 and 27,000 years ago, they wrote.

Scientists have spent more than a century debating whether Gunung Padang truly represents a man-made pyramid, rather than just a natural geological formation. But after analyzing years of field data, scientists have literally reached the bottom of this ancient mystery, nine stories underground

Using ground-penetrating radars to take subsurface images, core drilling and “trenching” techniques, Natawedja and his fellow researchers were able to delve into the first layers of Gunung Padang, which lies more than 98 feet, or 30 meters, below its surface.

Read more: Scientists have discovered a 30-foot-long hidden passage in the Great Pyramid of Giza

Scientists discovered the passage using a technique called cosmic ray muon radiography, which was developed by experts at Nagoya University in Japan. Researchers then Images of the secret passage were retrieved by feeding a 6 mm endoscopic camera through a small joint in the stones of the pyramid.

Scientists describe the past 11,500 years or so of human existence (and counting), as an “interglacial period” between ice ages known as Holocene.

The radiocarbon dating technique used by Natawidjaya and his group to determine the age of Unit 4 relies on a common radioactive isotope of carbon atoms found around the world to measure the age of preserved “carbon-based” ancient life.

Because of the rate of radioactive decay of this isotope, carbon-14, scientists can accurately measure the age of dead organic matter from 60,000 years ago.

To ensure the radiocarbon dating was accurate, Natawijaga’s team went to great lengths to select appropriate organic soil samples from drill cores and trench walls, samples that were not contaminated with new roots from modern plants.

Researchers now believe that Gunung Padang was built over thousands of years, in “complex and sophisticated stages”.

After the fourth unit during the Ice Age, According to the team’s new study, “the Gunung Padang area was abandoned by the first builders for thousands of years.”

At about 7900-6100 BC, the next phase, Unit 3, appears to have been “deliberately buried with large earth fills”.

The next layer of stone columns, steps and terraces, Unit 1 Between 6000 and 5500 BC, with the final layer, Unit I, smaller than some of Egypt’s pyramids, completed between 2000 and 1100 BC.

Several thousand years later, the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture recognized all this ancient hard work, declaring that Gunung Padang A heritage site of local importance in 1998.

“The builders of Unit 3 and Unit 2 at Gunung Padang must have had remarkable building abilities, which were not compatible with traditional hunter-gatherer cultures,” according to Natawidjaja and colleagues.

“Given the long and continuous occupation of Gunung Padang, it is reasonable to speculate that this site was of great importance, attracting ancient people to repeatedly occupy and modify it.”

Test answer | D: Peru, where the city of Lima alone has more than 400 ancient pyramids. (Sudan has approximately 255 pyramids, Egypt has approximately 118, and Mexico has approximately 300 known ancient pyramids, including the largest pyramid in the world, the Great Pyramid of Cholula, hidden inside a mountain.) Sources: National Geographic; NPR.

Mexico

which is actually hidden inside the mountain.