PATI 2025: Exploring the Cultural Horizons of Sangiran's Past

• By Admin
• Rabu, 20 Agustus 2025

Sragen, August 20, 2025 – The 2025 Indonesian Archaeological Research (PATI) project, which took place at the Manyarejo Site in Sangiran, officially ended on August 20, 2025. The activity, which was attended by students from six universities in Indonesia, included excavation, conservation, and laboratory analysis, with support from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and sponsorship from the Arsari Djojohadikusumo Foundation (YAD).

During the activities from August 6 to 19, the excavation team opened four new trenches with varying depths: trench 1 reached 230 cm, trench 2 reached 170 cm, trench 3 reached 200 cm, and trench 4 reached 180 cm from the string level. Additionally, one excavation trench from 2024 was deepened to 152 cm from a secondary datum point. The excavation was aided by modern equipment such as theodolites for precise mapping and drones for photogrammetry. The main findings included elephant teeth and fragments of prehistoric animal femurs, enriching data on the prehistoric fauna of Sangiran.

Meanwhile, the conservation team carried out activities in trenches MYR/A/1/2023, MYR/B/3/2023, exposures A, B, C, and five Mpu Balung houses. This conservation effort emphasized environmentally friendly methods using organic materials. The techniques used included lime for wet cleaning of fossils, essential oil nanoemulsion to prevent the growth of microorganisms on fossils, and the use of anchors and gelatin to join broken fossils. All conservation team activities were supervised by museum conservators, from fossil intervention, evaluation of fossils conserved at PATI 2023 and PATI 2024, to classification of the Mpu Balung's findings.

On August 14, 2025, coinciding with Scout Day, PATI 2025 also enlivened the Prehistory Festival: Sragen the Land of Java Man at the Sangiran Open Site Museum area. This event invited junior high school students to learn more about prehistoric cultural heritage. Some of the conservation team served as guides, accompanying the students to see the excavation process firsthand. They even had the opportunity to go down into the excavation pit to try their hand at digging like young archaeologists.

The daily routine for PATI participants begins at 8:00 a.m. at the work site, followed by a lunch break from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., and then work resumes until 4:00 p.m. In the evening, all participants gather at Limasan at 7:00 p.m. for dinner and a presentation of the day's activities, making PATI a forum for collective learning and a space for sharing experiences across campuses.

The closing ceremony on the evening of August 20, 2025  was marked by a joint prayer and recitation of Surah Yasin to commemorate Dr. Agus Tri Hascaryo, S.T., S.S., M.Sc., a PATI expert who passed away on August 19 while on duty. This loss left deep sorrow for all participants, while also serving as a tribute to his dedication to the development of Indonesian archaeology.

PATI 2025 reaffirmed its role as a space for academic collaboration, research, and preservation, with the hope of fostering enthusiasm among the younger generation to continue preserving the nation's cultural heritage.