Sartono (1928–1995)

Sastrohamidjojo Sartono was one of the founders of modern geology and paleoanthropology in Indonesia. He was born in Madiun (East Java) on June 30, 1928, and died suddenly during a research visit to the Netherlands on October 25, 1995.

In the fall of 1956, Sartono received his BSc in mathematics and natural science from the University of Indonesia, and in the fall of 1958 he received his doctorate in science and geology from the Natural Science University in Bandung, Java. His dissertation was titled “The Stratigraphy and Sedimentation of the Most Eastern Part of Gunung Sewu (East Java).”

Sartono accepted the position of lecturer with the Department of Geology at the University of Indonesia at Bandung in the fall of 1956. Then, in the fall of 1959, he became professor of geology when the University of Indonesia at Bandung became the newly formed Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB). He remained professor of geology and paleoanthropology at ITB until his death.

Sartono devoted his life to the study of the Sangiran site, as well as other sites in Java and other Indonesian islands. He had received training in paleoanthropology from G. H. R. von Koenigswald and many other scientists from Europe and Japan, and he continued the practice, begun by von Koenigswald, of training local farmers to identify faunal remains. Nearly all of the hominid remains found in Indonesia were discovered by local farmers working the fields, and by working with them, Sartono recovered nearly all of the fossil hominids known in Java. Without his work, the fossil record from Indonesia would be very small. Sartono received numerous awards and recognitions for his research and published numerous articles in scientific journals.