SelenkaExpedition

There was great controversy over what Dubois said that he found. First did the very archaic skullcap belong to the modern femur although they were 'found fifty feet apart'? Second what was Pithecanthropus? The Wadjak skulls would have helped but Dubois was 'hiding' them. Third there was the problem of how to 'fit' Pith into 'human evolution.' Professor Emil Selenka felt the solution to the problem is exploration instead of 'discussion.' He died in the process of organizing the expedition, and his wife succesfully completed what her husband started to organize. It became known as the Selenka-Trinil Expedition of 1907-08. Frau Selenka was a professor and academician. She had Professor Max Blanckenhorn of Berlin as associate. She received some sponsorships from universities, but mostly footed the bill herself. Seventeen other specialists were involved in the study of the seventeen crates of fossils returned to Germany. A scientific report of 342 pages was produced by Selenka and Blanckenhorn, published in 1911 titled "Die Pithecanthropus-Schichen auf Java."

Sir Arthur Keith published a review of the report in "Nature." Despite the excellent scientific work produced in the actual report, few ever heard of it, it suffered the fate of being condemned to oblivion because it produced evidence contrary to evolution.   Keith said that the manner in which Frau Selenka organized and executed the expedition, and published the results, "commands our unstinted praise."
Although the purpose of the expedition was to confirm Dubois's findings, its findings contradicted his claims. The seventeen specialists who contributed to the expedition's report were actually on the scene of the excavations in Java. Extensive mining and digging operations commenced, with 10,000 cubic meters of material were removed to reach the fossil bearing layer of the Trinil formation, under 35 feet of volcanic sediment.   No "Pithecanthropus' was found. However what was found was significant. Three of the specialists, Dr. E. Carthaus, Frau H. Martin-Icke, and Dr. J. Schuster, concluded Dubois way overestimated the age of the stratum. Paleontologist Martin-Icke reported 87 percent of the gastropods found in it were of modern forms.   Botanist Schuster proclaimed the flora was similar to today's. This indicates a recent age for Pith eliminating him as a missing link.    In the same stratum, Dr. Carthaus discovered splinters of bones and tusks, foundation of hearths, wood charcoal. He surmised that this stratum was recent, modern humans and Pith(if legitimate) lived at the same time.
A more striking discovery by Dr. Walkhoff, an anthropologist, discovered a crown of a human molar in a dry tributary bed of the Solo River about two miles from Dubois's discovery. Walkhoff declared the molar to be even greater age than that assigned to Pith because the dentine within the enamel had been replaced by a fossilized organic matrix, and the tooth became known as the "Sonde fossil."

All the members of the expedition were evolutionists. Frau Selenka, however, more scientific than evolutionist, concluded that modern humans and Pith lived at the same time and that Pith played no part in human evolution.   This same conclusion would have been reached had Dubois not been hiding Wadjak Man beneath the floorboards of his home. More remarkable, additionally, is the fact that due to the violent eruption of Mount Lawu-Kukusan and subsequent flooding, the Solo River may have changed course in the thirteenth or fourteenth century leaving the Trinil beds only about 500 years old.
The summary chapter by Dr. Max Blanckenhorn was an apology to the readers because he felt the expedition to have been "fruitless" since it failed to substanitiate Dubois. In fact it was quite successful showing that humans have wide morphological variation, something anthropologists are now beginning to appreciate. It is interesting to see how evolutionists have handled the Selenka Report. All newer works on paleoanthropology ignore the Selenka Report save one.   About half the books written between 1945 and 1975 mention the expedition in a way that is impossible for an English researcher to understand what the Selenka Report acutally said.    It is usually mentioned for its excellent description of fossil fauna of the Trinil deposits.   All evolutionists works referring to the geological findings misrepresent the findings that the Trinil beds appear to be recent pleistocene deposits(Upper Pleistocene). Some even claim the expedition supported Dubois, others state the expedition reduced the age of the bed to lower or middle Pleistocene from Dubois Pliocene.

The man who ought to have given us a full account of the Selenka Expedition was G. H. R. von Koenigswald. He spoke the German language, had access to the Selenka Report, and was a noted paleoanthropologist working for many years in Java.    However disappointing it was, he did provide us with some vital information as follows: "The spot at which the Selenka Expedition pitched its camp is still easy to find. It is strewn with innumerable broken beer bottles, testifying to the expedition's thirst."

Sing along with me! "In Heaven Der Ist Kein Bier!!" At least they were having fun. I wonder if the Frau was a babe.

The Selenka Expedition succeeded in revealing the true nature of the human fossil record, humans have wide morphological diverstiy, and Java Guy was not our ancestor.   The conclusions that Homo erectus was not our evolutionary ancestor but was a contemporary of modern humans.   The evidence for this has existed for over a hundred years. Dubois had three warnings of it: One, the Trinil femur and skullcap evidenced wide morphological diversity in a single contemporaneous population. Two, Wadjak and Pith demonstrated that humans with wide morphological diversity had lived together(Dubois didn't want that to get out! He hid Wadjak for thirty years). Three, the Selenka Expedition confirmed humans with wide morphological diversity lived together in recent times.

And just what did Dubois do about the findings of this expedition? He said the findings were "fraudulent"

One more thing the expedition succeeded was in showing the Frau was one really coool chick.