| Abstract: |
The skull of Ngawi 1 was discovered, out of stratigraphical context, in August 1987 on the left bank of the Solor river near Selopuro village in Ngawi, East Java, Indonesia. According to S. Sartono (1991), it could have come from the fluviatile deposits of one of the Pitu terraces, 5 km west of Ngawi. These terraces are estimated to have the same age as the Ngandong terraces. The general cranial morphology of Ngawi 1, and characters such as the receding frontal squama, the shape of the supra-orbital torus, the post-orbital constriction, the sagittal keeling, the position of the maximum cranial breadth, and the angular torus on the parietal, allow the integration of Ngawi 1 within the Homo erectus fossil group. Compared to the Trinil and Sangiran fossils, the Ngwai specimen has a more elevated and shorter skull, a more accentuated cranial curvature, and a smaller post-orbital contriction. These characters allow us to associate Ngawi 1 with the Ngandong and Sambungmacan group.
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