ADVANCE TYPE OF CEMENT FOUND IN THE GUNUNG PADANG MEGALITHIC SITE - FACT OR MYTH?
Nurcahyo Indro Basuki, Benyamin Sapiie

Geological Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung
Jalan Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia

Abstract

In its heyday, the Gunung Padang megalithic site in the Cianjur area, West Java, was believed to be among the most spectacular human-made structure. Some claimed the site was older than The Great Pyramid of Giza in the Egypt, and hence, the civilization of the ancient Indonesian society predated the ancient Egyptian civilization. Other interesting claim was that andesitic block materials (blocks of columnar joint) that were arranged to build the structure were glued to each other using advance type of cement. This type of cement contained relatively high iron-magnesium oxides and clay minerals, with some amounts of quartz. Hematite and magnetite were also reported to be present. The cement was applied between columnar joint blocks as different thin layered and was interpreted as evidence of engineering process done by ancient civilized society.
This study aims to re-study the so called cement materials, especially on the texture of their constituent materials using thin section petrography analysis, combined with geochemical XRD analysis. The objective is to determine the nature of the cement material and its most likely origin. The results may shed some lights on the origin or construction of Gunung Padang megalithic site, at least the upper parts of the site.

Keywords: Gunung Padang, cement, thin section, XRD analysis

Topic: Solid Earth Sciences