For those of you who like to see things that are historical in nature, usually like to come to museums. Looking at pictures, sketches, documents or whatever in the form of physical evidence of the past is very thrilling, because what will you imagine the past like? Entering a museum is as if entering a hallway of past time.
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| Close-up of the Dinasaurus Skeleton |
One of the museums that we recommend is the Bandung Geological Museum which is located on Jalan Diponegoro No. 57 near the Gasibu field and almost opposite Gedung Sate in Bandung.
So if you take a city tour to Gedung Sate, you might as well visit the Bandung Geological Museum, guaranteed to be very satisfied. Because the historical content it presents is truly extraordinary. You can find dinosaurs and their brothers there.
The Bandung Geological Museum is very old. It was founded on May 16, 1928. Yes, it is still the Dutch colonial era. The building has changed a lot since its establishment, because renovations have been done almost frequently. One of the renovations of the museum building was through a grant from JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).
The museum is an important means of recalling historical moments, therefore it is under the protection of the government and is a national heritage. In this museum, abundant geological materials are stored and managed, such as fossils, rocks, minerals. All of this was collected during fieldwork in Indonesia since 1850.
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| Dinasaurus Skeleton Bones |
The history of the Bandung geological museum dates back to the Dutch colonial era, the Geology Museum is closely related to the history of geological research and mining in the archipelago which began in the mid-17th century by European experts.
After Europe experienced an industrial revolution in the mid-18th century, Europe really needed mining materials as an industrial base material.
What is unique about the Bandung Geological Museum? The most interesting thing here is that there is a fairly large dinosourus skeleton.
The dinasaurus skeleton is just a reflection but it is made in great detail and almost resembles the original. If the skeleton were filled with flesh and life how scary it would be.
This museum also displays various types of rocks, human history such as the discovery of ancient humans in Trinil who came from Central Java. Various petrified animals and plants are all very interesting, especially for those who are in the field of problems.
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| Ancient Elephant Skeleton Model |
The Dutch government is aware of the importance of controlling minerals in the archipelago. Therefore this museum is considered very important to them. Here are many documents where the location of the mineral wealth of the archipelago.
Through mastery of the geology of the archipelago, they will get abundant resources to encourage industrial development in the Netherlands. So, in 1850, Dienst van het Mijnwezen was formed. This institution changed its name to Dienst van den Mijnbouw in 1922, which was tasked with conducting geological and mineral resource investigations.
Geological research in the archipelago which obtained important examples of rocks, minerals, fossils, reports and maps needed a place for analysis and storage, so in 1928 Dienst van den Mijnbouw built a building in Rembrandt Straat Bandung. The building was originally named Geologisch Laboratorium which was later also called Geologisch Museum.
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| Mammoth Skeleton Model |
The Geologisch Laboratory building was designed in the Art Deco style by the architect Ir. Menalda van Schouwenburg, and was built for 11 months with 300 workers and spent 400 guilders. Construction began in mid-1928 and was inaugurated on May 16, 1929.
The inauguration coincided with the implementation of the Fourth Pacific Science Congress which was held in Bandung on 18-24 May 1929.
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| Main Building of Bandung Geological Museum |
After Indonesia's independence in 1945, the management of the Geology Museum was under the Center for Mining and Geology Service (PDTG / 1945-1950). At that time, the Indonesian Army, Division III Siliwangi, established a Mining Section, which was drawn from PDTG.
Now the management of the Center for Mining and Geology (PDTG) has changed its name to: Djawatan Pertambangan Republik Indonesia (1950-1952), Djawatan Geologi (1952-1956), Djawatan Geology Center (1956-1957), Djawatan Geologi (1957-1963), Directorate of Geology (1963-1978), Center for Geological Research and Development (1978 - 2005), Center for Geological Survey (since the end of 2005 until now).
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| There are also many foreign visitors |
With this new arrangement, the Geology Museum display is divided into 3 rooms which include Life History, Indonesian Geology, and Geology and Human Life. As for the documentation collection, there is a more adequate collection storage facility. It is hoped that the management of sample collections at the Geology Museum will be more easily accessible to users, both researchers and industrial groups.
Since 2002 the Geology Museum, whose status is the Geology Museum Section, has been elevated to the UPT Geology Museum. To carry out its duties and functions properly, 2 sections and 1 Sub-section were formed, namely the Demonstration Section, the Documentation Section, and the Administration Sub-Section. In order to further optimize its role as an institution that promotes geology, the Geology Museum also holds activities including counseling, exhibitions, seminars and research survey activities for the development of collection demonstrations and documentation.
The first floor is divided into 3 main rooms: the orientation room in the middle, the West Wing Room and the East Wing Room. The Orientation Room contains a geographic map of Indonesia in the form of a wide-screen relief showing geological and museum activities in the form of animation, museum information service booths and education and research service booths.
Another room is the West Wing, known as the Indonesian Geological Room, which consists of several rooms that provide information about; hypothesis of the occurrence of the earth in the solar system; regional tectonic arrangements that shape Indonesia's geology; manifested in the form of a model of the active movement of the earth's crustal plates; the geological conditions of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Maluku and Nusa Tenggara as well as Irian Jaya and fossil fossils and human history according to Darwinian evolution are also present here.
The end of the west wing room is a volcanic space, which shows the condition of several active volcanoes in Indonesia such as: Tangkuban Perahu, Krakatau, Galunggung, Merapi and Batu. In addition to the information panels, this room is equipped with a mock-up of the Bromo-Kelut-Semeru Volcano complex. Several examples of volcanic rock are arranged in a glass cabinet.
East Wing Space The room depicting the history of growth and development of living things, from primitive to modern, inhabiting planet Earth is known as the history of life space.
The picture panels that adorn the walls of the room begin with information about the state of the earth which was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, when even the most primitive living things have not been found.
Several billion years later, when the earth has begun to calm down, the environment supports the development of several species of single-celled plants, whose existence is recorded in the form of fossils of large vertebrates that lived in the Middle to Late Mesozoic Period (210-65 million years ago) in the form of a fossil replica of Tyrannosaurus Rex Osborn (a type of wild flesh-eating lizard) which reaches 19 m in length, 6.5 m in height and 8 tons in weight.
Early life on earth, which began about 3 billion years ago, then developed and evolved until now. The traces of the evolution of mammals that lived in the Tertiary (6.5-1.7 million years ago) and Quaternary (1.7 million years ago to present) in Indonesia are well recorded through fossils of mammals (elephant, rhino, buffalo, horse). nil) and hominids found in the soil layers in several places, especially in Java.
Collection of ancient human skull fossils found in Indonesia (Homo erectus P. VIII) and several other places in the world are collected in the form of replicas. Likewise with the artifacts used, which characterize the development of ancient cultures from time to time. The stratigraphic sections of the Quaternary sediments of the Sangiran (Solo, Central Java), Trinil and Mojokerto (East Java) areas which are very meaningful in revealing the history and evolution of early humans are displayed in the form of panels and models.
The history of the formation of the legendary Bandung Lake is displayed in a panel at the end of the room. Snake and fish fossils found in the soil layer of the former Bandung Lake and artifacts are exhibited in their original form. Artifacts collected from several places on the outskirts of Lake Bandung show that around 6000 years ago the lake was once inhabited by prehistoric humans. Complete information about fossils and remains of past life is placed in a separate room in the Life History Room. The information conveyed includes the formation process of fossils, including coal and petroleum, in addition to ancient environmental conditions.
The second floor is divided into 3 main rooms: west room, living room and east room. West room (used by museum staff). Meanwhile, the middle room and the east room on the second floor which are used for demonstrations are known as geological spaces for human life. The Middle Room contains the largest gold mining model in the world, which is located in the Tengan Irian Jaya Mountains. The Gransberg open pit mine which has reserves of around 1.186 billion tonnes; with a copper content of 1.02%, gold 1.19 grams / tonne and silver 3 grams / tonne.
The combination of several open pit mines and active underground mines in the vicinity provides 2.5 billion tonnes of ore reserves. The former Ertsberg Mine (Mount Ore) southeast of Grasberg which was closed in 1988 is a geological and mining site that can be exploited and developed into interesting geotourism objects. Several examples of rocks from Irian Jaya (Papua) are arranged and displayed in a glass cabinet around the model. A miniature oil and gas drilling tower is also displayed here.
This is so diverse and the amount of content on display in the Bandung Geological Museum, hopefully it will be maintained so that it can be used as a source of geological knowledge, especially for the very rich nature of the archipelago.
The Indonesia Adventure Team Writter
Tag. : Geology, Early Humans, Museum, Tringil Man, Bandung Tourism, Bandung Geological Museum, Bandung