Hunt History

Human ancestors on Java encountered large bovids. Cut‑marked bovid bones from the Pucangan Formation suggest Homo erectus butchered large bovids between 1.6 and 1.5 Ma, and a bone bed at Ngandong contains remains of deer and large bovid ancestors of water‑buffalo and banteng. Although B. palaeokerabau appears later in the Pleistocene, these sites show that hominins were already exploiting large buffalo; later Homo sapiens likely hunted and eventually extirpated the long‑horned species.
1. Cisaat and Pucangan formations (Java) – fossils of B. palaeokerabau indicate a giant water‑buffalo endemic to Java during the Late Pleistocene.
2. Sangiran (Java) – cut‑marks on large bovid bones dating to 1.6–1.5 Ma show that Homo erectus butchered buffalo‑sized animals.
3. Ngandong bone bed (Java) – a rich deposit of deer and large bovid remains, including ancestors of water‑buffalo, suggests that archaic humans scavenged or hunted these animals.