Gunung Padang Uncovered: The Saga Continues
In this episode of Digging Up Ancient Aliens, the host, Fredrik, revisits Gunung Padang, a site in Indonesia that has become known due to a study and a pseudo-documentary on Netflix.
We compare Ancient Aliens narratives and Graham Hancock's Atlantis Hyperdiffusion Theory. The then-sitting government initiated the excavation project at Gunung Padang in 2011 as part of a strategy to redefine nationalistic ideas and create a new national monument founded on an imagined advanced civilization.
Now, both Ancient Aliens, Graham Hancock, and other Atlantis believers claim that the site reveals a 300-foot-tall step pyramid dating back at least 10,000 years. We will spend this episode looking at the hard evidence, the funding, and the reality of the claims, both from Ancient Aliens, Graham Hancock, Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, and others.
It will be an information-packed episode where we will discover how pseudoscience actively defunds vulcano monitoring programs. How Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis has been disproven and how to not do your C14 dating. We also spent time among the Toraja people in Indonesia and learned about their culture. And what on Earth does Megan Fox have to do with any of this?
In this episode:
Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis - busted! 20:00
Sources, resources and further reading suggestions
Hi, hello, and välkommen to Digging Up Ancient Aliens. This is the podcast where we examine strange claims about alternative history and ancient aliens in popular media. Do their claims hold water to an archeologist, or are there better explanations out there?
We are now on episode 54, and I am Fredrik, your guide into the world of pseudo-archaeology. This time, we return to Gunung Padang, a site that we visited some time before but have not revisited since the infamous paper was released in late 2023. A few months have passed, and maybe it's time to review the subject. Since we're still doing the Ancient Alien Top Ten Pyramids, we also have the opportunity to compare the Ancient Alien Theory with the Atlantis Hyperdiffusion Theory. It's not often we have the chance to compare two alternative history narratives side by side like this. Also, what does Megan Fox have to do with any of this? While you sit on the edge of your seat, it might be time to start.
Do you want to learn more about the topics I talk about and where I get everything from? Well, check out the episode page to learn more about the sources used. You find that on diggingupancientaliens.com
A megalithic thank you to all the patrons and members, like Phillip, who support this show. The Patreon bonus episode should have dropped by now, focusing on "Chariots of the Gods" by Van Däniken. If you want to learn how to support the show, I'll tell you all about that later.
Now that we have finished our preparations, let's dig into the episode.
Gunung Padang
Welcome to Indonesia and a site we have visited before, Gunung Padang. It is a site that has recently become known due to a study and a pseudo-documentary on Netflix. Of course, I talk about Ancient Apocalypse. We investigated a series in four episodes; if you have missed them, they are episodes 30 to 33. So, this allows us to compare the narratives between Ancient Aliens and Graham Hancock. While Hancock has been in the past a frequent guest on Ancient Aliens, he has since focused on promoting his white culture bearers from Atlantis and promoting a more esoteric version of alien intervention. Graham isn't ruling out alien communication; it's just in a more spiritual connection.
Let's see how Ancient Aliens set the tone for Gunung Padang.
"Western Java, Indonesia. 2013. The Indonesian government sponsors an excavation to explore what might be hidden beneath the layers of dirt and rubble at a site known as Gunung Padang, or "Mountain of Light." They uncover incredible evidence revealing a 300-foot-tall step pyramid dating back at least 10,000 years."
They base most of the segment on what Graham Hancock wrote in the 2015 book "Magicians of the Gods." How I came to know this is due to the use of the translation Mountain of Light. So far, I've only seen Hancock translating the hill's name this way. In the book and in Ancient Apocalypse, Graham claims that "Gunung Padang, the name it still goes by today, often mistranslated as "Mountain Field" by those unaware that the language of this area is not Indonesian but Sundanese—in which Gunung Padang means "Mountain of Light," or "Mountain of Enlightenment."" The issue with this statement is that it's simply not true. While enlightenment can be a bit more complex to translate as it carries a deep philosophical or spiritual connotation. A close translation might be "pencerahan," which conveys the sense of illumination or enlightenment in an intellectual or spiritual sense. As for light, we get "cahayaan," and I don't find any synonyms that are even similar to Padang. The closest meaning I can see is field. This is corroborated by a Sundanese translator and available dictionaries. While it's a petty thing to linger on, this is not really a home run for either Ancient Aliens or Graham Hancock.
Follow the money
While Hancock does not bring up the fact that a nationalistic government sponsored this excavation in his pseudo-documentary, it's interesting that Ancient Aliens did. Back in 2019, the Ancient Alien show claimed the excavations started in 2011, which is closer to the truth than other narratives. However, Graham Hancock discusses how the excavation was funded and approved in the book "Magicians of the Gods." But the narrative there is also slightly off compared to the actual timeline. The excavation project started in 2011, initiated by the then-sitting government. The investigating group was called The Integrated and Independent Research Team, or TTRM, and was led by Andi Arief, Special Staff to the President. This is a sort of advisory position within the Indonesian government and is supposed to give targeted and specific advice on different issues.
So, from the start, this project started on the orders of the current government. As Sulistyowati and Foe point out in a paper, this was part of a strategy to redefine nationalistic ideas and create a new national monument founded on a previously advanced civilization. We saw a similar concept in Bosnia, for example. On top of having government involvement from the start, it might be good to mention that they also had Ali Akbar, Deputy Chair of the National Team for Archaeology. All of this makes Hancock's claim in the book that this project was in danger of being suppressed.
"When I ask what he means by obstacles he replies that some senior Indonesian archaeologists are lobbying the government in Jakarta to prevent him from doing any further work at Gunung Padang on the grounds that they "know" the site is less than three thousand years old and see no justification for disturbing it."
The protest was, of course, voiced from the start since the project, from its conception, was not based on a scientific idea. It was based on proving a pseudoscientific claim that the site was part of an ancient super-civilization. Some within the Indonesian government did question this excavation back in early 2013, as pointed out by Prasdi: "/.../ three departments: the Department of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education, and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, which state that there are no indications of any structures within Mount Padang, were met with accusations that these three ministries manipulated research reports on the Mount Padang site."
So we have three independent reports from three government bodies, in combination with archeologists, geologists, and vulcanologists, explaining that what we see at Gungung Padang isn't extraordinary. Associate professor of Geology Callan Bentley has a great article that simply explains how columns are formed by cooling fronts. That the columns make astonishing patterns that some might interpret as human-made isn't strange. I mean, go out in archaeological field school excavations with students who have never excavated. You will hear "I found something" every second a nice rock is found. I've been there, and when you look for patterns, your brain will help you connect things, even if they are not there. But the columnar joints found in the position they are on top of an old volcano are not really strange or surprising.
But after Andi Arief dismissed the reports from the ministries, he confirmed the excavations would continue and be expanded in 2013. The early part of the project and excavations are documented by Ali Akbar in a book published in 2013 and an unpublished article from Danny Natawidjaja in 2014. The later report also included images from the excavation that confirm that the project was excavating at this stage and was of a pretty decent size. The funding at this stage has not really been disclosed so far. However, since the project was part of a government task force, I can assume it was not insignificant with the workforce and equipment we see.
Then, in 2014, the project was granted a blank check. This was on order from the President, a decision Hancock in "Magicians of the Gods" paints as something positive. I guess he left his "follow the money journalism" days back in the 1980s. The book claims that the excavation started in 2014, which is wrong, as we have seen. It's not great when you are out journalisted by an archaeologist. At the start of the second part of the project, Natawidjaja and the TTRM received some 250,000 dollars, and it's unclear how much they received in total. Of course, this came at a cost to other real archaeological sites and even geological surveys and monitoring of volcanoes in Indonesia. When the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center (PVMBG) is underfunded while a group digging up an old vulcano looking for Atlantis has unlimited funds, something has gone horribly wrong.
Gunung Padang Paper
While on the subject, I assume we have to talk a little about the recently published paper about the site. "Geo-archaeological prospecting of Gunung Padang buried prehistoric pyramid in West Java, Indonesia," was published in October 2023 and received much unfortunate media attention. Some good news regarding the paper is that the journal has started investigating it. Unfortunately, it's a tad late. The data within, however, might be even more disappointing because it's the same data and conclusion I debunked last spring. It's the same data that Rebecka Bradley could disprove in 2017 and the exact C14 dates Carl Faegan questioned in August of the previous year.
Natawidjaja had put these samples on a poster for a conference back in 2017. That seven years of excavations and research with unlimited funds only resulted in 13 C14 samples, many of which came from core samples, is strange. Even worse is that all samples are from unknown organic material. No material culture at the site supports these old dates, but it hasn't stopped the team from randomly dating cultural layers. When using C14 to date something, we need to know what it was and what it was a part of. When employing carbon-14 (C14) dating, it's crucial to understand not just what we're dating but also its historical context. This is especially true for organic materials, which can naturally relocate without human involvement. Simply determining the age of an object tells us only when it ceased being part of a living entity. For instance, uncovering wooden planks in an archaeological dig within a town might suggest remnants of a building's flooring or a nearby pathway. However, finding a stray piece of wood or charcoal in a test pit in an open field doesn't necessarily indicate human activity. Such samples could originate from natural events like forest fires or fragments of fallen branches. Understanding the context is critical in distinguishing between artifacts of human life and mere natural occurrences.
So, this paper fails to support the author's conclusion that this is a 20,000-year-old pyramid. Reading the paper, it becomes evident that they are not using the scientific process. They started the whole project with the conclusion that Gunung Padang is an ancient pyramid built over 10,000 years ago. Again, this is something you'll notice if reading Natawidjaja's 2013 book "Plato Never Lied: Atlantis Is In Indonesia" or Ali Akbar's books. All predate the "official" excavation and were written during the TTRM project's early stages. The team is not looking at the site from a neutral perspective but trying to find evidence for their conclusion no matter what. For example, a ½ Cent from the Netherlands East Indies, minted somewhere between 1914 and 1949, became a 5,200-year-old amulet. How they came to this conclusion is unclear, especially since it was found in a layer they claim was dated to 10,000 BCE.
So, while media, Natawidjaja, Graham Hancock, and others have celebrated this paper as evidence of a lost Atlantean civilization. They do this solely based on confirmation bias. As we see, this has not been a scientific endeavor. And the carbon 14 dates are, as Carl Faegan and Rebecka Bradley point out, things we would expect dating an organic sequence in a volcano. As I discussed in episode 31, the mountain is not challenging for a vulcanologist or geologist with similar expertise to explain. Natawidjaja, Akbar, and Hancock have yet to explain how the site can't be a volcano.
After the break, we will look at the Younger Dryas Hypothesis. Does it hold up to scientific scrutiny, or is it just wishful thinking from its proponents?
Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis - busted!
When we compare the narratives between the Atlantean and alien camps, things get even more mesmerizing. We have a weird situation where they twist the narrative slightly from the other pseudo-historians. While we are used to this as something done to scientists, we haven't seen them do this to themself in the past.
"According to geologists, 20,000 years ago, this area of Java was not an isolated island, but the southernmost part of a subcontinent known as Sundaland. This has led some researchers to speculate that Gunung Padang, with its high elevation, could have been at the pinnacle of a civilization that disappeared sometime around 10,000 BC, when melting ice caps flooded the region and turned it into the series of islands it is today. But if true, just who was this mysterious culture capable of building a 300-foot-tall pyramid?"
Most of this resembles the narrative we heard in places like the Ancient Apocalypse. Large parts of this section build on a previous episode from the season 13. The flood myths are not as driving in the ancient Astronaut idea compared to the Atlantean Hyperdiffusion Theory, they are still a component in the larger Ancient Alien mythology. But then it's not due to a natural disaster or act of nature but a deliberate plan from the alien overlords to cull the human population. In 2019, they had Megan Fox (yes that Megan Fox), who discussed the connection between aliens and the Younger Dryas Impact speculation. Then we also have Praveen Mohan, an Ancient Alien proponent, who will speak at the cosmic summit. I think we can start to expect that there will be a closer connection between the AHT and AA narratives going forward.
As for the Younger Dryas Impact hypothesis, as it's often known among its proponents, this idea has been reasonably disproved. For a deeper understanding of this, I'd recommend going through the paper "Comprehensive refutation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis." It's written by Vance Holliday and others, including Mark Boslough, who is a frequent poster in the "Fraudulent Archaeology Wall of Shame" group on Facebook. I'll give you a short version of why the YDI hoax is problematic.
Firstly, it seems like some people are attempting to find solutions to problems that may not require any solutions at all. The fact that a cooling period coincides with the conclusion of an archaeological era does not necessarily imply a connection between the two. There could be other causes for the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT) and the end of Clovis that are not related to a natural global disaster.
Secondly, we see flawed evidence supporting their idea. Dates for suggested YDIH sites lack proper dating, and those who have dated have been criticized for methods prone to errors. Also, purported impact indicators are questioned for their association with impacts and conflicting scenarios, and those few sites with accurate dating don’t show high levels of these indicators. They have also been unable to truly rule out natural, non-impact explanations for several of the features they claim to support this idea.
Then we lack terrestrial consequences; we don't see the effects in the records for an event of this magnitude so close in time. They also fail to meet standard scientific criteria and others in academia, and Holliday et al. have raised several concerns about inaccuracies within these studies. In a nutshell, YDIH has significant problems, including weak evidence and methodological issues. As I mentioned, if you want a deeper understanding of these issues with the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, I recommend reading through this study.
Misuse of mythology
So, if Ancient Aliens are not suggesting that Gunung Padang was built by Atlanteans to warn us about an impending meteor strike. What are they suggesting then?
"In Indonesian star lore, there's a constellation of particular interest. They call it Vendum Viduk. We call Ursa Major. It is thought that it is the shape of a boat, and that the original craft, the original starship carrying the people came from this place to their land. Their houses, the long houses, the community structures are built in the shape of a boat, always facing northward in honor of the place of their origins. These star travelers are said to have started the original royal family. The name of the people, Toraja, means "those who come from the stars.""
So what we get is the classic Ancient Alien trope that local myths that incorporate gods or the sky mean they had alien contact. Here, we see something Ancient Aliens and the Atlantean hyperdiffusion proponents have in common. Cultural dismissal. Both camps imply that ancient people of our past could not have imagination or symbolic thought. This approach to myth really minimizes the creativity of ancient people. They also dismiss this way that these myths can contain a rich symbolic and metaphorical layer.
This approach to myth also ignores humanity's skyward wonder. We, as a species, have, since the dawn of time, been fascinated with the sky and celestial bodies. One could almost say this is part of the human experience because it is not unique to any particular culture, location, or period. That our ancestors attributed divine qualities to phenomena in the sky is not strange. It's part of the human tendency to mythologize the unknown; we, as a species, don't really do well with things we don't understand. Attributing the divine properties this way becomes a way to explain and relate to the world they lived in. This doesn't necessarily have to indicate alien contact or Atlantean culture bearers. Reducing complex mythologies to simple explanations like the aliens did it or white guys from Atlantis did it ignores the depth and diversity of these stories. Myths are rarely meant to explain one thing. They often include several different aspects, including morals, explanations for natural phenomena, and a recording of historical events in a nonliteral sense. So reducing these myth to mere desriptions of alien or atlantean encounters truely dissmiss the myths educational, psychological and educational value.
Then, we have the issue that they mix mythology and language. Vendum Vidak is not a word or a term I can locate in the Toraja language or any academic text avalible in different databases. Not even Jimbob's alien blog mentions Vendum Vidak. The only other occurrence is in the transcripts of two Ancient Alien episodes. In Javanese, however, the constellation is known as the "lintang jong" or the boat constellation. There is no doubt that the constellation is essential in the Toraja society. Ursa Major is vital in the funerary rites. As Hetty Noovy Palm puts it, "The soul then takes his (or her) place in either Ursa Major or the Pleiades, star clusters of importance in rice cultivation. Rice is considered as more or less under their protection."
We can learn this from the Toraja verse "Chant for the Deceased." In van der Veen's 1966 translation, section 1B, verse 125, it reads:
"Manda' natakia' Lemba, nasalulgku buga'lalan, naapun megkidi-kidi." Translated, this means, "The Great Bear holds him in its arms, The Pleiades clasp him to them, The shining stars encompass him."
Note the absence of Vendum Vidak in this verse. Here, 'Lemba' seems to refer to the Ursa Major constellation. Referencing Noovy Palms's analysis of the text, we find the signs pertain to the rice agricultural season. 'Bunga'lalan' is connected to the Pleiades; its literal meaning is 'the one who prepares the way' or 'the opener.' This constellation appears at the start of the rice cultivation season, leading the Toraja to conduct a ritual that marks the beginning of the planting season. Palm further explains the significance of this sign, noting that it symbolizes the ancestors watching over their descendants. Since this is the place where the soul goes to the afterlife if of course the proper rituals are conducted before burial. This way, descendants pray to the ancestors, hoping for their assistance in the afterlife to ensure a bountiful harvest.
After the break, we will look closer at the Toraja people and their houses and see if the Ancient Aliens might have been involved. But as we have seen so far, their real history is far more interesting.
The Toraja people
There is a mistranslation of the meaning of the name "Toraja." It is often believed to mean "those who come from the stars," but this is not entirely accurate. While the Indonesian word "raja" does mean "king" or "prince," you only get to the "star people" origin if you combine the translation with the myth about gods descending from the sky. However, this translation does not accurately reflect the native meaning of the word. A more accurate translation of "Toraja" using this approach would be "Land of Heavenly Kings."
However, if we look more closely at the word "Toraja," we can see that it is made up two words. "To" and "Raja." According to Noovy Palms, a closer translation would be "people of high status," "people whom others esteem," or "whom others deem worthy." This translation, however, is not based on the Taraja people's language. If we look at the name through their eyes, it comes from "to ri aja," which translates to "people of the uplands." This is similar to the phrase "to luu'," which translates to "people of the sea," and provides insight into the Taraja people's relationship with their environment.
Tongkonan
The Toraja mythology is deep and complex. As usual, sources and information can be found on the episode page if you want to learn more. Before moving on, however, I want to touch on the Tongkonan houses. Or, as the quote put it, to boat-shaped houses. They are clearly boat-shaped, but this is not to imitate a spaceship, as we heard here. Again, this is a clear example of how Ancient Alien theory is reductionist toward indigenous mythology. Waterson writes about the Taraja: "Here too we find a richly imaginative body of stories in which myth, genealogy and history are woven together, always bound up with landscape and the house." It's not wrong to view the Tongkonan as a "place of remembrence." A place that's deeply connected to the family, history, and genealogy. So, the Tongkonan is not just a house where you live. It's a fundamental spot for family gatherings and community events, including social and religious gatherings. The name Tongkonan comes from the verb tongkon, meaning "to sit," again highlighting the house's role as a gathering place.
Each of the Tongkonans represents one family, and they come in different sizes, and each one carries an individual name. As some name their cars, the Taraja name their house. These houses are essential to upkeep, and a ricefield and a palm grove are often connected with the house to support repairs and feasts. Something I found interesting is that the houses are inherited through the maternal lineage. When a couple marries, the man moves to the woman. In case of a divorce, the man is not allowed to take things from the Tongkonan or take over the house. What the former husband can take, however, to start new is the rice silo structure that stands out back. When a child is born, the placenta is also buried on the western side of the house, again anchoring it with the maternal side.
The house itself is supposed to be modeled after the god Puang Matua's construction. At first, Puang Matua built a simple house, just as the first people lived in, up in the sky. This simple hut was described to have four poles carrying up the roof and was referred to as the navel of the house. But then he evolved to building a house with iron pillars that would never decay in the center of the house. While it might be tempting to connect iron and sky with aliens, we are that way, forgetting all the other stuff associated with the legend. Remember that the Tongkonan is inherited through generations; it's not supposed to be temporary; it's eternal. Describing Puang Matua house as having iron pillars is not an attempt to depict a spaceship since the rest of the Tongkonans are made of wood. It's more to reinforce the eternity of the family in that sense.
While the Toraja built the houses to stand north to south, this can be connected to the mythological worldview. But it's also worth mentioning that Puang Matua made his house stand east to west, following the sun's path. But in the Toraja culture, it's "pemali" or forbidden to construct your Tongkonan in this direction on Earth. Again, this simplifies mythology to a point where you lose large parts that explain the context.
Then, we have the last nail in the coffin. Toraja's land is on Sulawesi Island, and Gunung Padang is on Java, close to the city of Jakarta. There are some 1300 kilometers between these two islands, and it's hard to really understand how they connected the Toraja people with Gunung Padang. If you didn't want to accuse the Ancient Alien people of cherry-picking before, maybe this is the time.
What is Gunung Padang?
So if Gunung Padang is not the world's largest and oldest pyramid and built either by white Atlanteans or aliens, what is it then? The earliest known account of the site and its enclosure can be traced back to an account by Rogier Veerbek from 1891. Later, it can also be found in a report by Dutch archaeologist Nicolaas Johannes Krom in 1915. Krom described the site as a place with four enclosures with a funerary function. Worth mentioning is that since then, no burials have been found at the site.
It would have become almost forgotten had it not been for three locals rediscovering the site in 1979. The enclosures we see at the site are believed to be a 'Punden Berundak' – a term from the local language translating to 'Glorified person.' These megalithic structures, scattered across West Java, resemble step pyramids with layered platforms, each level a stage for ancestral worship.
This tradition of building Punden Berundak flourished during the Paleometallic Period, a time frame stretching from 500 BCE to 500 CE, marking the Indo-Malayan Bronze-Iron Age. Gunung Padang isn't just another structure in this tradition; it's unique. It incorporates a natural 885-meter-tall hill, making it the largest of its kind. Other examples, like Lebak Sibedug and Arca Domas, share their architectural DNA but not their grandeur.
Interestingly, this architectural style echoes the later Samoan traditions of mound building around 1100 CE. This connection, while distant, hints at a broader cultural exchange across the region. However, before diving deeper into these connections, it's important to note that Punden Berundak's theory is intertwined with regional pride and identity. I again like to stress that the hill is just an old volcano since long in deep slumber. The constructors of the site certainly took advantage of the tall hill and the resources that could be found on top of it. Why work harder when you can work smarter. But that's it. From the archaeological evidence, this is the explanation that fits based on decades of excavations, including whatever Natawidjaja and his emergency group did. We should always look at the evidence and then make a conclusion, not try to fit our evidence into our predetermined narrative.
Next time, we will end our Ancient Aliens Top Ten Pyramids series. If you have followed this exploration from the start, you know this was number three on the list. Number two is the temple of Borobudur, also here in Indonesia. I will skip it since the argument boils down to "Buddha is depicted as sitting inside these small stupas. But it looks like Buddha is flying a flying saucer at Borobudur." Sometimes, we need to choose our battles, and we will have time to return to this claim in a later episode since this is based on a compilation episode.
Next time we meet, it's time to learn what pyramid occupies the number one spot on this list. I hope to see you then.
Until then, please spread the word by leaving a positive review on platforms like iTunes and Spotify or even among your fellow trench dwellers. For more information about me and my podcast, check out diggingupancientaliens.com.
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Until next time, keep shoveling that science!
Sources, resources, and further reading suggestions
Aziz, D.A. (2014). Koin Logam 5.200 SM Ditemukan Di Gunung Padang. Tempo. [online] 16 Sep. Available here .
Bentley, C. (2011). Columns Form Perpendicular to Cooling Fronts. [online] Mountain Beltway. Available here .
Bradley, R. (2017). Pyramids Pt.3: Radiocarbon at Gunung Padang. [online] The Lateral Truth. Available here .
Budkewitsch, P. and Robin, P.-Y. (1994). Modelling the evolution of columnar joints. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 59(3), pp.219–239. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-0273(94)90092-2 .
Campbell, J. (2008). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 3rd ed. Novato, Calif: New World Library.
Dipa, A. (2014). Archaeologists Slam Excavation of Gunung Padang Site. [online] The Jakarta Post. Available here .
Feagans, C. (2023). Gunung Padang: What Archaeology Really Says. [online] Archaeology Review. Available here .
Hilman Natawidjaja, D. (2014). Laporan Kegiatan Penelitian Tim Terpadu Riset Mandiri (TTRM)/ Tim Nasional Pelestarian Dan Pengelolaan Gunung Padang Bersama Karya Bhakti TNI (Bidang Geologi). Unpublished. [online] Available here .
Hollan, D.W. and Wellenkamp, J.C. (1996). The Thread of Life. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Holliday, V.T., Daulton, T.L., Bartlein, P.J., Boslough, M.B., Breslawski, R.P., Fisher, A., Jorgeson, I., Scott, A.C., Koeberl, C., Marlon, J.R., Severinghaus, J.P., Petaev, M.I. and Claeys, P. (2023). Comprehensive refutation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH). Earth-Science Reviews, 247, pp.104502–104502. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104502 .
Idaman Idaman (2012). Religious Ritual as a Contestation Arena: The Experiences of Aluk Todolo Community in Tana Toraja of South Sulawesi. Journal of Islamic Civilization in Southeast Asia, 1(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.24252/jicsa.v1i1.719 .
Krom, N.J. (1914). Rapporten Van Den Oudheidkundinge Dienst in Nederlandsch-Indie 1914. Hague: Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences. Albrecht & Co.
Manurung, P. (2017). Daylighting and architectural concept of traditional architecture: The Tongkonan in Toraja, Indonesia. A/Z : ITU journal of Faculty of Architecture, [online] 14(1), pp.111–126. doi: https://doi.org/10.5505/itujfa.2017.65487 .
Natawidjaja, D.H., Bachtiar, A., Nurhandoko, B.E.B., Akbar, A., Purajatnika, P., Daryono, M.R., Wardhana, D.D., Subandriyo, A.S., Krisyunianto, A., Tagyuddin, Ontowiryo, B. and Maulana, Y. (2023). Geo‐archaeological Prospecting of Gunung Padang Buried Prehistoric Pyramid in West Java, Indonesia. Archaeological Prospection. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/arp.1912 .
Noovy Palm, H. (2021). The Sa’dan-Toraja: a Study of Their Social Life and Religion. E-book ed. Brill.
Prasdi, N.D. (2013). Penggalian Gunung Padang Berpotensi Memalukan Bangsa. [online] Detiknews. Available here .
Sulistyowati, D. and Foe, A.W. (2021). Indonesia’s Own ‘pyramid’: the Imagined past and Nationalism of Gunung Padang. International Review of Humanities Studies, 6(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.7454/irhs.v6i1.303 .
The Jakarta Post Travel (2014). A New Archaeological Discovery in Gunung Padang May Redefine What We Know about Indonesia. [online] The Jakarta Post Travel. Available here
van der Veen, H. (1966). The Sa’dan Toradja Chant for the Deceased. Brill. doi: https://doi.org/10.26530/oapen_613381 .
Verbeek, R.D.M. (1891). Oudheden Van Java: Lijst Der Voornaamste Overblijfselen Uit Den Hindoetijd Op Java, Met Eene Oudheidkundige Kaart. [online] Batavia: Landsdrukkerij. Available here .
Waterson, R. (2009). Paths and Rivers Sa’dan Toraja Society in Transformation. Leiden: KITLV Press.