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Gunung Padang in Java is the world's oldest pyramid

Status: Leading Edge Verdict: Open question: 2023 paper retracted March 2024

The claim: Gunung Padang, a terraced megalithic site in West Java, Indonesia, is a buried pyramid whose deepest layers were shaped by people from about 27,000 years ago.

Where the evidence stands: Natawidjaja and colleagues published this in Archaeological Prospection in October 2023. The journal retracted the paper on 18 March 2024, saying the radiocarbon dates came from soil not linked to any artifacts or human-made features. All authors disagree with the retraction. The surface terraces are an accepted megalithic site; whether the deeper layers were built by people is the open part.

Background

Drilling, ground-penetrating radar and seismic surveys show layered structures beneath the terraced hill. The authors interpreted these as several construction phases, the oldest during the Ice Age. Indonesian archaeologists who have excavated the site date its stone terraces from charcoal in secure contexts to about 2,100 years ago, and many describe it as terraces built onto a natural volcanic hill rather than a pyramid. In 2025 one of the journal's editors published a reflection on how the paper got through review.

What has been measured

Dates, measurements and documented findings, kept separate from interpretation.

Subsurface imaging and cores show layered rock and soil units beneath the terraces. [1]
Radiocarbon dates from the deep cores are very old, but they come from soil, not from artifacts or clearly human-made features (the basis of the retraction). [2]
Excavators report charcoal from contexts tied to the architecture dating to about 2,100 years ago. [4]

Proponents' main arguments and cited evidence

The authors argue the deep units contain deliberately arranged columns of volcanic rock and mortar-like fill that natural processes would not produce. [1]
The lead author called the retraction unjust and based on differing opinions rather than errors in the data. [4]

The mainstream position and its evidence

The publisher concluded that dating soil without associated artifacts cannot show human construction, and judged the pyramid interpretation incorrect. [2]
Columnar volcanic rock forms naturally, and the hill is widely considered an old volcanic feature. [4][3]

What evidence would help settle it

An excavation that reaches the deep layers and finds tools, hearths or other unambiguous human traces, with dates on that material. Publishing the full core logs would let other geologists test whether the rock-column arrangements are natural.

Sites

Gunung Padang

Sources

Natawidjaja, D. H. et al. (2023). Geo-archaeological prospecting of Gunung Padang buried prehistoric pyramid in West Java, Indonesia. Archaeological Prospection (RETRACTED 18 Mar 2024). doi:10.1002/arp.1912 proponent
Archaeological Prospection (18 Mar 2024). Retraction notice: radiocarbon dates came from soil samples not associated with artifacts or features reliably interpreted as man-made; all authors disagree. doi:10.1002/arp.1932 notice
Ernenwein, E. (2025). Retraction and reflection: the Gunung Padang controversy and the challenges of peer review in archaeological prospection. ArchéoSciences. doi:10.4000/14nul background
Times Higher Education (March 2024). Paper claiming 'world's oldest pyramid' retracted, with the lead author's response and comments from excavators. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/paper-claiming-worlds-oldes… background

More in this section: Pyramids around the world.

Sources checked against Crossref and publisher pages on 2026-10-22. This entry presents a debated idea neutrally: the proponents' case first, then the mainstream position, in our own words. "Open question" is not a judgment that the idea is true or false. Labels describe the claim, not the people who hold it. Methodology.