Gunung Sewu, a part of the Southern Mountains of Java, is one of the most important areas for prehistoric life. Early Man has settled this area since very remote times and continued living there throughout a very long time span –hundreds of thousnds of years– until the end of prehistory. Man exploited different natural sources available in the environment and developed technologies for fabricating tools. There was a progressive evolution from the simplest ways, in the remote past, until the more complex ways, in the remote past, until the more complex ways, approaching the historic period. Such cultural developments started in the Paleolithic and went on to the Preneolithic, the Neolithic, and until the Paleometallic. Settlement remains disperse in large numbers in the form of sites, artifacts and ecofacts.

This book presents a synthesis of multidisciplinary researches on the prehistory of Gunung Sewu. Intentionally composed in an accessible way, it consists of a series of short articles discussing different topics and completed with rich illustrations. The main themes to be taken up concern man, his culture, and his environment, Questions to be answered are among others: since when did men settle in this area, who were they, what were their environmental conditions, how did they exploit natural resources, which were their cultural characteristics compared to other regions, how was cultural development throughout the settlement activities?

By answering these questions, this book presents a comprehensive view of the prehistory of Gunung Sewu in a diachronic way. Those who read it from the beginning will soon recognize the accupation history of this region from the earliest times to the end of Prehistory. This book, therefore, offers new insights for a better understanding of the Gunung Sewu prehistory in particular, and for Indonesian prehistory in general.