Hominids first arrived in Indonesia about eight hundred thousand years ago. Excavations uncovered parts of the skull of Pithecanthropus erectus, since renamed Homo erectus erectus - or Java Man - in Sangiran near Solo.

Homo sapiens first made an appearance in about 40,000 BC, having crossed over to the Indonesian archipelago from the Philippines, Thailand and Burma, using land bridges exposed during the Ice Ages. Later migrants brought knowledge of rice irrigation and animal husbandry, sea navigation and weaving techniques, and from the seventh or eighth centuries BC, the Bronze Age began to spread south from Southern China.