This cranium was discovered in a rock shelter by miners near Wadjak, Java, in 1888. It was first described in 1890 by Eugene Dubois, the anatomist and physician who discovered the famous "Pithecanthropus" fossils now referred to as Homo erectus). The cranium belongs to a modern human, Homo sapiens.

While poor fossil preservation of the Wadjak 1 skull obscures some of the finer anatomical features, it shows many of the traits that serve to define modern Homo sapiens. The cranium shows an expanded forehead that rises near vertically from above the orbits. This is associated with either a repackaging of brain tissue in the cranial braincase or an actual expansion of the frontal lobe of the brain. The shape of the face itself shows no signs of prognathism seen in Homo erectus, and the overall structure of the bones is more gracile than seen in earlier species of Homo. The brow ridges, which are known in earlier species such as H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis, are absent in Wadjak 1.