In 2003, the world spread the news of a sensational find made by archaeologists on the Indonesian island of Flores. In one of the natural caves, called Liang Bois, the remains of a previously unknown science dwarf species of ancient people were found, characterized by unusually small stature, not exceeding one meter, and a strikingly small brain volume. This new species is called Homo floresiensis, or otherwise, the Florentine man.
The first finds of the expedition
This amazing discovery was preceded by a long and painstaking work. A joint Indonesian-Australian expedition led by Mike Morwood and Panjit Sujono began excavating on the island of Flores back in 2001. They did not choose the Liang Bois Cave by chance, since Sujono had previously worked in it with another group of scientists, and by that time part of the upper cultural layers had been opened by him.
Already the first year spent in Flores, brought a lot of interesting findings. Going deeper into more and more ancient layers of sediments, archaeologists have discovered a large number of bones of various ancient animals, extinct tens of thousands of years ago. Among them were found fragments of skeletons of stegodons - distant relatives of modern elephants that disappeared from the face of the earth twelve thousand years ago, as well as the famous Komodo dragons - the largest of the existing lizards, reaching a length of three meters.
The remains of the ancient inhabitant of the cave
In addition, obvious signs of the presence of ancient people in these places were discovered . This was evidenced by the remains of stone tools belonging to the Paleolithic era, whose age totaled at least two and a half million years. In the same year, the first fragment of one of the ancient inhabitants of Liang Bois Cave fell into the hands of scientists. It was clearly a radius bone that was part of the forearm, but at the same time unusually small and curiously curved.
The year 2003 brought even more discoveries, and with them mysteries. Back in January, an incomplete skeleton was found that belonged to an adult female, but also differed in strikingly small sizes. According to experts, his age was approximately eighteen thousand years. Among other bones, the property of scientists has become a fairly well-preserved skull of the ancient inhabitant of the cave. Even at first glance, everyone was struck by the small volume of the cranium, and, consequently, of the brain once contained in it.
Work with found material
A certain difficulty in working with bones was due to the fact that, due to soil moisture, they were not fossilized, but rather a loose and pliable texture. We had to be especially careful. To preserve them, a special preparation was developed and manufactured right on the spot, consisting of quick-drying glue and nail polish. It is easy to guess that such a technology could have crossed the mind of a woman. Indeed, the inventor of this method was Thomas Sutikina - a representative of the Indonesian archaeological group.
Hypothesis explaining the safety of the find
For thousands of years, ritual burials have been carried out in Liang Bois Cave, as evidenced by the large number of human bones discovered there, painted with ocher and lying mixed with decorations made from sea shells. However, the little man was clearly not one of them. It was also surprising how well preserved his skeleton was. Not even the articulations of some bones were broken.
According to scientists, this preservation could be explained by the fact that this relic hominid (the term used to refer to the family of higher primates, to which humans belong), after death was immersed in shallow water or simply in liquid mud. This saved him from wild carrion-eating animals.
If this assumption is true, then the Florentine man is not the only find preserved as a result of such "conservation". The same fate was shared by the remains of an African Afaropithecus found in Ethiopia , whose age is three million years old, and the bones of a boy who lived one and a half million years later discovered in Kenya.
Additional find information
The following year, 2004, the cave gave scientists new findings of the bones of small people, which allowed us to sufficiently recreate their appearance and more accurately establish the dating. If at first it was believed that this relic hominid lived on the earth from 12 to 95 thousand years ago, a more detailed study of the remains using radioisotope analysis made it possible to narrow the time range and limit it to a period of 60 to 100 thousand years.
Characteristically, very primitive tools made of stone were also discovered. This indicates that the Florentine man was already able to process the natural materials available to him for use during hunting and construction.
Disputes over the name of the species found
After scientists came to the conclusion that they discovered a new biological species, its representatives were immediately given the nickname of the hobbits. So called fairy-tale heroes from the work of the famous English writer John Ruel Tolkien "The Lord of the Rings." Accordingly, the little man was to be called Homo hobbitus.
However, a number of scientists, among whom was a prominent Australian paleontologist Peter Brown, had doubts as to whether it can be attributed to the genus Homo, that is, to people. The doubts were characteristic features that this fossil species possessed. In particular, everyone was embarrassed by the unusually small growth and the unprecedented until then volume of the brain - about three times smaller than that of an ordinary person. Brown personally proposed the name Sundantropus for the find. However, as a result of lengthy discussions, we settled on the aforementioned Homo floresiensis - a Florentine man.
Sensation circling the world
For the first time, information about an amazing find made in Liang Bois Cave appeared in 2004 in the journal Nature. Before that, she was kept secret for almost a year, since her appearance in the media could interfere with publication in this purely scientific publication. However, immediately after the appearance of the magazine issue, the Florentine man (the hobbit) became one of the main topics of seven thousand newspapers and magazines and about one hundred thousand Internet sites. A popular science film was commissioned about him, commissioned by the famous National Geographic television channel.
Attempt to establish the truth
As mentioned above, around the remains found on the island of Flores, from the first days, disputes erupted between scientists. They were conducted on whether it is legitimate to say that they are faced with a fossil dwarf species of people previously unknown to science, or is the result of pathological changes that ordinary primitive people known as Homo sapiens underwent for one reason or another.
To answer this question, the leading Indonesian specialist in paleoanthropology, Teuku Jacob, took all the bones found from a research center in Jakarta and placed them in his laboratory. He managed to do this thanks to personal contact with Panjit Sujano, who was one of the leaders of the expedition. The scientific world was waiting for the result of research, but for three months the famous scientist remained silent.
Scandal in the scientific world
Finally, the patience of his colleagues was exhausted, and they began to demand that Jacob provide access to the remains of the rest of the scientists and stop this practice of monopoly, which applied only to him and his assistants. As a result, the bones were returned to Jakarta, but not in full and partially damaged. A major scandal erupted, since at that time the Florentine man was still featured on the front pages of newspapers, and the case received a great public outcry.
The result was a ban on Indonesian authorities to continue excavations in Liang Bua Cave. On this occasion, there were suggestions in the world media that the authorities’ refusal to admit scientists to the place of relict hominid discovery is explained by their fear for the reputation of Jacob, who was considered the pride of national science.
The fact is that he was an ardent opponent of the claim that the remains belong to a new unknown species, and since the continuation of the work could bring data that refutes his point of view, and thereby undermine the authority of Indonesian science, it was decided not to risk it. It was only possible to resume the study in 2007.
Continuation of work
After the events described above for a long time, information about the excavation did not penetrate the media, and only in 2015 it became known that a new international expedition was working on the island of Flores. This time, she explores a previously discovered cave, connecting an underground passage with Liang Bois. It is assumed that it should contain the earliest deposits. According to scientists, by ancient people this cave could be used as a warehouse and a possible escape route in case of unforeseen danger.
Some external differences of Homo floresiensis
As mentioned above, the main distinguishing features of a Floress man are his small stature and the meager size of his skull, which is also strikingly different in structure from that of a reasonable person. For example, in the skull there is no chin protrusion. In general, the shape and proportions of the skeleton, as well as its individual parts, allow its owner to be attributed to the lower forms of primitive people, such as Australopithecus.
Soon after publications related to the find of the Floress man, attempts began to recreate his appearance. They were attended by many leading artists and sculptors specializing in the field of anthropology. The first reconstruction belongs to Peter Schuten, who created a drawing based on a thorough study of the skeleton of this individual.
Following him, the sculptor Elizabeth Deine presented her voluminous work. She owns a series of figures exhibited in 2007 at the Paris Museum of Man and is an evolutionary reconstruction of what the hominids from the most ancient forms known to science to modern people have turned into.
In 2012, a new step was made in this direction. Dr. Susan Hayes from Australia, using the methods used in forensic medicine, restored the face of Flo - this is the name given to the female individual whose remains were discovered in Liang Bois Cave. Following her, a group of researchers from New York made a thorough computer analysis of the skull. The general conclusion was that, for a number of signs, the Florentine person is close to a reasonable person, and, therefore, the hypothesis of pathological changes that caused his unusual appearance should be considered insolvent.