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New evidence Hobbits were toolmakers

June 01, 2006

Dr Mark MooreResearchers from the University of New England have uncovered new evidence of toolmaking by early hominids on the Indonesian island of Flores. The find appears to put paid to claims Homo floresiensis, the diminutive species of hominid discovered on Flores in 2003, lacked the brain power to produce sophisticated stone tools.

In 2005, American archaeologists argued in the Washington Post that stone tools found alongside Homo floresiensis skeletons on Flores could only have been made by modern humans. Now a team of Australian and Indonesian archaeologists have discovered near-identical tools at a site nearby. These tools were shaped about 850,000 years ago, making them four times older than the oldest known modern humans.

No skeletons were found with the tools, making it impossible to say for sure who made them, but the scientists' best guess is that they were made by ancestors of Homo floresiensis, themselves probably descendents of Homo erectus. The discovery and its implications are described in an article to be published in Nature magazine today.

“There are amazing similarities between these tools and those found at Liang Bua,” said Mark Moore, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of New England and one of eight co-authors of the Nature article. “They look just like you would expect if they had been made by Homo floresiensis.”

A total of 487 stone tools were found at a Mata Menge, about 50km east of Liang Bua where the original Homo floresiensis skeletons were found.

The find throws added weight behind Homo floresiensis' claim to a unique place in the human family. Since the skeletons were unearthed in 2003, scientists have been arguing over whether the remains were of a unique human species or a diseased population of modern humans. Those clinging to the “microcephalic” theory claim the stone tools found at Liang Bua were much too sophisticated to have been made by small-brained Homo floresiensis and could therefore only have been made by modern humans.

“This find knocks the support out from under that line of argument,” Dr Moore said. “These tools have been fission-track dated to 840,000 years ago. Modern humans didn't appear until 200,000 years ago. So there's no way they were made by modern humans. If not by them, then by whom? Our theory is the ancestors of Homo floresiensis.”

The discovery was the result of extensive collaboration between Indonesian and Australian scientists. The excavation at Mata Menge was planned and directed by Dr Fachroel Aziz of the Geological Research and Development Centre, Bandung, in association with UNE’s Professor Mike Morwood. Mark Moore analysed the Liang Bua tools and assisted with the analysis of the Mata Menge tools. They were aided by scientists from the University of Wollongong, the Australian National University and the National Museum of Natural History in the Netherlands.

For more information contact Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3771. A photo is available to accompany this story.

Posted by Leon Braun at June 1, 2006 11:33 AM