A Southern Cross University researcher has begun the painstaking task of analysing hundreds of stone tools believed to have been used by the “hobbits” – a new species of miniature humans found on the Indonesian island of Flores.
Dr Carol Lentfer, an environmental archaeologist, was part of the international team of archaeologists, led by Associate Professor Mike Morwood of the University of New England, which discovered the remains of the previously unknown species in Liang Bua, a limestone cave on Flores.
The team discovered a near-complete skeleton of a 30-year old female, who died around 18,000 years ago, as well as remains of a number of other ‘little people’, named Homo floresiensis.
Dr Lentfer has brought back hundreds of stone tool and sediment samples taken from sites inside and outside the cave. She now has the job of determining what sort of environment the Homo floresiensis lived in, whether they made the tools and what they used them for.
“We have the tools that were directly associated with the bones. That includes choppers, grinders, blades and a series of stone flakes and points,” Dr Lentfer said.
“I will be analysing plant and animal residues found on the stone tools. Residues can include resins, fibres, blood and even DNA. Plant microfossils such as phytoliths (literally 'plant stones' formed when opaline silica is deposited in cells, and cellular spaces in growing plants) and fossilised starch granules, are also commonly found. Besides examining residues I will also be looking at the wear patterns and polishes on the tools.”
She said by examining the residues and use-wear patterns on the stone tools she would be able to determine how they were used, for example spearing animals, cutting flesh, processing bones, grinding ochres or working with wood and other plant material.
“This analysis will help to determine if the tools were used by Homo floresiensis or Homo sapiens sapiens (i.e. modern humans). But it is most likely that they were made and used by the same people who first occupied the cave about 100,000 years ago, because over this long (time) sequence, there is not much change in technology of the tools. Based on the present evidence the most likely candidate is Homo floresiensis.
“But it is early days and DNA analysis of residues on the tools might be able to tell us if the ‘hobbits’ co-existed with Homo sapiens. It might turn out that modern humans were killing the hobbits.”
The Homo floresiensis, who are known to have lived until 13,000 years ago and possibly up until as late as 500 years ago, are thought to have evolved from taller humans, Homo erectus, becoming dwarfed over hundreds of thousands of years through genetic isolation.
The discovery is the first new human species to be found since 1894 and is already sparking debate about where the species fits into human evolution.