Beachcomber's cave, 164,000 BP

[hardaker]

The Hobbit was the last thing the Morwood team turned up. They first found several early sites on the island going back to 800ky, and recently older than 880ky. They went back to look for more recent archaeology and came up with the Hobbit years later. The island has always been isolated, never connected with a landbridge. Stiff currents. This is a great article, google Erectus Ahoy. (I also write about it in my book [plug, stage right].
Chris

[Forum Monk]

Regarding HE seafaring, let me throw out some thoughts that may or may not have been discussed previously and see what kind of discussion emerges.

As I know we have discussed previously, in order for HE to survive as a viable population in an isolated region one of two things must occur: 1) a sufficient number of breeding specimens would need to make the crossing (i.e. 200 or so) or 2) fairly steady contact must be made with the mainland population through repeated crossings.

It seems logical to me that number 1 rather number 2 occurred because diminuitive flores hobbits which eventually emerges in more recent times may well have been an adaptation to isolation on the island. Now if it turns out that there was is no connection between those early HE explorers and the Hobbits, which is also quite likely, then it would seem logical that the island hopping would have been a routine activity for 1000s of years and hence more multi-regional gene flow and therefore a more homogenous genetic makeup. But studies of these populations suggest they were isolated and diverse as a consequence of isolation, suggesting very little outside gene flow.

Comments?

[hardaker]

I'll give it a go. The link between the Hobbits (18k, w/ range of about 12-90k) and the earlier Erectus archaeology, (800k+), is probably tenuous at best. To my knowledge there has been no skeletal material from the earlier horizon. I am getting mixed messages about whether or not the lithic assemblage is the same or more advanced among the Hobbits. I think nothing will be known for sure until some skeletons from the earlier horizon are found. Since Hobbits have not been found anywhere else, maybe they didn't know, or they forgot, about navigation and boat-building skills. If they are found on other islands, then we have to throw that idea out. Currently there is a lot of surveying in those islands, a consortium of sorts, and Morwood is a part. I just hope they are getting good support. With an Erectus dated on Java to about 27ky, it looks like it could be a pretty complex reconstruction is in store.

Which brings up this new article. (Can somebody lift the text?)

ARCHAEOLOGY:
In Search of the World's Most Ancient Mariners
Michael Balter
CAMBRIDGE, U.K.--Researchers are debating the capabilities of the first human voyagers, who traveled the waters of Southeast Asia at least 45,000 years ago.
Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/f ... 9/388?etoc

These researchers seem to have left out the early Flores discoveries. I will have to wait until I see the article, but it bodes ill.

[Beagle]

That's a better stab at it than I would have done Chris. FM's question is at the heart of very intense debate right now when little evidence has yet been gathered.

DNA does very poorly in tropical climates, so it would really be a stroke of luck to obtain any. That would answer a lot of questions. I've had little comment about the Hobbit because there is just so little information.

With his relatively small head, I'm betting he did not have the Microcephalin D allele that 70% of humans now have.

[hardaker]

Hi Beagle,
Seems they have it locked down as a new species, and not sapiens. I don't think they have any DNA from the Hobbit, do they? I'm just hoping for some skeletal material from the earlier horizon, and that they can figure it out just from the bones.
Chris

[Forum Monk]

I guess we need to wait for new evidence to emerge and hopefully it will include some DNA. I find these hobbits pretty interesting.

[hardaker]

Yeah. Morwood's book that came out this year is pretty good. Clears up a lot about the affair with the head Phys Anthro who walked off with it, and seems to have damaged it. There are a couple bands of ash that they dated to 800k and 880k or thereabouts. In his epilogue he reports finding the first artifacts underneath the 880k ash. I grew up with movies like Lost World with dressed up iguanas so it is fun to imagine the hobbits fighting a six-foot komodo dragon. Flores must be becoming a great tourist stop.

[Cognito]

I grew up with movies like Lost World

Ah yes. The Lost World (1925), a true classic.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Funny!
But being a "card-carrying member" doesn't allude to carrying a credit card, but to carrying a membership card. Not quite the same.

[Minimalist]

Don't quibble, R/S.