Posted on 12/21/2006 2:37:16 PM PST by blam
Timor cave may reveal how humans reached Australia
Jerimalai shelter in East Timor, where Dr Su O'Connor of ANU has discovered the oldest evidence of occupation by modern humans on the islands that were the stepping stones to Australia.
Deborah Smith
December 22, 2006
AN AUSTRALIAN archaeologist has discovered the oldest evidence of occupation by modern humans on the islands that were the stepping stones from South-East Asia to Australia.
A cave site in East Timor where people lived more than 42,000 years ago, eating turtles, tuna and giant rats, was unearthed by Sue O'Connor, head of archaeology and natural history at the Australian National University.
Dr O'Connor also found ancient stone tools and shells used for decoration in the limestone shelter, known as Jerimalai, on the eastern tip of the island.
She said her discovery could help solve the mystery of the route ancient seafarers took to get here from South-East Asia.
It strengthens the view that they made a southern passage, via Timor, rather than travelling northwards via Borneo and Sulawesi, then down through Papua New Guinea. "The antiquity of the Jerimalai shelter makes this site significant at a world level," said Dr O'Connor, who presented the findings at the annual conference of the Australian Archaeological Association this month.
Sea levels were lower when modern humans set off around the coast from Africa more than 70,000 years ago. People who made it to the large South-East Asian land mass known as Sunda, however, still had to cross deep ocean channels to get to Australia, then joined to Papua New Guinea in a continent called Sahul.
Until now, the age of habitation sites found on the stepping stone islands in between had been much younger than those found in Australia, making it impossible to determine the route taken.
Although the Jerimalai site is at least 42,000 years old, it could be much older, Dr O'Connor said, because this was the detection limit of the radiocarbon dating method used. She said the simple stone tools unearthed in the shelter were similar to those used by the species of hobbit-sized people who lived in a cave on the nearby island of Flores until 12,000 years ago.
But she was confident Jerimalai's inhabitants were modern humans, Homo sapiens, and not small-brained members of Homo floresiensis, because of the evidence for their sophisticated behaviour found in the dig. Fish such as tuna, for example, "could only have been captured in the deeper waters offshore using hooks, and probably also water craft", she said.
The find, however, raised big questions, such as why modern humans appeared to have bypassed Flores on their way to Timor. One possibility was that the hobbits were able to repel them.
"It is clear that this region warrants a great deal more study," Dr O'Connor said.
GGG Ping.
Did they take QUANTAS?
Meadow Muffin
MMM...giant rat.
Definitely atypical hobbits.
Good post. Thanks!
Not really. According to Tolkien...
Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough.They were, if it came to it, difficult to daunt or to kill; and they were, perhaps, so unwearyingly fond of good things not least because they could, when put to it, do without them, and could survive rough handling by grief, foe, or weather in a way that astonished those who did not know them well and looked no further than their bellies and their well-fed faces. Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and at need could still handle arms. They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well.
You don't want to mess with a pissed-off Hobbit!
Good hearty stock, all.
I've got the feeling that some on Dad's side got here one step ahead of the law.
Or why they didn't strive to go to New York.
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Maybe they were prototyping some kind of prehistoric Australian precursor to gun control, but the hobbits did not fall for it (when stones are outlawed, only outlaws will have stones)...
Otherwise known as ROUS's. ;-)
Tastes like chicken! :-)
It is an acronym from Queensland and Northern Territories Aerial Services.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I KNOW that, but it's those East Timor people that can't spell it.... :))
Meadow Muffin
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