Skip to main content
Book cover

Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Oldowan pp 61–69Cite as

Homo floresiensis and the African Oldowan

  • Chapter

Part of the Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology book series (VERT)

Abstract

The small-bodied hominin Homo floresiensis was recently identified at Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia. Some researchers have argued that H. floresiensis represents pathological individuals from a behaviorally modern Homo sapiens population, arguing in part that the stone-tools found in association are too “advanced” to have been manufactured by a nonmodern hominin. Here we show that the Pleistocene stone-tools from Flores, including Liang Bua, are technologically and morphologically similar to the 1.2–1.9 Mya Oldowan/Developed Oldowan tools from Olduvai Gorge in Africa. The Pleistocene lithic technology on Flores was therefore within the capabilities of small-brained, nonmodern hominins.

Keywords

  • Modern Human
  • Stone Tool
  • Pleistocene Deposit
  • Stone Artifact
  • Lithic Technology

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9060-8_6
  • Chapter length: 9 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-1-4020-9060-8
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Bergman, C.A., Barton, R.N.E., Collcutt, S.N., Morris, G., 1987. Intentional breakage in a Late Upper Palaeolithic assemblage from Southern England. In: Sieveking, G., Newcomer, M.H. (Eds.), The Human Uses of Flint and Chert: Proceedings of the Fourth International Flint Symposium. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 21–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, P., Sutikna, T., Morwood, M. J., Soejono, R. P., Jatmiko, Wayhu Saptomo, E., Rokus Awe Due., 2004. A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Nature 431, 1055–1061.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Brumm, A., 2007. The End of the Movius Line: Palaeolithic Stone Technology from a Southeast Asian Perspective. Ph.D. Dissertation, Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brumm, A, Aziz, F., van den Bergh, G.D., Morwood, M.J., Moore, M.W., Hobbs, D.R., Kurniawan, I., Fullagar, R., 2006. Early stone technology on Flores and its implications for Homo floresiensis. Nature 441, 624–628.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Callahan, E, 1979. The basics of biface knapping in the eastern fluted point tradition: a manual for flintknappers and lithic analysts. Archaeology of Eastern North America 7, 1–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J.D., 1971. Foreword. In: Leaky, M.D., Olduvai Gorge, Volume 3: Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. xv–xvii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crabtree, D.E., 1973. The obtuse angle as a functional edge. Tebiwa 16, 46–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Debénath, A., Dibble, H.L., 1994. Handbook of Paleolithic Typology. Volume One: Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J., 2004. The astonishing micropygmies. Science 306, 2047–2048.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Flannery, T., 2004. Of dwarves and dragons. The Bulletin, 9 November, 32–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, R. Lahr, M.M., 1997. Mode 3 technologies and the evolution of modern humans. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 7, 3–36.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Hayden, B., 1980. Confusion in the bipolar world: bashed pebbles and splintered pieces. Lithic Technology 9, 2–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henneberg, M., Thorne, A., 2004. Flores human may be pathological Homo sapiens. Before Farming 4, 2–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inizan, M.-L., Reduron-Ballinger, M., Roche, H., Tixier, J., 1999. Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone. Préhistoire de la Pierre Taillée 5. Cercle de Recherches et d’Etudes Préhistoriques, Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacob, T., Indriati, E., Soejono, R.P., Hsü, K., Frayer, D.W., Eckhardt, R.B., Kuperavage, A.J., Thorne, A., Henneberg, M., 2006. Pygmoid Australomelanesian Homo sapiens skeletal remains from Liang Bua, Flores: population affinities and pathological abnormalities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103, 13421–13426.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Kohn, M., 2005. The little troublemaker. New Scientist 186, 41–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leakey, M.D., 1971. Olduvai Gorge, Volume 3: Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, R.D., MacLarnon, A.M., Phillips, J.L., Dussubieux, L., Williams, P.R., Dobyns, W.B., 2006a. Comment on ‘the brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis.’ Science 312, 999b.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, R.D., MacLarnon, A.M., Phillips, J.L., Dobyns, W.B., 2006b. Flores hominid: new species or microcephalic dwarf? The Anatomical Record 288A, 1123–1145.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, F.D., 1976. Australian Aboriginal Stone Implements. Second edition. Australian Museum Trust, Sydney.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P., 2006. Going east: new genetic and archaeological perspectives on the modern human colonization of Eurasia. Science 313, 796–800.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, M.W., 2005. The Design Space of Lithic Technology. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of New England.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, M.W., 2007. Lithic design space modelling and cognition in Homo floresiensis. In: Shalley, A., Khlentzos, D. (Eds.), Mental States: Nature, Function and Evolution. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, M.W., Brumm, A., 2007. Stone artifacts and hominins in island Southeast Asia: new insights from Flores, Eastern Indonesia. Journal of Human Evolution 52, 85–102.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, M.W., Sutikna, T., Morwood, M.J., Brumm, A. in press. Continuities in stone flaking technology at Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia. Journal of Human Evolution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morwood, M.J., Brown, P., Jatmiko, Sutikna, T., Wahyu Saptomo, E., Westaway, K.E., Rokus Awe Due, Roberts, R.G., Maeda, T., Wasisto, S., Djubiantono, T., 2005. Further evidence for smallbodied hominins from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Nature 437, 1012–1017.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Morwood, M. J., Soejono, R.P., Roberts, R.G., Sutikna, T., Turney, C.S.M., Westaway, K.E., Rink, W.J., Zhao, J.-x., van den Bergh, G.D., Rokus Awe Due, Hobbs, D.R., Moore, M.W., Bird, M.I., Fifield, L.K., 2004. Archaeology and age of a new hominin from Flores in eastern Indonesia. Nature 431, 1087–1091.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Niven, J.E., 2007. Brains, islands and evolution: breaking all the rules. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22, 57–59.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Odell, G.H., 2004. Lithic Analysis. Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory, and Technique. Kluwer Academic, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Sullivan, P.B., Morwood, M., Hobbs, D., Aziz, F., Suminto, Situmorang, M., Raza, A., Maas, R., 2001. Archaeological implications of the geology and chronology of the Soa Basin, Flores, Indonesia. Geology 29, 607–610.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, G.D., 2006. Genetic, physiologic and ecogeographic factors contributing to variation in Homo sapiens: Homo floresiensis reconsidered. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19, 1744–1767.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Semaw, S., Rogers, M.J., Quade, J., Renne, P.R., Butler, R.F., Dominguez- Rodrigo, M., Stout, D., Hart, W.S., Pickering, T., Simpson, S.W., 2003. 2.6-million-year-old stone tools and associated bones from OGS-6 and OGS-7, Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. Journal of Human Evolution 45, 169–77.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Taçon, P.S.C., 2005. Modern human behaviour and the implications of small-bodied hominin finds from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Before Farming 4, 1–6.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Tomášková, S., 2005. What is a burin? Typology, technology, and interregional comparison. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 12, 79–115.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Westaway, K.E., 2006. Reconstructing the Quaternary landscape evolution and climate history of western Flores: an environmental and chronological context for an archaeological site. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wollongong.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westaway, K.E., Morwood, M.J., Roberts, R.G., Zhao, J-x., Sutikna, T., Saptomo, E.W., Rink, W.J., in press. Establishing the time of initial human occupation of Liang Bua, western Flores, Indonesia. Quaternary Geochronology.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, J.P., 1968. Fabricators, outils écaillés or scalar cores? Mankind 6, 658–666.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, J.P., 1977. Crude, colourless and unenterprising? Prehistorians and their views on the Stone Age of Sunda and Sahul. In: Allen, J., Golson, J., Jones, R. (Eds.), Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia. Academic Press, London, pp. 13–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilke, P.J., Schroth, A.B., 1989. Lithic raw material prospects in the Mohave Desert. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 11, 146–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, K., 2005. The littlest human. Scientific American 292, 56–65.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, 2351, Australia

    Mark W. Moore

  2. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Street, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3ER, United Kingdom

    Adam Brumm

Authors
  1. Mark W. Moore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Adam Brumm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel

    Erella Hovers

  2. Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, 7701, Rondebosch, South Africa

    David R. Braun

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Moore, M.W., Brumm, A. (2009). Homo floresiensis and the African Oldowan. In: Hovers, E., Braun, D.R. (eds) Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Oldowan. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9060-8_6

Download citation