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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
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.
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.
Brumm, A., 2007. The End of the Movius Line: Palaeolithic Stone Technology from a Southeast Asian Perspective. Ph.D. Dissertation, Australian National University.
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.
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.
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.
Crabtree, D.E., 1973. The obtuse angle as a functional edge. Tebiwa 16, 46–53.
Debénath, A., Dibble, H.L., 1994. Handbook of Paleolithic Typology. Volume One: Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Diamond, J., 2004. The astonishing micropygmies. Science 306, 2047–2048.
Flannery, T., 2004. Of dwarves and dragons. The Bulletin, 9 November, 32–34.
Foley, R. Lahr, M.M., 1997. Mode 3 technologies and the evolution of modern humans. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 7, 3–36.
Hayden, B., 1980. Confusion in the bipolar world: bashed pebbles and splintered pieces. Lithic Technology 9, 2–6.
Henneberg, M., Thorne, A., 2004. Flores human may be pathological Homo sapiens. Before Farming 4, 2–4.
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.
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.
Kohn, M., 2005. The little troublemaker. New Scientist 186, 41–45.
Leakey, M.D., 1971. Olduvai Gorge, Volume 3: Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
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.
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.
McCarthy, F.D., 1976. Australian Aboriginal Stone Implements. Second edition. Australian Museum Trust, Sydney.
Mellars, P., 2006. Going east: new genetic and archaeological perspectives on the modern human colonization of Eurasia. Science 313, 796–800.
Moore, M.W., 2005. The Design Space of Lithic Technology. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of New England.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Niven, J.E., 2007. Brains, islands and evolution: breaking all the rules. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22, 57–59.
Odell, G.H., 2004. Lithic Analysis. Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory, and Technique. Kluwer Academic, New York.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tomášková, S., 2005. What is a burin? Typology, technology, and interregional comparison. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 12, 79–115.
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.
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.
White, J.P., 1968. Fabricators, outils écaillés or scalar cores? Mankind 6, 658–666.
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.
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.
Wong, K., 2005. The littlest human. Scientific American 292, 56–65.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights 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
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9060-8_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9059-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9060-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)