Latest news with #NationalResearchandInnovationAgencyofIndonesia
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Signs of million-year-old ancient humans found on Australia's doorstep
Over a million years ago, an ancient human ancestor arrived on an island north of Australia, and no one knows how they got there or why they disappeared, but several theories have emerged. All that remains of these mysterious people are stone tools unearthed from a pit beneath a modern-day cornfield that was once a fertile riverbed. Because they lived on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, it's possible they were small like the now extinct 'Hobbit' people who lived on neighbouring Flores. Until their bones are found, it will be impossible to know what they look like or how they evolved. The discovery was revealed on Thursday, with details published in the prestigious journal Nature by Budianto Hakim from the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia and Professor Adam Brumm from Griffith University. A total of seven tools were found in sedimentary layers of a sandstone in the town of Calio, and they've been dated to the early Pleistocene (the last great ice age), making them the oldest signs of hominid activity on the island. Even though it was colder, there weren't glaciers in the region because it was still the tropics, although it was more arid. Large robust pigs with tusks that projected from their mouths, and an extinct species of elephant called stegodon, roamed the island. Although it's unknown what sort of plants grew during the era. Pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together, but there are a lot that are still Adam Brumm How did these ancient humans cross the ocean? Speaking with Yahoo News Australia, Prof Brumm said it was 'fascinating' that human ancestors arrived on Australia's 'doorstep' but couldn't get any further. He doesn't believe they travelled using boats because they would have lacked the cognitive skills to create them, and they would have been more widely dispersed across the region. 'If they had boats, there's nothing that would have stopped them getting to Australia, and we don't have any evidence of that,' he said. 'I think it's more likely to be some freak geological event, involving hominoids being washed out to sea by a tsunami from mainland Asia, and clinging to floating trees. Other species, including rats, monkeys, and even early elephants, have also conquered new islands by sea. Humans have occupied Australia for at least 65,000 years. The Sulawesi discovery dates from at least 1.04 million years ago. Signs of Flores's Hobbit people are from 1.02 million years ago. Why did these ancient humans vanish? Archaeologists are excavating a second site on Sulawesi that they're hopeful will register the arrival of modern humans. At 174,600 square kilometres, Sulawesi is the eleventh largest island in the world, and so it's possible they co-existed with early hominids for generations. 'There are a lot of places they could have retreated to avoid modern humans. There's a very interesting story waiting to be revealed on that island, but as of yet we just don't have the evidence to tell us what it is,' Professor Brumm said. Sadly, it's easy to guess what eventually happened because whenever humans conquer new territory, extinctions follow. It's believed we played a role in wiping out the Neanderthals, as well as hundreds of thousands of other animal species like the dodo, Steller's sea cow, dodo, thylacine, and giant moa. Solution to Great Barrier Reef problem as new report released Australia greenlights plan to build airport road through rare animal's grassland home Authorities caught unlawfully using 'cruel' devices to catch dingoes Over time, modern humans likely began to dominate Sulawesi, but when the extinction of their predecessor occurred is unknown. 'Humans are not very nice. We seem compelled to do what we do. Our very way of life tends to result in not very good outcomes for the other species we share the planet with,' Prof Brumm said. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ancient Tools Suggest Indonesian 'Hobbits' Had a Mysterious Neighbor
The ancestors of the ancient 'hobbits' who once lived on the Indonesian island of Flores were not the only early hominins to cross deep ocean barriers more than a million years ago. A team of archaeologists from Indonesia and Australia has now discovered the tools of a mysterious neighbor who resided on the island of Sulawesi to the north around the same time, if not earlier. "It's highly unlikely these early hominins had the cognitive capacity (especially the ability for advanced planning) required to invent boats," archaeologist and co-lead of the expedition, Adam Brumm, told ScienceAlert. "It is more likely that hominins got to Sulawesi by accident, most probably as a result of 'rafting' on natural vegetation mats. It's thought rodents and monkeys made overwater crossings from the Asian mainland to reach Sulawesi in this way." Related: The seven flaked stones on Sulawesi were found at different depths below ground, but according to the dating of local sandstone and a nearby pig fossil, the tools range in age from 1.04 million years to 1.48 million years. If correct, the artifacts could represent the earliest evidence of human activity in Wallacea – a string of mainly Indonesian islands that has separated the Asian and Australian continents for millions of years. The identity of the isolated toolmakers remains a mystery. Brumm has been studying early hominins in the region for decades, and he co-led the recent archaeological expedition on Sulawesi with Budianto Hakim from the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia (BRIN). Archaeologist Debbie Argue, who was not involved in the discovery, told ScienceAlert the findings are "most important", because they add to the startling fact that early Pleistocene hominins could somehow make sea crossings. "With evidence for hominins on three islands that have never been attached to a mainland – Flores, Luzon, and now Sulawesi – island Southeast Asia is shaping up to be an extraordinary frontier for human evolution," said Argue. Until now, the earliest evidence of stone tools in Wallacea – which are thought to be 1.02 million years old – came from the island of Flores. Flores is the same place where archaeologists discovered the short-statured Homo floresiensis – also known as the 'hobbit' – in a cave in 2003. This meter-high hominin (3.3 feet) with a brain the size of grapefruit took the world by surprise when it was found, because it didn't look like any other early human. The remains of H. floriensis date up to 100,000 years ago, but its presumed ancestors on the island date back 700,000 years. The 1.02 million-year-old stone tools on Flores were probably made by those ancestors – whether descended from Homo erectus or another hominin species on the Asian mainland. According to a 2021 interview with archaeologist Lucy Timbrell, Brumm accidentally happened upon the Flores tools while "nursing an appalling hangover" due to a local village ceremony the night before. "Whilst stumbling about in the sweltering heat, in a bewildered state, I found some heavily patinated stone tools eroding out from a fluvial conglomerate exposed at the base of a gully," Brumm recalled in the interview. "I have since tried to make major archaeological discoveries while hungover, but it only worked that one time." Archaeologists have yet to uncover hominin fossils on Sulawesi, but the evidence of stone tools indicates their existence. It's unknown if the Sulawesi population was related to hominins on Flores, but the late Mike Morwood, one of the co-discoverers of the 2003 'hobbit', was convinced that Sulawesi was the key to understanding where H. floresiensis came from. "We had always suspected that hominins were established on Sulawesi for a very long period of time, but until now we had never found clear evidence," Brumm told ScienceAlert. Influenced by Morwood's thinking, Brumm suspects that Sulawesi was once a stepping stone to Flores from mainland Asia (which once stretched as far as Java and Borneo). In 2010, Morwood told The Guardian that he suspected tools on Sulawesi could date back two million years. "This is going to put the cat among the pigeons," he said at the time. No doubt he would have been thrilled by the recent work of Brumm's and Hakim's team. The archaeologists now plan to search Sulawesi for direct remains of the mysterious tool makers. "We are also working at much younger sites that we hope will provide insight into what happened to these early humans when our species arrived on the island at least 65,000 years ago," said Brumm. The study was published in Nature. Related News DNA Casts Doubt Over Theory on What Killed Napoleon's Forces Study Reveals How Many IVF Babies Have Been Born Worldwide Image on The Shroud of Turin May Not Belong to a Real Human Solve the daily Crossword
National Geographic
06-08-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
Did ancient ‘hobbit' humans create these million-year-old tools?
Seven newly discovered stone tools, dating to between 1.04 and 1.48 million years ago, were found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The stone tools may have been created by an ancient hominin, such as Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, their relatives, or members of a yet-undiscovered species. Photograph courtesy of M.W. Moore/University of New England. In 2004, archaeologists discovered a new species of ancient human, Homo floresiensis, on the Indonesian island of Flores. Nicknamed 'the hobbit,' this three-foot-tall hominin lived between about 60,000 and 100,000 years ago. Its discovery kickstarted a broader search across Southeast Asia's islands for fossils and other traces of early human relatives. On Luzon in the Philippines, scientists later found another small-bodied hominin, Homo luzonensis, the remains of which dated to between 50,000 and 67,000 years ago. Across the region, researchers have also uncovered artifacts that predate the fossils, including flaked stone tools from 1.02 million years ago on Flores and 700,000-year-old stone tools on Luzon, which strongly suggests that hominins have arrived far earlier than evidenced by the oldest known fossils. Now, on the larger Indonesian island of Sulawesi, a team of researchers has unearthed stone tools dating to between 1.04 and 1.48 million years ago, pushing back the presence of ancient human relatives on the island by hundreds of thousands of years. Previously, the earliest signs of hominin activity on Sulawesi dated to about 194,000 years ago. Excavations at Calio in southern Sulawesi, Indonesia found seven flaked stone tools that were likely made by an ancient hominin. Photograph courtesy of the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia (BRIN) 'At least one million years ago, there were tool-producing hominins on Sulawesi,' says Gerrit van den Bergh, a vertebrate paleontologist from the University of Wollongong in Australia, and one of the authors of a paper about the findings that was published Wednesday in Nature. But a mystery remains: Were these early toolmakers the 'hobbit' Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, their relatives, or members of a yet-undiscovered species? Hammering for stone tools The Sulawesi expedition was led by Budianto Hakim, an archaeologist from Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency. Limited Time: Bonus Issue Offer Subscribe now and gift up to 4 bonus issues—starting at $34/year. The team found seven tools, all embedded in sandstone, at a site called Calio on the south of the island. Hakim found the youngest at the surface, and the oldest was found about two feet deeper down. Based on the approximate age of the surrounding rock and a giant pig jaw buried just above it, the tools are estimated to be at least a million, possibly nearly 1.5 million years old. The youngest stone tools, dating to around 1.04 million years ago, were found embedded near the surface of sandstone. Photograph by Adam Brumm/Griffith University The oldest of the stone tools dated to around 1.48 million years ago and were found two feet below the younger tools. Photograph by Adam Brumm/Griffith University Though two feet may not sound like much of a dig, 'you have to break up the hard rock with a hammer and a chisel,' says van den Bergh, who previously explored the area in the early 1990s. Underneath, the researchers discovered an ancient riverbed in which the tools had been preserved. 'We don't know what they were doing with these sharp-edged flakes of stone, but most likely they were cutting or scraping implements of some kind,' says Adam Brumm, an archaeologist from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, and an author of the study. Closer investigation revealed the stones were turned around to be struck with another stone at the most promising points to produce useful flakes, showing that whoever made the tools was skilled at it. Some flakes were then struck again to create even sharper tools. Seafaring or swept away? The stone tool discovery hammers home another point: ancient humans, whoever they were, somehow made it to these islands and found a way to survive. Brumm does not think they did so by boat, however. 'Most likely, they crossed to Sulawesi from the Asian mainland in the same way rodents and monkeys are suspected to have done—by accident, presumably as castaways on natural 'rafts' of floating vegetation, maybe after a tsunami,' he says. Flores, where H. floresiensis was found, is hundreds of miles south of Sulawesi. It's also possible hominins from the Philippines—maybe 'hobbits,' maybe not—first made it to Sulawesi, and then ended up on Flores, like how animals did, says van den Bergh. 'If you look at the islands from north to south, the fauna becomes increasingly impoverished,' he says. 'Luzon had rhinos, buffaloes, deer, wild pigs, two kinds of elephants. Sulawesi never had rhinos, but it did have wild pigs and both elephants. Flores had only one of the elephants–and several rat species.' The recent discovery at Calio in southern Sulawesi, Indonesia pushes back the presence of ancient human relatives on the island by hundreds of thousands of years. Photograph courtesy of the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia (BRIN) The further from the Philippines–or the mainland–the fewer animals appear to have made it across. The relationship between the hominins on Sulawesi and H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis cannot be made without fossil remains. But it's possible they were at least distantly related. Our own species, Homo sapiens, and our relatives Neandertals and Denisovans did not yet exist, so van den Bergh says the small-bodied hominins most likely descended from Homo erectus, 'which we know was on the mainland at the right place at the right time.' Thomas Ingicco, a paleoanthropologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, and a National Geographic Explorer, agrees Homo erectus is the most likely ancestor of the hominins on South-East Asian islands in this period. Ingicco led a 2018 study documenting the earliest known stone tools and evidence of animal butchery in the Philippines but was not involved in this study. He warns, though, that even though it's 'tempting to think that hominins may have arrived on Sulawesi first, more findings might come out from Luzon and Flores,' and it would therefore be too early, he says, 'to hypothesize too fast about migration paths.' So, were these stone tool-making ancient hominins on Sulawesi 'hobbits,' Homo luzonensis, Homo erectus, or something else? Without any fossils, the answer remains unknown, at least for now. 'I can assure you that in Sulawesi,' van den Bergh says, 'the hunt for hominins will start soon.'
