March 29, 2008
There’s been a recent discovery of some human skull, of a similar size to, but apparently not related to the Flores ‘Hobbits’.
It’s an interesting find, that’s well covered on anthropology.net, so I’m not going to do it myself, except in brief. Try National Geographic for the whole article on the 3 to 4 ft tribe.
The more interesting thing about it is the accusations of mishandling and cultural insensitivity, as apparently not every living Palauan was personally consulted over the dig. It seems that the team did consult the local govt and get the relevant permits, and even had locals on the team. the remains are now in the Palauan museum. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s a storm in tea cup, brewed for the sole purpose of selling a few magazines.
The argument involving some people from National Geographic was the most interesting thing about all of this. The blog’s well worth a visit to the read the just comments. It tells you a lot about how journalists can distort facts to make a story sound dramatic.
I’m all for not digging up peoples grannies, and if it looked like these were related to modern Palauans I’d say the local chiefs were justified in griping. But considering the size of the remains, I think it’s pretty unlikely they were their ancestors…
