Timor Cave May Reveal How Humans Reached Australia
Some 42,000 years ago, people in East Timor knew nothing of, and cared less about some or other distant descendants, or their festive attempts to forestall the detrimental effects on mood and well-being, exacerbated by living in the high northern latitudes of Europe and beyond.
Instead, these southern dwelling people, sometime residents of the depicted cave, were turning their thoughts towards the open seas and whatever lay beyond the horizon. It’s probable they knew of the existence of other islands, as well as the continent of Australia from plumes of smoke rising high into the sky, likely from wild-fires burning uncontrollably across the countryside, or in the case of islands like Flores, the after effects of minor volcanic activity.
And it is the island of Flores, home to those enigmatic exiles, Homo floresiensis, as well as what may well have been Homo erectus, themselves dating back the greater part of a million years, to which our attention is once more diverted.
Dr. Sue O’Connor, an archaeologist from the Australian National University has been excavating the limestone shelter of Jerimalai, on the island of East Timor, where she has detected signs of human dating back at least 42,000 years. But because she has so far only used radio-carbon dating, whose limit is defined by the the 42,000 year-date, it’s possible that this site has been occupied for far longer.
“A cave site in East Timor where people lived more than 42,000 years ago, eating turtles, tuna and giant rats,…..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 (to Australia) here from South-East Asia.”
It was believed in some circles that the first Australians reached her shores by travelling in from Papua New Guinea, via Borneo and Sulawesi, but Dr. O;Connor believes her finds indicate otherwise. Furthermore, she goes on to suggest that…
“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.”
The surprising detail arising from this is the evidence of past food consumption, which shows that as well as eating land-based giant rats, and readily available shore food such as turtle, these people also ate tuna, a deep sea fish, that would have required people to build rafts or boats. Additionally they would have needed hooks, fabricated from an unknown source, in order to snare their catch - an ability thought to have been beyond the reach of homo floresiensis.
“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.”
Given their diminutive stature, it’s hard to imagine the hobbit people being able to repel determined invaders by force, assuming of course there weren’t still some larger and fitter members of the Homo erectus species around to protect them, but more of that idea another time.
“The Mystery of the Human Hobbit” (2005) - (Google video, 40 mins)
Nova - 11 min clip
Did Early Humans First Arise in Asia, Not Africa?Sources : Tim Jones
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