'Hobbits' lure tourists

2004-11-08 07:59

Indonesia - The discovery of remains of a tiny human closely-related to man on the remote Indonesian island of Flores and tales of Hobbit-like creatures who still roam its jungles have triggered an influx of visitors in search of a fabled lost world.

Paleontologists last week said they had exhumed the bones of a previously unknown species, Homo floresiensis, from a cave near the village of Liang Bua, a revelation which has shaken the evolutionary tree and the science community.

The find, by researchers speculating that the tiny humans match tales of gluttonous little folk seen in the island's forests, has fired the imagination of visitors willing to make the trek to what they hope will be a real-life Jurassic Park.

Local tour operators have already posted a package deal on the internet, offering a five day expedition.

But reaching the huge limestone caves, which lie in the heart of the densely vegetated island towards the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, is no holiday.

From Bali or the neighbouring island of Sumbawa, the Flores port of Labuan Bajo can only be reached by a small propellor plane or a boat which skirts the volcanic island of Komodo, the eponymous home of giant "dragon" lizards.

Winds of change

Then follows a half-day journey along narrow roads through lush forests to the central town of Ruteng, from where a bumpy ride over a cratered 14-kilometre track reaches Liang Bua.

The inhabitants of this village have rarely encountered foreigners over the past half century.

However, this is beginning to change with the arrival first of TV crews and now sightseers.

"There has already been a German tourist here," said Agustinus Manga, who has been charged by his village with the task of guarding the cave after the departure of the archaeologists.

Happy to see his pale-faced visitors, he makes them sign a slim gold book.

According to researchers, Flores man lived here 18 000 years ago, a relatively short time ago in the history of man's development.

Wiped out

From the skeleton discovered, scientists concluded the homonid stood one metre tall and had a brain the size of a chimpanzee. Tools discovered in the cave suggest the dwarf could cut stone and drive off prehistoric elephants.

The species, which researchers say evolved from the larger Homo erectus in an environment where being small was an advantage, appears to have been wiped out by a volcanic eruption 12 000 years ago.

Though there have been reports of hairy little people seen regularly up until Dutch settlers arrived in the 19th century - few residents in Liang Bua seem to have heard of these creatures.

Ricus Bandar, a 60-year-old villager, said he had no memory of tales of hirsute bipeds wandering through the jungles.

The theory that some of the dwarf species may have survived was also met with scepticism from the head of the police post in the town of Ruteng.

But Timbul Marselinus, the tourism chief, has dreams of grandeur, predicting both the fossil discovery and the jungle legends will put his town on the map.

- AFP