Once upon a Hobbit - The Fossil Chronicles - page 84

found in Africa, known as Oldowan tools, after Olduvai Gorge, in Tan-
zania. The Oldowan “pebble tools” could have been made by austra-
lopithecines, early Homo, or both. If we take a conservative approach,
the minimal implication regarding Homo floresiensis 's level of intelligence
that can be inferred from the Liang Bua tools is that hobbits were prob-
ably more intelligent than apes and at least as smart as australopith-
ecines. The type of tools that Homo floresiensis made, however, is only
one line of evidence.
The archaeological record shows that, compared with Homo floresien-
sis, Homo sapiens engaged in a number of cognitively advanced behaviors
after arriving on Flores. 29 For example, people deliberately interred
their dead in the more recent strata at Liang Bua. LB1, on the other
hand, was buried by natural processes after she died and sank into the
mud in a shallow pool of water that was in the cave. 30 Unlike hobbits,
Homo sapiens imported shells, used ornaments and pigments, and even-
tually brought new species of livestock (including monkeys, pigs, and
cattle) to the island.
The horizontal and vertical distribution of bones, tools, and botani-
cal evidence (including plant fibers, starches, and phytoliths) in Liang
Bua shows that hobbits had their own advanced behaviors. 31 The par-
ticular layers that were occupied by Homo floresiensis contained not only
tools and knapping debris but also concentrations of stegodont bones
that had butchery cuts. Bones from Komodo dragons, rats, birds, and
small reptiles were also present, and botanical remains reveal that vari-
ous plants were brought into the cave to be processed. Clearly, hobbits
were successful hunters, scavengers, and gatherers, and their lifestyle
remained relatively stable throughout their long tenure at Liang Bua.
They also used fire, as shown by charcoal, charred bones, and clusters of
fire-cracked rocks, including a circular arrangement of burned pebbles
that may have been part of a hearth . 32
Mike Morwood vividly envisioned what hobbit life must have been
like in his and Penny Van Oosterzee's book, The Discovery of the Hobbit: