Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
point researchers from the Indonesian National Research Centre for
excavated more of the earth surrounding the skull, which permitted
Rhokus Due Awe to identify LB1 as a hominin. Two other researchers
from ARKENAS also had a hand in the discovery—
Sri Wasisto and
Jatmiko (figure 12; his single name perplexes journal editors). Thomas
Sutikna, who had remained at Liang Bua as the overall director of
the excavation, phoned Morwood with daily reports as the work pro-
gressed, and he and Rhokus continued to clean and harden the remains
of LB1.
Before the project began, Morwood had wisely arranged for signed
agreements that spelled out publication protocols, intellectual prop-
erty rights, and procedures for resolving future conflicts. One of these,
the Agreement of Cooperation, was thus negotiated in 2001 between
ARKENAS and the University of New England (UNE), in Australia,
where Morwood then worked. Soejono and Morwood were named as
counterparts representing the two institutions as chief investigators.
Specific agreements for individual projects, including excavation at
Liang Bua, were also negotiated. Morwood reported some of the sig-
nificant ones: “An important provision was that 'specialist input from
other Parties and disciplines will be on the basis of invitation after due
discussion between the Chief Investigators'; also that intellectual prop-
erty was to be equally shared between the institutions; and that neither
party could subcontract the benefit of its right under this arrangement
Sadly, the goodwill between Morwood and Soejono embodied in
these agreements began to evaporate with the discovery of LB1 in August
2003. The problem was that Soejono wanted the remains of LB1 and the
other
Homo floresiensis
specimens to be described and interpreted by his
close friend, Professor Teuku Jacob, who was the head of the Laboratory
of Bioanthropology and Paleoanthropology at the University of Gadjah
Mada, in Yogyakarta, Java. Although Jacob was 74 years old at the time,
he was reputed to be the “king of paleoanthropology” in Indonesia. King
