Once upon a Hobbit - The Fossil Chronicles - page 92

unpublished mandible had been broken in half and glued back together
in a misaligned way that caused bone loss. Casting molds had been
made of LB1's skull and jaw using improper methods. As a result, the
latex used in the process had ripped away important parts of the bone.
LB1's left cheekbone and two of her teeth had been broken of and glued
back. Morwood observed, “It was totally irresponsible, destructive in
the extreme and the antithesis of ethical scientific investigation—sick-
ening, in fact. The damage was irreparable. Moulds had been made, and
had continued to be made, regardless of consequences.” 51
This situation prompted an outcry from scientists around the world,
which caused embarrassment and consternation among Soejono, Jacob,
and their colleagues. Thereafter, a request was made by Soejono to Indo-
nesia's deputy minister for Archaeology and History to reassess “all
archaeology cooperations with foreign researchers.” As a consequence,
Morwood and his colleagues were unable to obtain a permit in 2005
to continue excavating at Liang Bua. 52 As noted in Nature, “Disputes
over palaeoanthropology dig sites are not uncommon—there has been
considerable squabbling over the control of hominid sites in Africa. But
it is unprecedented to close down such a spectacular site.” 53 Happily,
archaeologists saw a reopening of Liang Bua for research in 2007.
Another positive event that occurred in July 2007 was the Interna-
tional Seminar on Southeast Asian Paleoanthropology, which was held
in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Yogyakarta and sponsored by Jacob and
his colleagues, with 150 scholars in attendance. 54 Jacob took it all in with
a twinkle in his eye, and I am glad that I had the chance to meet him
before he died, only three months later. After the seminar adjourned,
we were treated to excursions to the famous Sangiran Homo erectus site
on Java and to Liang Bua on Flores (figure 13).
The complicated paleopolitics that surrounded the discovery of Homo
floresiensis was not just about who should be entitled to analyze the
remains. It also included acrimonious debate about whether or not LB1
really represented a new hominin species that was contemporaneous
with Homo sapiens from other parts of the world. One reason for this