Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The myth of human uniqueness, that we are a special case, was only
slightly dented by the discovery of the Neanderthal culture, since it was pos-
sible that the Neanderthals had simply copied from modern humans. It was
decidedly pummeled by Thieme's discovery that the pre-Neanderthals, who
certainly had no contact with modern humans, were expert hunters. But it
has been smashed to pieces by the discovery of the Hobbits, an advanced
people who may have parted company with our own immediate ancestors
and begun to pursue an independent evolutionary path more than 2 million
years ago. A separate Hobbit lineage may be traceable more than twice as far
back as that of the Neanderthals, and yet the Hobbits too had attributes that
we think of as uniquely human.
Here there be dragons
The Hobbits, perhaps our most astonishing relatives, lived on the island of
Flores in Indonesia. Let me begin their story by setting the scene.
As we saw in the fi rst chapter, Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a
chain of islands that stretches from Java to the western end of New Guinea.
Each of the islands in the chain has its own distinct character. Lombok and
Sumbawa are large islands with a mix of open forest and grassland. Sum-
bawa is dominated by the great cone of Tambora, the volcano that pro-
duced the “year without a summer” after its vast eruption in 1812. Komodo
and Rinca are smaller, with patches of gallery forest and much open grass-
land. They are the last refuge of the Komodo dragon, the world's largest
lizard.
The island of Rinca is especially gorgeous, and is as full of dragons as
any medieval map-maker could wish. When I recently stepped ashore at
Rinca, which now forms part of Komodo National Park, I was immediately
confronted by a dragon that forced me to leap to safety on a convenient
ledge. The dragon then crawled out onto the dock, producing an indescrib-
able silky sibilant clicking sound as it slithered over the boards. It sent the
boat crews scurrying for shelter before it turned and moved regally back to
its island.
