Indonesia to begin the task of sifting through time, unearthing the origins of the first Australians.
Propelled by the potential of a known Stone Age site at Mata Menge in Flores, a small team had broken off to perform an exploratory dig in the cave of Liang Bua, near Ruteng. After months of careful excavation, they'd been greeted with little reward but fragments of animal bone and charcoal in caves; tempting evidence of fire-making hunters long gone. The questions they raised far outweighed their scant evidence.
Still the digging went on, wearing resources, optimism and funding thin. But hidden in that deep, dark cave, a secret lay six meters underground. A secret so shocking, that it turned the scientific community inside out.
Sophisticated stone tools had finally been recovered, over 450 tools, in itself, a remarkable find. But the bones they were associated with were extraordinary. First a tiny skull and then the petite skeleton of its owner had been uncovered. At only three feet tall, LB1, as she came to be known, was proving to be an evolutionary enigma. With a brain cavity three times smaller than a modern human, LB1 should not have been capable of producing the tools she was found with, those same tools that were now waiting patiently on Ivy's desk. She appeared two million years later than expected in the fossil record. She looked more ape than human. She created fire, tools, and survived to a time when modern humans had already begun invading the Nusa Tengarra islands. And she had friends.
More partial skeletons had been found, twelve individuals in total. How they had arrived across the impenetrable sea hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans was anyone’s guess. The implications for early human evolution and migration patterns into South-East Asia were potentially enormous. All that had been considered fact was now thrown in a heap and archaeologists were scrambling to pick up the pieces and re-align them. A race that Ivy desperately wanted to be part of.
Molecular archaeology was a new and controversial discipline. Still, Ivy had lobbied the controlling institute for a chance to analyse the stone tools. Organic residues on the tool surfaces promised new evidence on the diet and lifestyle of this strange addition to the human family. So tuned were the methods she used, Ivy could now determine between bird species based on a single shaft of feather. She used DNA sequencing to determine the species of plant or animal that had been cut, pounded and butchered.
To her own astonishment, permission had been granted for preliminary analysis of a sample of tools. She and Jayne had been stocking and preparing equipment for the impending arrival for weeks in anticipation.
“How many have we got?” asked Ivy, her mind buzzing with the scope of work ahead of them.
“One box so far, twelve artefacts,” Jayne said. Her eyes were shining. “More in a few days, we’ve got some seriously late nights ahead of us…” She rolled her eyes dramatically, but her enthusiasm was contagious. “I've had a quick look already; we've got bi-facial flakes, points, perforators, hammer-stones and scrapers. Chert and volcanic material by the looks of it. You’ve got to see them, just brilliant. I've put them in your office with a little something else from me.”
“Jayne,” Ivy began. “I told you not to-”
“Couldn’t have asked for a better day for it, either-” Jayne broke off mid-sentence, looking past Ivy. “You’ve got a visitor, hon,” she winked at Ivy. “Catch you later.” Jayne gave a quick wave to the person approaching behind Ivy and ducked back across the grass. Ivy lay back on her elbows, anticipating Liam's arrival from the refectory.
“How’s it going?” The voice was deeper than she expected and carried an Irish accent instead. Ivy glanced up and into the shifted sun, losing her balance and falling backward. She felt her face burn with embarrassment.
“Orrin, hi,” she said,
Propelled by the potential of a known Stone Age site at Mata Menge in Flores, a small team had broken off to perform an exploratory dig in the cave of Liang Bua, near Ruteng. After months of careful excavation, they'd been greeted with little reward but fragments of animal bone and charcoal in caves; tempting evidence of fire-making hunters long gone. The questions they raised far outweighed their scant evidence.
Still the digging went on, wearing resources, optimism and funding thin. But hidden in that deep, dark cave, a secret lay six meters underground. A secret so shocking, that it turned the scientific community inside out.
Sophisticated stone tools had finally been recovered, over 450 tools, in itself, a remarkable find. But the bones they were associated with were extraordinary. First a tiny skull and then the petite skeleton of its owner had been uncovered. At only three feet tall, LB1, as she came to be known, was proving to be an evolutionary enigma. With a brain cavity three times smaller than a modern human, LB1 should not have been capable of producing the tools she was found with, those same tools that were now waiting patiently on Ivy's desk. She appeared two million years later than expected in the fossil record. She looked more ape than human. She created fire, tools, and survived to a time when modern humans had already begun invading the Nusa Tengarra islands. And she had friends.
More partial skeletons had been found, twelve individuals in total. How they had arrived across the impenetrable sea hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans was anyone’s guess. The implications for early human evolution and migration patterns into South-East Asia were potentially enormous. All that had been considered fact was now thrown in a heap and archaeologists were scrambling to pick up the pieces and re-align them. A race that Ivy desperately wanted to be part of.
Molecular archaeology was a new and controversial discipline. Still, Ivy had lobbied the controlling institute for a chance to analyse the stone tools. Organic residues on the tool surfaces promised new evidence on the diet and lifestyle of this strange addition to the human family. So tuned were the methods she used, Ivy could now determine between bird species based on a single shaft of feather. She used DNA sequencing to determine the species of plant or animal that had been cut, pounded and butchered.
To her own astonishment, permission had been granted for preliminary analysis of a sample of tools. She and Jayne had been stocking and preparing equipment for the impending arrival for weeks in anticipation.
“How many have we got?” asked Ivy, her mind buzzing with the scope of work ahead of them.
“One box so far, twelve artefacts,” Jayne said. Her eyes were shining. “More in a few days, we’ve got some seriously late nights ahead of us…” She rolled her eyes dramatically, but her enthusiasm was contagious. “I've had a quick look already; we've got bi-facial flakes, points, perforators, hammer-stones and scrapers. Chert and volcanic material by the looks of it. You’ve got to see them, just brilliant. I've put them in your office with a little something else from me.”
“Jayne,” Ivy began. “I told you not to-”
“Couldn’t have asked for a better day for it, either-” Jayne broke off mid-sentence, looking past Ivy. “You’ve got a visitor, hon,” she winked at Ivy. “Catch you later.” Jayne gave a quick wave to the person approaching behind Ivy and ducked back across the grass. Ivy lay back on her elbows, anticipating Liam's arrival from the refectory.
“How’s it going?” The voice was deeper than she expected and carried an Irish accent instead. Ivy glanced up and into the shifted sun, losing her balance and falling backward. She felt her face burn with embarrassment.
“Orrin, hi,” she said,
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