The brave and adventure-loving hobbit from Tolkien’s novel “The Lord of the Rings” turned out to be absolutely real. Behind the mythical stories and legends that the fantasy writer creates, an extraordinary discovery has emerged. It has puzzled scientists. Is it possible that hobbits are beings that actually existed? For this, it seems, there is evidence!
A sensational discovery made by paleontologists from Australia’s University of New England has revealed a new part of the human family tree. It was named Homo floresiensis after the island where it was discovered.
In 2003, in one of the caves on the Indonesian island of Flores, near the famous resort of Bali, scientists discovered the remains of eight small humanoids. They looked like hobbits – adults and two-legged, whose height did not exceed a meter.
The first impression of the scientists is that these are the skeletons of children. But a closer examination of the remains has led to confusion. During the tests, it was found that the little ones are about 30 years old. The time of burial has been verified in four different ways, including radiocarbon dating. It happened 12-18,000 years ago.
Among the finds is a well-preserved female skull the size of a grapefruit and parts of skeletons. In scientific circles, the owner of the skull is called a hobbit by analogy with the character from the famous trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”.
Paleontologist William Jungers (William Jungers) from Stony Brook University in New York shows an unusually large foot of Homo floresiensis – it is longer than half of the tibia and is about 25 centimeters. For a height of less than one meter, it is quite long.
And this is so impressive because both Mr. Frodo from The Lord of the Rings and the other movie hobbits that Tolkien created have disproportionately large and hairy feet.
Archaeologists are also impressed by the legends told by the indigenous population of the island of Flores – about the little hairy people. According to the accounts of one of the village elders, recorded by Richard Roberts, the microcephalic ancient inhabitant ate raw vegetables, meat, and even occasionally, human flesh.
The remarkable thing about this story is that there are others like it. And in all of them they talk about people up to one meter tall, with long hair, slightly protruding ears, elongated hands and fingers. A somewhat unstable gait is characteristic of them. These data are almost identical to the results of the studied skeletons, which the researchers called the “hobbit” project.
The last time the islanders saw the little ones with big feet was in the 19th century, shortly before the island was conquered by the first Dutch settlers. But this does not mean that the microcephalic Homo floresiensis disappeared from the face of the Earth. Maybe it was just that the little hobbit hid in the jungle?
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