How did Micronesia be populated?

 Kuva: Publc Domain. 

Joel Kontinen

How did the Micronesian islands be populated, according to Genesis? They probably got their inhabitants after God made the nations choose their language in Genesis 10, 

This also shows how H. floresiensis or the also known as the Hobbits. came about.  

Source:

Zahn,  M.Laura.2022, Human migrations into Micronesia Science 1July. 

A Chinese Dwarf May Solve the Hobbit Syndrome

A skeleton found in China belonged to an individual with a rare form of dwarfism. Image courtesy of Sian Halcrow et al. 2019.



Joel Kontinen

a Chinese dwarf may solve the hobbit syndrome. Hobbits or Flores Menn has been quite lively discussed in the past few years. (You can read more here, here and here.). According to fresh research, the Hobbit was not a distinct human species but a true H. sapiens suffering from iodine deficiency.

This is what the Chinese dwarf symbolises. Although not as old as the hobbits, it was a good 5,000 years old, posted on December 13 in the International Journal of Paleopathology, it may be a case for hobbit. However, this limbs of this dwarf that were shorter-than-her average stature.

It may well solve the hobbit syndrome.

Source;

Lanese, Nicoletta. 2019. 5,000-Year-Old Human Found with 'Extremely Rare' Form of Dwarfism Live Science (16 December).

Were Hobbits Master Toolmakers?

Hobbits were obviously master toolmakers.



Joel Kontinen

In 2003 tiny human fossils were found on the Indonesian island of Flores. The 1-metre- tall Flores Man (Homo floresiensis) was soon dubbed Hobbit after Tolkien’s diminutive Middle Earth hero.

It now seems that these Hobbits have left us proof of their dexterity. They used sharp-edged stone tools.

Archaeologist Mark Moore of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, and his colleagues examined over 11 000 stone tools found in the Liang Buan Cave on Flores island.

With a brain capacity of a third of H. sapiens, Hobbits were nevertheless able to craft so good stone tools that when people classified as H. sapiens later came to the island, they used the very same pattern in their tools. This became obvious when the archaeologists examined the layers in the cave. H. sapiens obviously used the same cave after the Hobbits.

Moore even suggests that H. floresiensis and H. sapiens might have interacted.

Although Hobbits were small, we have no reason to think that they were not fully human. They were obviously no more primitive than individuals classified as Homo sapiens. Like us, they were the descendants of a real man called Adam.



Source:

Culotta, Elizabeth. 2009. Did Humans Learn From Hobbits? ScienceNOW Daily News. (17 April) http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/417/3

The Hobbit Wars: Did An 18 000 Year-Old Hobbit See A Dentist?

Joel Kontinen

An Australian paleopathologist has raised a stir by suggesting that a tiny human fossil claimed to be 18 000 years old actually had a tooth filled by a dentist. Called hobbits because of their size (1 meter), the remains of H. floresiensis were found in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 and 2004.

As recently reported by ScienceNow Daily News, Maciej Henneberg of the University of Adelaide photographed the jaws of a H. floresiensis specimen (LB1) in 2005. When he later studied the photos he thought he saw evidence of a whitish cement filling, a technique dentists used in the Flores area in the 1930s instead of metal amalgams.

The hobbit wars have been raging almost continually since their initial discovery, with many researchers claiming that H. floresiensis is just a modern human suffering from microcephaly or some other condition that stunted their growth and should not be classified as a distinct species. Some scientists, however, remain sceptical of such claims.

It seems that the hobbit wars are far from over. Peter Brown of the University of Adelaide, who was part of the research team that initially reported the hobbit find, insists that he investigated the LB1 specimen (in 2004) and did not seen any signs of filling.

As is often the case with fossil finds, researchers tend to guard their specimens jealously and are reluctant to let their colleagues study the skulls. The Indonesians who have the hobbit remains in their possession are analysing them. They have denied Hennenberg’s research team access to them so he is not able to verify his claim.

Dating human ancestors has often been a vey tricky process. Different dating methods and starting assumptions can produce results that differ considerably from each other. For instance, In 1967 Richard Leakey found a skull now known as KNM-ER 1470 (which stands for Kenya National Museum, East Rudolph, museum acquisition number 1470) in the Lake Turkana area of northern Kenya. The skull looked very modern and very human-like but was initially thought to be 2.9 million years old.

Following the discovery, a heated exchange of ideas continued unabated on the pages of the journal Nature for over ten years. During that time, the initially published date fell from 2.61 million years to 1.88 million years in 1981.

Thus, if past struggles are any indication, the hobbit wars might well continue for a long time to come.

Read more abbout hobbits here.


Sources:

Culotta, Elizabeth. 2008. Tempest in a Hobbit Tooth. ScienceNOw Daily News. 24 April http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/424/2

Lubenow, Marvin L. 1992. Bones of Contention. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.