the timboucher experience

Yesterday, I came across a cool discovery reported in the BBC about a pint-sized primitive human who lived some 18,000 years ago on an island in Indonesia, named Flores. The scientific name for the species is homo floresiensis but they are calling it “the Hobbit” since it shares many traits with Tolkien’s fictional dimuitive race.

They believe the species got to the island by boat, although they had formerly thought this type of activity was too complex for hominids of that time period. Apparently, there is an evolutionary pattern where if a group of animals gets isolated on an island, they sometimes develop in unusual ways - in this case, growing very small. They are said to have hunted a species of pygmy elephant which was about the size of a pony. Komodo dragons are the main predator on that island, they probably had to deal regularly with them as well.

More interesting than all that though, is the fact that modern aboriginal inhabitants of this island actually have legends describing creatures which are virtually identical to the remains found. An article by Richard Roberts, one of the researchers involved in the project goes into this in more detail.

The villagers call the creature Ebu Gogo and legends suggest that it survived as recently as one hundred years ago, if not even more recently. Ebu Gogo means “he who eats anything.”

One of the village elders told us that the Ebu Gogo ate everything raw, including vegetables, fruits, meat and, if they got the chance, even human meat.

… The villagers say that the Ebu Gogo raided their crops, which they tolerated, but decided to chase them away when the Ebu Gogo stole - and ate - one of their babies.

Also, the anatomical details of the creatures described in legend is the same as what was discovered, and does indeed sound very elf or hobbit-like:

The anatomical details in the legends are equally fascinating. They are described as about a metre tall, with long hair, pot bellies, ears that slightly stick out, a slightly awkward gait, and longish arms and fingers - both confirmed by our further finds this year.

Also, Ebu Gogo was said to be able to repeat words spoken to it, much like a parrot. Oh, there are even legends that suggest that Ebu Gogo interbred with certain villages, and that people in those villagers share some of their traits. Which is craziness. Man, what a discovery that would be to find one of these little dudes still running around. This also reminds me a bit of the legend of the orang-pendek, which is a hominid cryptid which some claims still exist in Sumatra.

[Found that second link via Ran Prieur]

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