In 2003, a landmark discovery was made on the island of Flores, east of Komodo in Indonesia.
Here were discovered the bones of a hitherto unknown species of ancient man, and these people were very small in stature, not exceeding a meter in height.
For their small stature, they were called "hobbits" in honor of the characters in Tolkien's fantasy novel, and the official scientific name of these people is the Man of Flores. They lived on this island from 13 to 95 thousand years ago.
Among anthropologists, a discussion immediately flared up about who the "hobbits" are and what place they occupy in the evolutionary tree of mankind. Among the hypotheses, opinions were expressed that "sick individuals" of the species of Homo sapiens or its insular dwarf variety were found. They say that is why they have small skulls and short stature. An even more radical hypothesis suggests that the bones found do belong to monkeys, not humans.
But there is another unusual hypothesis about the "hobbits", which is also adhered to by the famous British cryptozoologist Richard Freeman, who once worked at the Twycross Zoo.
Freeman was looking for a marsupial wolf in Tasmania, in India he was looking for a local yeti, in the Gambia he was looking for a giant anaconda and a dragon Ninki-Nanka, and among other things he came to the Indonesian island of Sumatra to look for a mythical creature called orang-pendek. which translates from the local language as "short man".
Orang-pendek lives in the remote mountainous regions of the island and local tribes often meet him and tell many tales about him. It is described as a bipedal humanoid primate, 80-120 cm tall and covered with short red hair.
Locals also assure that the orang-pendek is significantly different from the orangutan living in the same Sumatra. Including the fact that orangutans spend most of their time in trees and they have very long arms, specially adapted for climbing branches. And the orang-pendek does not climb trees, but walks on the ground like a man and has short but strong legs. It is also sometimes described that the nose of the orang-pendek is almost human.
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Orang-pendek.
In addition to Sumatra, legends about the orang-pendek go to other parts of Indonesia and all of Southeast Asia. Scientists still cannot say who this creature is, and they write it off either as an invention by a native, or as a confusion with an orangutan.
“Some researchers suggest that orang-pendek may be an ancient human species that has survived to our times. Back in the 1940s, William Charles Osman Hill, a primatologist, zoologist and anatomist, suggested that the orang-pendek could be related to the ancient species Homo erectus, "says Richard Freeman." Just like the mythical creature Nittaevo from Sri Lanka, orang-pendek may have been a dwarf island form of Homo erectus."
“When in 2003 on Flores in Liang Bua cave archaeologist Mike Morwood discovered a tiny skull of a humanoid creature, and then bone remains, he could not believe what he saw. And there were found stone tools and traces of a fire, that is, these creatures were quite developed.
Skulls of a hobbit (left) and a modern man (right).
Later, many tried to discredit these findings, calling the "hobbits" sick with microcephaly, but this is complete nonsense. Microcephaly is a rare occurrence and it is absurd that several microcephaly gathered in one cave at once, especially when they rarely survive to adulthood. That is, it is clearly a separate species, which is probably a descendant of Homo erectus, but is on a further branch and is more related to the African australopithecus, which became extinct about 1.9 million years ago.
But unlike these ancient species, "hobbits", judging by the dating of the remains, lived in this cave only about 13 thousand years ago. It is assumed that later all of them were destroyed by a volcanic eruption, but anthropologist Gregory Fort, and after him and some other scientists suggested that some of the "hobbits" could survive and become those mythical creatures that the modern inhabitants of Flores call "fucking" (Ebu gogo).
Reconstruction of the appearance of the hobbit.
According to the descriptions of fucking, these are small people who run very well, have wide faces with a large mouth and hairy arms and legs. That is, the typical "hobbits" of Flores!
They spoke their own unusual language, but civilized they were on a much lower level than the islanders. It is assumed that a couple of centuries ago they were all exterminated due to the fact that they stole children and food from people, although some individuals of the fucking allegedly met up to the twentieth century.
But it is possible that the "hobbits" and this time survived, having moved to other Indonesian islands, and there they became known under the name orang-pendek. If you re-read the descriptions of all these creatures, you can get a strong impression that we are talking about the same species.
Orang-pendek.
There is only one catch. Often it is reported about the observation of orang-pendeks with a height of 120 cm and above, and the "hobbits" were shorter, and also much less hairy. Also, "hobbits" knew how to handle fire and create stone tools. Orang-pendeks seem to know neither one nor the other. Also, according to the descriptions, orang-pendeks look more like monkeys, but the 'hobbits' still look like people,”Richard Freeman argues ruefully.
Is it possible that once on a larger island, the "hobbits" began to degrade? Have you forgotten fire, skills, become higher? Or are they still completely different creatures?
