Memang di paleoantropologi Indonesia ada suatu hal yang aneh, yaitu bahwa temuan
artefak sangat jarang ditemukan in-situ dengan fosil hominid (pembuatnya). Lihat saja
cerita Pak Zaim di bawah, banyak artefak ditemukan di Flores, tetapi fosil manusia
atau hominidnya belum jelas. Sehingga terpaksa diinterpretasikan saja dilihat dari
ciri2 artefaknya, apakah Pacitanian misalnya, kalau Pacitanian ya misalnya manusia
Ngandong atau Wadjak lah pembuatnya. Contoh lainnya, banyak juga, Kali Baksoko di
Gunung Sewu itu melimpah ruah dengan temuan artefak, tetapi kok ga ada fosil
hominidnya. Contoh lain : situs2 di Gua Pawon, Cijulang, Ciamis, Kuningan, Sumedang,
banyak artefak ditemukan, juga fosil vertebratanya, tetapi fosil hominid-nya ? Hal ini
sangat berbeda dengan situs2 di Cina dan Afrika, di mana banyak artefak ditemukan
in-situ dengan fosil hominidnya. Satu masalah lain adalah : masih belum disepakati
bahwa Home erectus sudah membuat peralatan.
Asal "Hobbit" di Flores juga harus dicurigai sisa migrasi manusia ras Negrito
(Australoid)dari Filipina via Sulawesi. Sekitar 50.000-40.000 tyl terjadi besar2an
arus migrasi manusia (Homo sapiens) dan ras2 unggul di Indonesia-Melayu saat itu
(Australoid dan Mongoloid Selatan) tercampur aduk. Arus migrasi lain asal "Hobbit"
bisa berasal dari Jawa, dari manusia Ngandong atau Wadjak. Dua tengkorak yang
ditemukan di Wadjak pernah menjadi perdebatan para paleo-antropolog, apakah ber-ras
Mongoloid atau Australoid. Kalau dari segi evolusi hominid dan manusia serta
mempelajari arus migrasi Homo sapiens di Indonesia, "Hobbit" di Flores kelihatannya
bukan hominid setua Homo erectus apalagi lebih tua, tetapi mereka hanya variasi ras
dari Homo sapiens, sekedar pendapat...
Salam,
awang
Yahdi Zaim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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Saya ingin ikut berkomentar tentang manusia "hobbit".
Saya tidak tahu dengan jelas tentang manusia "hobbit" Homo florensis dan keterlibatan
peneliti Indonesia dalam penelitian manusia tersebut, dan apa, bagaimana serta dimana
letak Homo florensis dalam taksonomi hominid.
Namun yang perlu saya info-kan adalah, sebenarnya saya dalam rangka kerjasama
penelitian antara ITB dengan Universitas Utrecht, Belanda pada tahun 1980-1981 bersama
dengan Dr. Tony Djubiantono (beliau berasal dari Geologi,sekarang ASDEP Arkeologi
DEPBUDPAR - kalau dulu, merupakan jabatan Kepala Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional)
sebagai anggota tim penelitian dibawah Almarhum Prof. Sartono, bekerjasama dengan
Prof. Paul Sondaar (sekarang juga sudah almarhum) dari Universitas Utrecht, melakukan
penelitian Geologi dan Paleontologi di Dataran Plato Soa, Kab. Bajawa, Flores, telah
menemukan banyak fosil pygmy Stegodon dan beberapa alat batu/artefak dalam lapisan
berumur Plestosen Awal - Tengah, tetapi tidak menemukan fosil manusianya.
Kemudian, Dr. Fachroel Aziz dari P3G dan Tim dari Australia (Prof. Bellwood), sejak
tahun 2000 hingga sekarang juga (masih) melakukan penelitian Geologi, Paleontologi dan
Arkeologi di Dataran Plato Soa, Kabupaten Bajawa, Flores yang telah menemukan banyak
fosil vertebrata dan alat batu/artefak di daerah tersebut, namun belum juga menemukan
fosil manusianya. Dr. Fachroel Aziz sendiri juga menjalin kerjasama dengan Prof. Mike
Morwood, bahkan, kalau tidak salah beliau2 juga pernah membentuk tim penelitian
bersama di daerah Dataran Plato Soa, sebelum dengan Prof. Bellwood.
Akan halnya manusia "hobbit" Homo florensis, mestinya bukan masuk kelompok Homo
erectus yang telah punah pada sekitar 50k-an tahun yang lalu (tyl), namun mungkin
merupakan bagian dari Homo (sapiens) wadjakensis yang mungkin juga sebagai hasil
evolusi dan mengalami isolasi dari Homo erectus yang menjadi kerdil (pygmy) seperti
yang dikatakan oleh Pak Awang. Setidaknya, bukti2 adanya Homo erectus di Flores telah
ada, dengan ditemukannya alat batu/artefak dalam lapisan berumur Plestosen Awal -
Tengah di Dataran Soa, Kab. Bajawa, Flores, meski belum ditemukan fosilnya.
Di Australia Barat, telah ditemukan fosil manusia, semula di dating berumur sekitar
50k-an tyl, namun data terbaru mengatakan bahwa lapisan pengandung fosil tersebut
berumur sekitar 100k tyl, dan manusia purba tersebut diyakini berasal dari Homo
erectus dari Jawa yang bermigrasi ke Australia, setidaknya hal tersebut merupakan
keyakinan Almarhum Prof. Sartono. Nah, kalau ini "benar" maka kita bisa GR bahwa
bangsa Indonesia (baca Homo erectus) pernah menduduki Australia, jauh sebelum para
tahanan Inggris yang dibuang ke Australia yang sekarang ini justru berkuasa di
sana..................
Penelitian manusia "hobbit" yang "keturunannya" masih ada sekarang ini, sebenarnya
bukan bidang paleontologi manusia, namun merupakan bidang Paleoantropologi, yang pada
dasarnya memang berkaitan erat dengan Paleontologi Manusia.
Wassalam, Selamat Puasa Ramadhan,
Yahdi Zaim
Departemen Teknik Geologi
FIKM-ITB
Telp+Fax.: 022.250.21.97
----- Original Message -----
From: Kuntadi, Nugrahanto
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 11:42 AM
Subject: RE: [iagi-net-l] Manusia Hobbit Homo floresiensis
Mungkin ilmuwan Indonesia pikir "hobbits" itu hanya ada di dalam film Lord of The
Rings (=dongeng) aja Ki....makanya better to not involved kali yah?
-----Original Message-----
From: Musakti, Oki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 7:57 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [iagi-net-l] Manusia Hobbit Homo floresiensis
(Koq nggak kedengaran ada ilmuwan Indonesia yang ikut di tim ini ya...?)
Menarik, disini disebutkan bahwa salah satu survival strategy untuk mengatasi kondisi
yang minim resources adalah dengan �mengecilkan diri�.
Oki
- - - - - - - - -
Found - the newest members of the human family
By Deborah Smith
October 29, 2004
A previously unknown species of miniature human barely a metre tall, who hunted pygmy
elephants and giant rats, lived on Australia's doorstep until at least 13,000 years
ago.
Australian and Indonesian scientists have unearthed a near-complete skeleton of a
female member of the species, nicknamed Hobbit, in a cave on the remote Indonesian
island of Flores, 600 kilometres east of Bali.
The archaic humans co-existed for tens of thousands of years with our own species and
might have died out only 500 years ago. Archaeologist and team member Mike Morwood,
from the University of New England, said they were about the size of a modern
three-year-old.
"They weighed around 25 kilograms and had a brain smaller than most chimpanzees,"
Professor Morwood said. "Even so, they used fire and made sophisticated stone tools.
Despite tiny brains, these little humans almost certainly had language."
The discovery of the species, published today in the journal Nature, is being hailed
as one of the most important in a century in the study of human origins. Until now, it
had been thought our only recent cousins were the Neanderthals in Europe, who died out
about 30,000 years ago.
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"The find is startling," said another team member, Dr Robert Foley, of the University
of Cambridge. "It is breathtaking to think that such a different species of hominin
existed so recently."
Named Homo floresiensis, it is the smallest species of human ever found. It is the
first that overlapped recently with our species to have been discovered since
Neanderthal remains were found in the 1800s.
The island the small humans lived on, Flores, was a "lost world" inhabited by
creatures as strange as they were - giant rats and giant lizards, komodo dragons, and
primitive dwarf elephants that were extinct elsewhere.
Bones including the skull, jaw, pelvis and leg of a 30-year-old woman were uncovered
last year in Liang Bua cave on Flores and dated to about 18,000 years old.
More recently, the team has uncovered her arm bones as well remains from six other
little people, who lived in the cave from about 95,000 years ago to 13,000 years ago.
The existence of the species will prompt a "major rethink" of how humans evolved,
according to another on the team, Peter Brown, of the University of New England.
"The most remarkable thing is that someone with that sort of small brain size was
behaving in many ways like a modern human in terms of hunting and the stone tools they
used," he said.
Professor Morwood said the little people were thought to have evolved from larger
archaic humans, Homo erectus, who managed to sail across to Flores from Java about
800,000 years ago.
They evolved into dwarfs, like the elephants on the island, because small creatures
had a better chance of survival on a remote island where there was little food and no
major predators.
Homo erectus spread from Africa to Asia more than a million years ago, but were
eventually replaced by our species, Homo sapiens, who left Africa about 120,000 years
ago, according to the leading theory of human movement.
The little Homo floresiensis species survived on Flores long after Homo sapiens had
moved into the region and begun to colonise Australia and New Guinea 50,000 years ago.
Bert Roberts, of the University of Wollongong, whose team carried out the dating, said
there were a lot of detailed folk tales on Flores about little people.
"These stories suggest there may be more than a grain of truth to the idea that they
were still living on Flores up until the Dutch arrived in the 1500s," Professor
Roberts said. "The stories suggest they lived in caves. The villagers would leave
gourds with food out for them to eat, but legend has it these were the guests from
hell. They'd eat everything, including the gourds."
It is 110 years since the last human species was discovered in South-East Asia - the
700,000-year-old Homo erectus Java man specimen.
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