Yes the Hobbit Did Exist!

One thing that interests me heavily is ancient history. When I say ancient history I mean also pre-history: the Greeks, Egyptians and further back. (Okay, this article is only indirectly art-related, but people often ask an artist his inspirations and this is something that definitely inspires me to think and research, and translates to my art in a primordial way). Homo-Sapiens have been around for approximately 200,000 years, the first signs of modern humans is about 20 to 40,000 years ago, and the fossils of homo-sapiens most like us appear around 10,000 years ago.

So looking at the estimate of 'modern humans' appearing around 10,000 years ago, contrasted with how far back our knowledge of ancient history goes is intriguing. Egyptian hieroglyphs started recording around 4200 BC, Ubaidians (around Mesopotamia area) were around 4500 BC, and the Sumerians were in Syria by 4000 BC. So still, that's a good 3,500 years of 'modern human' history of which very little is known. That's very exciting to think about, the possibility that a lot of un-found fossils are still out there is almost a sure thing. I don't want to get off on a tangent, more about that maybe in a later post.

My point today is relating to even further history (around 18,000 years ago) and the species of hominid called: homo-floresiensis. Fossils of this species were discovered in Indonesia on the island of Flores in a cave in 2003. What's interesting about this race though is the size - a mere meter tall in average; hobbit-sized if you will. At first only jaws and parts of skulls were found of a few individuals, leaving scientists to debate that it could of been a genetically passed family disease or mutant trait. As more of the cave was dug up, archeologists found fossils of many more individuals, and scientists slowly accepted the idea that this was indeed a whole race of small human-like creatures. Don't take my word for it look it up yourself, I heard about it in National Geographic magazine, and later in their documentaries (I believe there are two that National Geographic made, one based on the first fossils found where the debate was still up in the air, and the second after many more fossils were found, cementing the general physical makeup of the species. See this Nat Geo article.)

I will leave you to discover the details for yourself (mammals evolve much bigger or smaller on islands, they hunted pygmy elephants etc. etc.). But there you have it, conclusive fossilogical proof (I encourage you to watch the two Nat Geo documentaries yourself and/or look at the evidence found) that there was a species very akin to humans that were hobbit sized living about 18,000 years ago. (About 8,000 years before 'modern humans' and well into the range of homo-sapien history. Who knows if they came into contact with homo-sapiens, the possibility is definitely there. 

To quote the great writer Robert Jordan from his "Wheel of Time" series -

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again."  

J.R.R Tolkien was a lover of ancient history also, maybe somehow the memory of these creatures was woven into the consciousness of man, these memories became legend, became stories, (well see the quote above) and after his research he reinvented this story as the Hobbits. However it happened the whole thing is fascinating. I just wanted to write about this because I am always telling this to people, the story of homo-floresiensis, to my audience's disbelief and got tired of people not believing me. So go to the National Geographic article linked above and see and decide for yourself or do your own research into the evidence (more to be found the more you dig). Definitely don't just take my word for it.