Liang Bua


Liang Bua is a limestone cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia. The site is slightly north of the town of Ruteng in Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara.
The cave, of which the archaeological and paleontological potential had already been demonstrated in the 1950s and 1960s by the Dutch missionary and archaeologist Theodor L. Verhoeven, was the site of the 2003 discovery of a potentially new species of genus Homo, Homo floresiensis, the remains of which are coded LB1, LB2, etc., after the cave. The Indonesian field coordinator of the excavation team, Thomas Sutikna, was preparing to close up the dig at Liang Bua when the first indications of the important fossils were uncovered. So far it is the only location in which such remains have been identified, although archeological work in the nearby Soa Valley in Ngada Regency appears to support findings from the Liang Bua site.
In 2010 and 2011, archaeologists discovered two hominin teeth in the cave that did not come from Homo floresiensis. According to Sutikna, the teeth date to around 46,000 BP and are likely to have come from Homo sapiens.
In 2013, a 3D model of the cave created via laser scanning was made available online by the Smithsonian Institution.

Disagreement

There is continuing disagreement amongst scientists as to whether the discoveries represent a new and distinct hominid species. On one hand, some experts on human origin argue that the discoveries represent a distinct species that lived in relatively modern times. Others argue that it is more likely that the bones of the most complete individual found in Liang Bua are those of a local person who was, quite likely, simply suffering from a medical condition rather than indicating that a unique species of Homo lived in Flores.

Palaeofauna