Australian-Geographic-Magazine-September-Octobe..

S–O 2014 95

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EW ZEALAND-BORN archaeologist Professor

Mike Morwood became well known

worldwide when his team discovered Homo

floresiensis in 2003. The significance has been

compared with the discovery of the Neanderthals

in the 19th century, and it caused archaeologists

and palaeoanthropologists to redefine what they

thought they knew of human evolution.

“His unconventional and at times bull-headed

nature led him to think bigger and dig deeper than

anyone else,” the University of Wollongong’s (UOW)

Dr Adam Brumm wrote in the UK’s Times newspaper

in September 2013 after Mike’s death. “He inspired

devotion in his students and younger researchers

and revolutionised the field with his simple but

inexorable principle of deep-trench excavation: do

not stop until you hit bedrock.”

Mike was based at UOW and is fondly

remembered for contributions to knowledge about

Australian archaeology and Aboriginal rock art. He

completed his PhD on the rock art and archaeology

of Queensland at the Australian National University,

Canberra, in 1980, and went on to take up positions

at a number of universities, including the University

of New England. He also collaborated with the

University of Western Australia (UWA), where he

focused on Kimberley rock art.

Professor Alistair Paterson of UWA says, “Mike

Morwood was an exceptional archaeologist and

researcher, and a generous expert in rock art,

human evolution and Australian archaeology.

In the areas on which he chose to focus he was

inevitably a game changer; one of a rare group of

Australian researchers who made an extraordinary

contribution to their field.”

JACQUELINE OUTRED

was based on evidence, and because we applied knowledge of

faces derived from large numbers of modern humans. That was

unavoidable, because we know very little about the soft tissues

of ancient hominins.

Our research paper concluded with a comparison of our

results with nine other facial reconstructions of Hobbit’s skull,

produced by international palaeo-artists. Most of these faces are

on display in natural history museums around the world. Because

every artist was working from the same skull, we thought it

would be interesting to see how our face compared with the rest.

We used statistical methods to analyse the common facial

landmarks (eyes, noses, mouths, etc.), and the results were sur-

prising. All nine facial reconstructions are very, very di­ erent.

The eyes, mouths and noses are di­ erent widths and lengths –

even though Hobbit’s skull clearly shows where these features sit,

each of the palaeo-artists have arranged them in di­ erent places.

This could be due to how, or if, the damaged parts of the bones

of the H. fl oresiensis skull were ‘reconstructed’ by each artist. Every

fossil is distorted by being in the earth, and, because Hobbit’s

bones were like butter within their silty clay encasement, further

inadvertent damage occurred both during and after excavation.

The fi rst thing we had to do, therefore, was try to ‘repair’ the

bones – some were twisted out of shape, which is common

Initial impression.

An early illustration

of H. fl oresiensis

appears much more

apelike than Susan’s

reconstruction.

UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONGILLUSTRATION: PETER SCHOUTEN /

Hooijeromys nusatenggara

This legendary archaeologist

left an indelible mark on our

understanding of the past.

THE GIANT WHO

DISCOVERED

A PYGMY

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC

SOCIETY SUPPORTED

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