ABSTRACT
Our research at Liang Bua was halted for two years, but started again with large-scale excavations in 2007 and 2008, during which we recovered more H. floresiensis remains, found areas where large numbers of Stegodon and Komodo dragon had been butchered, and gained much more stratigraphic evidence for the geomorphic history of the cave. For instance, we now know that the disappearance of Homo floresiensis and Stegodon from the sequence occurred earlier than previously thought, and coincided with deposition of a metre-thick layer of black tuff that settled across the site around 17,000 years ago. The associated volcanic eruption seems to have devastated the area around the cave, and between that time and the appearance of the first evidence for modern humans around 11,000 years ago; there is a hiatus in the sequence. Modern humans may have encountered Hobbits and Stegodon elsewhere, but not at Liang Bua.
