{
  "country_code": "ID",
  "id": "liang-bua-last-hobbits",
  "title": "Liang Bua: when did the island humans disappear?",
  "category": "disparition",
  "date": "2016-03-30",
  "date_label": "30 March 2016 dating-paper publication; not an exact extinction date",
  "location": "Liang Bua, Flores",
  "lat": -8.533,
  "lng": 120.444,
  "summary": "New dating moved Homo floresiensis out of the very recent past. The remaining question is how fossil and tool sequences constrain survival without treating the youngest find as the exact last individual.",
  "documented_claim": "The 2016 paper revises the Liang Bua stratigraphy and chronology.",
  "unproven_claim": "A tool date establishes the exact extinction day or proves living descendants in present-day folklore.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Nature — Revised stratigraphy and chronology for Homo floresiensis",
      "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/nature17179",
      "language": "en",
      "kind": "Primary dating study",
      "note": "2016 revision; methods and contextual uncertainty matter.",
      "id": "S1",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    },
    {
      "title": "Nature — Archaeology and age of a new hominin from Flores",
      "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02956",
      "language": "en",
      "kind": "Primary 2004 research paper",
      "note": "Earlier interpretation superseded in relevant chronology by the 2016 work.",
      "id": "S2",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    },
    {
      "title": "Smithsonian Human Origins — Homo floresiensis",
      "url": "https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-floresiensis",
      "language": "en",
      "kind": "Institutional research synthesis",
      "note": "Current fossil/tool age distinction; legacy image date should not override the text.",
      "id": "S3",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    }
  ],
  "country": "Indonesia",
  "author": "Eklipsis",
  "content_languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "path": "/investigations/liang-bua-last-hobbits",
  "source_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/nature17179",
  "location_precision": "region",
  "location_note": "Approximate orientation marker for the named locality, not an exact encounter, burial, ritual or excavation position.",
  "location_source_url": "https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=-8.533&mlon=120.444#map=8/-8.533/120.444",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-09-30",
  "edition": 1,
  "truth_type": "unknown",
  "verdict": "A revised fossil and artefact chronology is supported. The exact extinction event, its cause and direct contact with modern humans are not established by this dossier.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "The mystery and the documented account",
      "text": "The 2004 Nature paper announced archaeological evidence for a small-bodied hominin population at Liang Bua. A 2016 Nature study revised the stratigraphy and chronology. Smithsonian’s species account now distinguishes fossil ages of roughly 100,000–60,000 years from associated stone-tool ages extending to about 50,000 years ago. It retains an older date in an image caption, illustrating why researchers must compare the current text with legacy labels. The discovery is a fossil human-relative record, not proof that a modern folkloric creature still inhabits the forest.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2",
        "S3"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The question worth investigating",
      "text": "What is the youngest securely attributed evidence, and what interval of possible survival remains beyond it? Fossils, tools, depositional gaps and arrival of other humans require separate chronologies.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Evidence, provenance and uncertainty",
      "text": "Tools do not identify their maker solely by being nearby. A youngest known deposit does not directly date the final individual’s death. The institutional overview simplifies the debate; the primary paper’s methods and uncertainty govern the revised chronology.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2",
        "S3"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Inspector’s assessment",
      "text": "A revised fossil and artefact chronology is supported. The exact extinction event, its cause and direct contact with modern humans are not established by this dossier.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Next research and discriminating evidence",
      "text": "Compare the two primary papers’ stratigraphic diagrams and sampling contexts. Keep fossil and tool dates in separate columns with uncertainty. Mark reworked deposits and gaps. Evaluate contact hypotheses only where independently dated evidence overlaps; do not convert a boundary estimate into a witnessed disappearance.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "timeline": [
    {
      "date": "2004 publication",
      "text": "Nature presents the new hominin archaeology and initial age framework.",
      "refs": [
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "30 March 2016",
      "text": "The revised stratigraphy and chronology paper is published.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "Current institutional summary",
      "text": "Smithsonian distinguishes fossil and tool ages; an older image caption remains.",
      "refs": [
        "S3"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "30 September 2026",
      "text": "Eklipsis compiles this English documentary investigation from the named sources. No field visit or new eyewitness interview is claimed.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "text": "The 2016 paper revises the Liang Bua stratigraphy and chronology.",
      "status": "Documented in the named record",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "A tool date establishes the exact extinction day or proves living descendants in present-day folklore.",
      "status": "Not established by the selected evidence",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2",
        "S3"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "A revised fossil and artefact chronology is supported. The exact extinction event, its cause and direct contact with modern humans are not established by this dossier.",
      "status": "Editorial assessment; stated limits apply",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "hypotheses": [
    {
      "title": "Disappearance within a incompletely sampled interval",
      "status": "Evidential framework",
      "support": "The record has dated finds rather than an observed last individual.",
      "limits": "The true end may postdate surviving evidence.",
      "test": "Compare youngest secure contexts with sampling gaps."
    },
    {
      "title": "A specific replacement or contact event",
      "status": "Hypothesis requiring overlap",
      "support": "Chronologies can be compared with modern-human arrival.",
      "limits": "Timing alone does not establish cause.",
      "test": "Require independently dated contact evidence rather than simultaneous regional estimates."
    }
  ],
  "tasks": [
    {
      "title": "Trace the earliest accessible record",
      "body": "For Liang Bua: when did the island humans disappear?, record author or storyteller, collection date, language, translation, page and exact scope. Distinguish evidence of a story being told from evidence of its events. Note which full documents remain unavailable."
    },
    {
      "title": "Investigate the central question",
      "body": "Compare the two primary papers’ stratigraphic diagrams and sampling contexts. Keep fossil and tool dates in separate columns with uncertainty. Mark reworked deposits and gaps. Evaluate contact hypotheses only where independently dated evidence overlaps; do not convert a boundary estimate into a witnessed disappearance."
    },
    {
      "title": "Compare explanations without merging evidence",
      "body": "Compare youngest secure contexts with sampling gaps. Require independently dated contact evidence rather than simultaneous regional estimates. Preserve contradictions and unsuccessful searches; proposed work remains unperformed."
    }
  ]
}