Since I was in Flores, I took a trip out to the Liang Bua “Hobbit” Cave, where they found the first of the Homo floresiensis (aka “Hobbit”) skeletons.
The cave itself is tall (maybe 40 feet?) but quite shallow. More of a deep alcove than what I think of as a true cave, with grotesque stalactites dangling from the roof. At the back there are opening down to smaller inner caves, but I believe all the fossils were all found in the outer cave. There are signs of archaeological work, including the protruding ends of plastic sheets which are presumably covering re-buried areas.
There is a small but useful site museum. They have good signage explaining the fossils and their context. The signage notes dryly that there has been considerable scientific controversy over the status of the Flores skeletons and they quote Tolkien, saying:
The hobbits “suddenly became, by no wish of their own, both important and renowned, and troubled the counsels of the Wise and the Great”.
They have a replica of the first “Hobbit” skeleton.
I was the only tourist there. From their log book they got no-one yesterday and only a couple the day before. So I guess this is less of a tourist magnet than I had expected.
