Hobbit Chamber Found: Flores, East Nusa Tenggara

The chance discovery of an enormous chamber beneath the Indonesian cave where hobbit-like creatures were discovered promises to settle the debate about who or what the tiny creatures were.

The unexpected discovery of a chamber in the Flores island cave was made last year by an Australian-Indonesian team – led by ANU paleoclimatologist Mike Gagan – while they were investigating ancient climates.

An expert caver assisting in sample retrieval abseiled down a 23m-long sinkhole, inaccessible to the original team, at the back of Liang Bua Cave and found the chamber.