Uluru closed to climbers after crowds make final ascent

Yahoo – AFP, 25 October 2019

The permanent ban on climbing Uluru was first announced in 2017

Australia's Uluru was permanently closed to climbers Friday evening to meet the wishes of Aboriginal people who hold the red monolith sacred, but hundreds of tourists scaled it in the final hours before the ban.

With the last-ever climbers due back by sunset, rangers shut the entry gates to the world-famous site also known as Ayers Rock.

The ban, first announced in 2017, had long been sought by the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, the Anangu, whose connection to the site dates back tens of thousands of years.

There were already signs at the base of the rock imploring visitors not to climb it, but these were not often heeded, especially in recent months as a surge of tourists made last-minute ascents.

"I came here just to see it but it is the last day possible (to climb Uluru), so I have decided to try it," Polish tourist Matt Oswiecimiki told AFP.

For years there have been signs at the base of the rock imploring visitors not 

to climb, but they were not often heeded

The 29-year-old said it was "fair to stop it" tomorrow out of respect for the Anangu, but said the one-time opportunity meant he would still climb it given he was allowed to on Friday.

Tourists are still being encouraged to visit the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park where they can take in the monolith from its base, walk around its perimeter and learn about its indigenous heritage at the cultural centre.

"It's enough for me to walk around and see the rock," Japanese tourist Masahira Suda said.

The 25-year-old said he did not judge fellow tourists for scaling Uluru but he was refraining at the request of the Aboriginal custodians.

"I really have respect for them," he said.

The climbing ban has been long-sought by Aboriginal 

Australians

Spiritual significance

More than 395,000 people visited the park in the 12 months to June 2019, according to Parks Australia -- about 20 percent more than the previous year.

Around 13 percent of those who visited during that period made the climb, park authorities said.

Uluru has great spiritual and cultural significance to indigenous Australians, and the Anangu people will hold a ceremony Saturday to mark the climbing ban.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt likened the recent increase in tourists climbing Uluru to "a rush of people wanting to climb over the Australian War Memorial".

"Our sacred objects, community by community, are absolutely important in the story and the history of that nation of people," he told national broadcaster ABC.

More than 395,000 people visited the Uluru-Kata National Park in the 

12 months to June 2019, according to Parks Australia

Traditional owners have long encouraged people to refrain from climbing the site for its cultural significance, to protect it from further environmental damage and to ensure visitors' safety.

Tackling Uluru's sandstone slopes has not been an easy exercise, and at least 35 people have died attempting the climb.

It towers some 348 meters (1,148 feet) and summer temperatures often hit 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).

Saturday marks 34 years since that the park's title was handed back to the traditional owners.

Traditional owners and National Park representatives have decided to ban the
 climbing of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, from October 2019 amid fears it
was being treated as a 'theme park' (AFP Photo/Greg Wood)

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Climbing Australia's giant red rock Uluru banned

The Creation Choir - Mar 21, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Pair 5 - Node: Ulura, Australia & Null: Mount Logan, Yukon Northern Territories, Canada are revealed & activated. The 12 Pleiadians time capsules (The Nodes and Nulls of Earth) within Gaia will now gradually receive information)

These time capsules need to be on the planet as a guide or blueprint for the starting creative energy of Gaia [the Creation Template]. Kryon has told us: that as the time capsules are slowly released, they modify The Crystalline Grid to help Human consciousness shift, and eventually create an ascended planet.  (Text version he Fast-Track Systems")

Australia marks 30 years since Uluru returned to Aboriginal owners

Gaia Global Consciousness Retreat (8) - Mar 24-25, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Climbing Australia's giant red rock Uluru banned

Yahoo – AFP, November 1, 2017

Traditional owners and National Park representatives have decided to ban the
 climbing of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, from October 2019 amid fears it
was being treated as a 'theme park' (AFP Photo/Greg Wood)

Sydney (AFP) - Climbing the world's largest monolith Uluru was banned Wednesday amid concerns it was becoming a "theme park", undermining the giant red rock's deep cultural significance.

Scrambling up the symbol of the Outback, also known as Ayers Rock, is seen by many tourists as a must-do on their visit to Australia.

But they do so against the wishes of the traditional Aboriginal owners, the Anangu, to whom the site is sacred.

At a meeting of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board, made up of traditional owners and National Park representatives, a unanimous decision was made to ban the activity.

It will come into force in October 2019.

"This decision is for both Anangu and non-Anangu together to feel proud about; to realise, of course it’s the right thing to close it," board chairman Sammy Wilson said.

Speaking to state broadcaster ABC after the decision, he added that the site was not a "theme park".

"Some people in tourism and government for example might have been saying we need to keep it open but it's not their law that lies in this land," he said.

"It is an extremely important place, not a playground or theme park like Disneyland."

The rock's traditional Aboriginal owners' connection to the site dates back tens of thousands of years and it has great spiritual and cultural significance to them.

Wilson urged tourists to respect the ruling.

"If I travel to another country and there is a sacred site, an area of restricted access, I don’t enter or climb it, I respect it," he said in the statement.

"It is the same here for Anangu. We welcome tourists here. We are not stopping tourism, just this activity."

Park authorities have long looked to close the climb permanently. It is currently left up to visitors to decide whether to tackle the sandstone monolith, which soars 348 metres (1,148 feet).

About 300,000 people visit each year and, while there are no official figures on how many climb, their numbers are reported to have declined significantly.

Tackling Uluru's sandstone slopes is not an easy exercise and there have been numerous deaths over the years on the rock, where summer temperatures often hit 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).

Related Articles:

Aborigines in Australia longer than previously thought: study

The Creation Choir - Mar 21, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Gaia Global Consciousness Retreat (8) - Mar 24-25, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

In Tibet, religious freedom with Chinese characteristics

Yahoo – AFP, Ludovic Ehret, September 22, 2016

Pilgrims spin their prayer wheels outside the Jokhang Temple in the regional capital
Lhasa, in China's Tibet Autonomous Region (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

The sun has yet to rise over Lhasa, but dozens of colourfully dressed pilgrims are already gathered and reciting prayers at the entrance to Jokhang, the most sacred temple in Tibetan Buddhism.

Many of those gathered -- Tibetans and Han Chinese visitors -- say religion is flourishing under Beijing's rule, with adherents enjoying the freedoms they need to follow their faith.

But this sense of freedom does not extend to the men who live inside the monasteries, analysts and monks say.

Their lives and their movements are heavily regulated by a government eager to avoid any hint of disobedience in the restive region which, although technically autonomous, is tightly controlled by Beijing.

"We are not free," said a 33-year-old monk from the neighbouring province of Sichuan. AFP is not naming the man.

"To get into Tibet from another province, you need a certificate with your name, address and identity card number.

"Everything has to be stamped by the monastery, the Bureau of Religious Affairs and the police," he said outside the Jokhang monastery.

Nearby, groups of policemen -- some from Tibet itself -- are discreetly patrolling, some holding walkie-talkies and others guns.

A monk is seen outside the Jokhang Temple in the regional capital Lhasa, in 

China's Tibet Autonomous Region (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

This area of the capital is calm for now, but authorities are not taking any chances. In 2008 it was the site of deadly riots which erupted following protests by monks against Beijing's rule in the region.

The government clamped down after a period of violence against non-Tibetans, in particular the Han Chinese -- who remain a minority in Tibet.

Faith is an integral element of Tibetan identity and nationalism and is therefore perceived as a potential threat to the authority of the Chinese state, explained Kate Saunders of the US-based NGO International Campaign for Tibet.

'Keep your mouth shut'

Some ordinary Tibetans dismiss the idea their religious freedom is being curtailed.

"I come here morning and night. I have never had any problem," the 31-year-old Tibetan taxi driver Zangmai says at the temple.

"I've been praying here since I was about five or six, and one day I'll bring my son here too," he adds as he throws dried grass into a large incense burner, which belches out grey smoke.

For Zhaxi Nima, a 37-year-old Tibetan pilgrim whose left leg is amputated below the knee, faith remains an integral part of his routine.

A pilgrim (L) is seen walking past a paramilitary police patrol outside the Jokhang

 Temple, in the regional capital Lhasa, in China's Tibet Autonomous Region (AFP 

Photo/Johannes Eisele)

"Why do I come to pray, despite my handicap? Tibetans are just like that, it's our way of life," he explains.

It is not so simple for religious figures and institutions, experts say.

"Temples, monasteries... Of course, they are controlled," said Jens-Uwe Hartmann, a specialist in Buddhism at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and an expert on Tibet.

"What they are doing is very closely observed."

If religious leaders emerge who are not approved by the Chinese Communist Party, they simply disappear, Hartmann said, adding: "So you'd better keep your mouth shut."

Cultural dilution

Beijing says it "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1951 and insists it has brought development to a previously backward region.

But many Tibetans accuse the Chinese government of exploiting natural resources, as well as promoting Han activities and business at the expense of locals and the environment.

They also accuse authorities of diluting their culture and faith as a way of exerting further influence.

China recently unveiled an initiative to get tens of millions more tourists to visit the region, and many of them wander through Jokhang along with the faithful.

Barkhor, the road around the temple that pilgrims walk in a clockwise direction as a sign of respect, displays little Chinese flags on the first floor of buildings. The street is dotted with shops and restaurants to cater to visitors from other regions.

Faith is an integral element of Tibetan identity and nationalism (AFP Photo/

Johannes Eisele)

"People's faith here is very impressive. It's not something you see anywhere else in China," says 22-year-old Peng Meng.

"In the rest of China, because of the Party, countless temples were destroyed," says a young Han, miming a fist coming down on a building.

"In Tibet, Buddhism is preserved," he adds, although many religious structures were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.

Wang Xiaobin of the China Tibetology Research Center, an official body based in Beijing, said monks were required to use travel certificates after a wave of self-immolation which began in 2009.

A total of 145 Tibetans, the majority of them monks, have set fire to themselves in the past seven years in protest against Beijing's rule and 117 of them have died, according to International Campaign for Tibet.

"Most of them came from Tibet's neighbouring provinces. And the regional government is worried that some of them are coming to self-immolate in Lhasa," Wang said.

"China recognises 'freedom of religious belief', not 'religious freedom'. Those are different things," he added.

"Clearly one has the right to believe, but there are limits to religious activity."

Govt Recognizes Communal Rights of Nine Local Indigenous Communities in Papua

Jakarta Globe, Yeremia Sukoyo, June 24, 2016

Nine communities were noted in the address. (Antara Photo/Andika Wahyu)

Jakarta. Minister of Land and Spatial Planning Ferry Mursyidan Baldan has declared the government's recognition of communal rights of nine indigenous communities in Papua.

The declaration was held at the closing of the 9th Sentani Lake Festival at the province’s Khalkhote region in East Sentani on Thursday (23/06).

“We want to affirm how Jayapura becomes the living space for indigenous communities. No more actions against the living and cultural spaces of indigenous communities,” Ferry said.

The state has supported available space for Papua's indigenous communities so no more people are evicted or forced from their native land, Ferry said.

“On behalf of the country, we affirm that in all Papuan regions, the entire space, mountain, beaches and others are owned by Papua’s indigenous communities. Whoever wishes to take benefits, to develop, should recognize the presence of indigenous communities within."

“There should no longer be the elimination of indigenous communities rights,” Ferry said.

Daniel Toto, head of Jayapura's indigenous communities, has called on the central government to strengthen the practical presence of indigenous communities.

Likely ancestor of mystery 'hobbit' found

Yahoo – AFP, Marlowe Hood, June 9, 2016

The remains of Indonesia's hobbit-sized humans (L) and modern human (R) are
 displayed at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on November 5,
2004 (AFP Photo)

Paris (AFP) - Half-sized humans who lived 700,000 years ago were almost certainly the ancestors of enigmatic "hobbits" whose fossils were found on the same Indonesian isle in 2003, scientists stunned by their own discovery reported Wednesday.

Two studies, published in Nature, fill a huge gap in our understanding of these diminutive people, whose tortuous evolutionary saga hit a dead-end some 50,000 years ago.

A modest haul of teeth and bones from an adult and two children has bolstered the theory that the hobbits, known to scientists as Homo floresiensis, arrived on Flores island as a different, larger species of hominin, or early man, probably about a million years ago.

And then, something very strange happened.

These upright, tool-wielding humans shrank, generation after generation, until they were barely half their original weight and height.

The process, called "island dwarfism," was well known in animals, with some species shrinking as much as six fold in adapting to an environment with fewer resources.

Indeed, Flores was also home to a miniature race of elephant-like creatures -- possibly hunted to extinction by the mini-men -- called Stegodons.

This is the first hard evidence of humans becoming smaller after being marooned on a spit of land transformed into an island by rising seas.

"The hobbit was real," said Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at the Research Centre of Human Evolution at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, and lead author of one of the studies.

Who was the "Hobbit"? (AFP Photo/John SAEKI, Adrian LEUNG)

"It was an ancient human species that is separate to ours and that no longer exists on the planet today."

The new fossils were unearthed in central Flores in 2014, about 100 kilometres (70 miles) from the 2003 discovery of the hobbit remains.

The find provided partial answers to key questions: from which species did H. floresiensis evolve, and how long did it take to shrink?

Two plausible evolutionary scenarios remain regarding their origins, said Brumm.

"The first is that the 'hobbits' represent a kind of dwarfed Homo erectus from Java," he told AFP.

Homo erectus, up to 1.8 metres (six feet) tall and weighing up to 70 kilogrammes (154 pounds), is thought to have been the first human species to venture out of Africa.

A 'huge surprise'

A specimen dated to about 1.2 million years ago -- when much of the Indonesian archipelago was a single land mass -- was found on the island of Java in the late 19th century.

Similarities in the teeth point to this as the most likely parent of the Flores humans, Brumm said.

"The alternative theory is that these creatures descend from an earlier radiation of more archaic, small-boned hominins from Africa."

A Hominin fossil from the Meta Mange excavation where an international team of 

researchers have uncovered the fossilized remains of ancient hominins which appear

 to be the ancestors of Homo floresiensis, the tiny species of human, affectionately 

dubbed the 'Hobbit', that stood at just one meter tall on the island of Flores in Indonesia 

released on June 8, 2016. Courtesy Dr. Gerrit van den Bergh/University of Wollongong, 

Australia/Handout via Reuters

One theory that can now be set aside, the researchers said, is that Flores' hobbits were actually modern humans diminished by disease or genetic disorders.

"This find quashes once and for all any doubters that believe Homo floresiensis was merely a sick Homo sapiens," said Gert van der Bergh, leader of the excavation and a professor at the University of Wollongong's Centre for Archaeological Science.

Most surprising was that the recently exhumed specimens were no larger than those still living on the island more than 600,000 years later.

"I was stunned when I first saw these new fossils," said co-author Yousuke Kaifu, a scientist at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

Anything that old, he said, had been expected to resemble the bigger Homo erectus, or some other more primitive species.

"What we found was a huge surprise," added Brumm.

"This suggests that H. floresiensis is an extremely ancient species that evolved its small size on Flores at a very early period, possibly soon after it arrived on the island about a million years ago."

Related Articles:

Indonesia's 'hobbits' disappeared earlier than thought: study

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… Your Story

Several hundred thousand years ago, Humans began to form into the Human that you recognize today. That's just yesterday. Don't confuse this with Human development. You have had that going on for a very long time. But the DNA that is within your body is not the DNA that developed naturally on the planet. Yours is outside of the system of Earth-based evolutionary processes, and the scientists are starting to see this. The "missing link" that they speak of is not Human.

So again, we tell you that the ones who came to help seed you approximately 100,000 to 200,000 Earth years ago were the Pleiadians who had gone into graduate status and who had changed consciousness. They had become quantum with free choice, and you have parts of their DNA within you.

New information for you: The seeding process was not a one-time event. This is why we give you these large sections of time where the Pleiadians worked with you. It was done over time and in many places. It was not all simultaneous, and this was for reasons that will remain unknown to you for now, but will later explain why you will find other Human types that now are extinct. Now you only have one Human type, and that is counterintuitive to all mammal development on the planet. This was a design, and it took more than 100,000 years to create this for humanity as you know it.

It's your Human bias that has the creation story of the knowledge of light and dark being given to Humans in one day in a garden involving a talking snake and other mythology. Spiritual logic should tell you that these stories are simply metaphors of a real truth, that indeed there was a major shift of consciousness, but over a longer period of time and not instantly. The same mythology has the earth created in seven days. However, this only represents a numerological truth [7 is the number of divinity], meaning that there was a divine design in the creation of the planet. It's time to start using spiritual logic within the teachings you have about spiritual history, for the revelations will be wonderful and lead to fuller understanding.

Now, what really is in your DNA? It's the Pleiadians' code, and it's the ones before them, and even the ones before them. You can't remember it, for that is not the set-up. The system is that your Akashic record is only from Earth, but your "divine remembrance" will take you back to the beginning, where system after system after system created that which you see as the divinity within the galaxy and the Universe.

Who are they? They're your "divine" parents. They're the seed divinity in you and they visit here. They're not all Pleiadians, did you know that? Instead, they're from all over the galaxy. You see, they also represent the seeds of the Pleiadians, and they keep you safe. You wouldn't have it any other way, would you? "Safe from what?" you might ask. ….”

"The Timing of Creation"– Aug  12, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“…. The First Look

About 200,000 years ago is when it literally began. The concept of the "divine seeding" of planet Earth happened at that point, and the fields metaphorically started to be ploughed. There is an issue and we're going to call it the way species work with Gaia. This is something that happened simultaneously with the grid creation of Gaia. For now we give you something that no one has thought about. When we speak of the grids of the planet, you make an assumption that these grids always existed on the planet. For the planet is old and you might say, "Well the grids have always been there." But I'm here to tell you that only one was always there, and that's the magnetic grid. But it was spiritually void. That is to say, it only had that which was created from the Earth's core movement. Today, when we talk about the grids of the planet, our conversation involves the consciousness of humanity, which is imbued upon the magnetic grid. We also tell you about the Crystalline Grid and about the Grid of Gaia consciousness. Both of these react to Human compassion.

Now, here is the puzzle: If you don't have divine Human consciousness, then what about the grids? Do they exist without the Human Being? The answer is that they needed to be created simultaneously with the seeding of divine DNA. So what the Pleiadians did was not only to start the seeds of humanity's change into divine DNA, but they created the conscious grids of Gaia as well. They had to, for the conscious grids of Gaia are a confluence of humanity's decisions brought to Gaia's energy. The consciousness that we are talking about is the spiritually sanctioned Human Being that exists with a piece of God inside him, and with DNA that has 23 chromosomes instead of the common 24 that all the others have through biological evolution.

Let us back up and say it again and make it simpler, my partner [admonition to Lee to speak more plainly]. The triad of grids on this planet that we have spoken of over and over are the consciousness grids of Gaia, and were created at the same time as the seeding of humanity with Pleiadian DNA. For all the teachings we've been giving, especially about the Crystalline Grid, these grids have been reacting to Human consciousness and compassion. Therefore, the very essence of the current Gaia energy is also related to the creation of humanity.

These are the attributes of the Pleiadians work 200,000 years ago, and it was done quantumly in ways that you have no conscious awareness of at the moment. For these things are beyond your ability to understand right now, since you are still in a single-digit dimensionality. But the result back then was "a conscious Gaia." So you might say Gaia itself was actually created quantumly from the Seven Sisters energy, just like you.

The Gaia that existed before then was still Gaia, but not as it is now. It was a Gaia that was creating the dirt on the earth and the energy of biological life of the earth. It was the mother of all life on the planet, but not a Gaia that responded to Human consciousness. That's very different. So Gaia greatly expanded when the Pleiadians came, and that was by design.

It took 110,000 years for this to settle itself, and for the ground to be ready for more than 16 species of Human Beings to leave so that only one was left. When that occurred at approximately 90,000 years ago is when you can start calibrating who Humans were and who they became.

The Others

Now, what about all of those other types of Humans, and how did they leave? I'm  going to give you an attribute of something that exists even today. This is difficult for my partner, for he has not heard this before. This information has not been brought in this fashion before. Go slowly, my partner.

The variety of species on this planet comes and goes accordingly as they are needed for the energy they create. So one of the tasks of Gaia is to create and eliminate species. When they are no longer needed for the purpose of Gaia's development, they cease to exist and they die out. If new life is necessary, if new concepts of life are needed, Gaia is cooperative and they are then created. The actual creation of species is something that environmentalists have not clearly seen. That is to say the mechanics of how it works is not fully recognized as something that is strongly coordinated with your weather. But you have already seen the mechanics of some of this in your long-term studies, for you have already noted the coming and going of many species through the ages. It's ongoing.

The Appropriateness of the Elimination of Species

Now, along come Humans and they see all this coming and going of living things, but they want to save them all - all the species that exist. For in their linear mind, all species should remain and exist, since they are here. The attribute of Gaia, however, is to eliminate them, cull them out, to bring in new ones. I just gave you the mechanics of the reasons species come and go. It's appropriate and is a natural building process for new species.

When the Pleiadians started to create the grids of the planet, Gaia cooperated in what was to come, knew the purpose, and what was needed for survival of this new spiritual Human. Gaia knew this since the energy of Gaia had seen it before [reason given below]. So the old attribute, which needed many kinds of Human Beings, slowly died out. It was natural. There was not a war. There were no horrible plagues. There were no volcanoes or tsunamis that consumed them. Through attrition, appropriateness, and 110,000 years, they disappeared.

So approximately 110,000 years ago, there was only one kind left, and this is science, for everything that you study will bear this out, and anthropologists have already seen it and have asked, "What happened back then at this time that would have eliminated these other kinds of Human variety?" It's a puzzle in science that I have just answered, for science looks only for physical events as triggers. But instead, it's the marriage of Gaia consciousness that you call "Mother Nature," which facilitated this. It's the same today when you see a variety of species diminish as Humans take over a greater portion of the earth. I'll call this "the appropriate elimination of unique life forms, which allow for the growth of global awareness and quantum evolution." Some species only exist to allow others to climb the ladder of nature, then they disappear. Gaia knows what the ladder looks like. You don't. ... ”

"The Physics of Consciousness - The Future Revealed" - June 29, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ …You're a young civilization, dear one, so young that it's difficult to even give you a perspective of how young you are. Your solar system, with your civilization as part of it, hasn't even orbited the galaxy one time yet! It has only moved a fraction of the distance of one revolution [rev]. It takes almost 200 million Earth years to travel around the center of the galaxy one time [one rev]. How does it make you feel to know that there are societies and civilizations on other worlds far from you who have been around three revs? The Pleiadians (your seed biology) – half a rev. This is just to show you how old some life is in this galaxy. Some of them visit you, but none of them, none of them are able to influence you to the degree that you can influence yourselves. The galaxy teams with life and you're well hidden, by the way. Until now.

We've seen planetary maturity happen before, so I want to give you a bigger picture. Your age as a Human on this planet starts to explain why the earth has been through such a horrendous time. Historic Earth civilization history looks ugly to you, doesn't it? Your past and your history are filled with survival energy: killing, ugly weaponry, mass destruction and no elegance or respect for life at all. Torture was common, and public execution was a sport. Dear one, all those planets went through that! They all did, because civilization does this; it builds itself through time and growth. Part of growth doesn't always go the way of maturity. It has the ability to destroy itself, or the seeds of its knowledge, along the way. Sometimes that happens, and sometimes it does not. As you know, your Earth just passed a point where that was a possible scenario. …”

Indonesia's 'hobbits' disappeared earlier than thought: study

Yahoo – AFP, Mariëtte Le Roux, March 30, 2016

The remains of Indonesia's hobbit-sized humans (L) and modern human (R) are
displayed at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on November 5,
2004 (AFP Photo)

Paris (AFP) - A group of extinct human relatives dubbed "hobbits", which left tantalising traces of their existence in an Indonesian cave, disappeared much longer ago than previously thought, archaeologists said on Wednesday.

Homo floresiensis, a primitive, diminutive hominin, inhabited the Liang Bua cave on Flores island from about 190,000 to 50,000 years ago, reported the team, which spent years accurately redating sections of the archaeological site.

The pint-sized creatures were previously said to have lived in the cave until as recently as 12,000 years ago.

This would have meant they survived until long after modern humans reached Southeast Asia some 50,000 years ago, and may even have lived side-by-side with our ancestors.

The redating of the dig site, which has yielded fossils of hobbits and their stone tools, did not make it any clearer whether H. floresiensis were likely to have crossed paths with Homo sapiens.

"Whether H. floresiensis survived after (50,000 years) ago -- potentially encountering modern humans on Flores... -- is an open question," the team wrote in the journal Nature.

The hobbits of Liang Bua have been the cause of much scientific controversy since their remains were first discovered in 2003.

Were they a human ancestor? A different species altogether? Or humans suffering from dwarfism or microcephaly, the brain-shrinking disease afflicting babies in Latin America and the Caribbean today?

Different studies have yielded different answers.

Big feet, small brain

An adult hobbit stood about a metre (three feet) tall and weighed about 25 kilogrammes (55 pounds).

Dubbed hobbits by scientists, after the short, hairy-footed creatures in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, they had small brains, about the size of a chimpanzee's, and relatively large feet for their stature.

H. floresiensis shared Flores island with pygmy elephants and giant rats, storks and lizards -- species which went extinct at about the same time as all traces of hobbits are now known to have disappeared from the cave... and coinciding with the arrival of modern humans.

There is no scientific evidence they ever met, but Flores locals tell stories of an ancient people called "ebu gogo" which lived in caves, were short, stocky and not all that bright, stole food and could not cook.

Some have suggested these legends may be fact rather than fiction -- retold memories of encounters with H. floresiensis passed down from generation to generation.

For the new study, an international team of researchers re-examined the fossil-containing layers at the dig site, and found that some areas had been incorrectly dated.

"We dated charcoal, sediments, flowstones, volcanic ash and even the H. floresiensis bones themselves using the most up-to-date scientific methods available," said study co-author Richard Roberts of the University of Wollongong in Australia.

Related Articles:

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… Your Story

Several hundred thousand years ago, Humans began to form into the Human that you recognize today. That's just yesterday. Don't confuse this with Human development. You have had that going on for a very long time. But the DNA that is within your body is not the DNA that developed naturally on the planet. Yours is outside of the system of Earth-based evolutionary processes, and the scientists are starting to see this. The "missing link" that they speak of is not Human.

So again, we tell you that the ones who came to help seed you approximately 100,000 to 200,000 Earth years ago were the Pleiadians who had gone into graduate status and who had changed consciousness. They had become quantum with free choice, and you have parts of their DNA within you.

New information for you: The seeding process was not a one-time event. This is why we give you these large sections of time where the Pleiadians worked with you. It was done over time and in many places. It was not all simultaneous, and this was for reasons that will remain unknown to you for now, but will later explain why you will find other Human types that now are extinct. Now you only have one Human type, and that is counterintuitive to all mammal development on the planet. This was a design, and it took more than 100,000 years to create this for humanity as you know it.

It's your Human bias that has the creation story of the knowledge of light and dark being given to Humans in one day in a garden involving a talking snake and other mythology. Spiritual logic should tell you that these stories are simply metaphors of a real truth, that indeed there was a major shift of consciousness, but over a longer period of time and not instantly. The same mythology has the earth created in seven days. However, this only represents a numerological truth [7 is the number of divinity], meaning that there was a divine design in the creation of the planet. It's time to start using spiritual logic within the teachings you have about spiritual history, for the revelations will be wonderful and lead to fuller understanding.

Now, what really is in your DNA? It's the Pleiadians' code, and it's the ones before them, and even the ones before them. You can't remember it, for that is not the set-up. The system is that your Akashic record is only from Earth, but your "divine remembrance" will take you back to the beginning, where system after system after system created that which you see as the divinity within the galaxy and the Universe.

Who are they? They're your "divine" parents. They're the seed divinity in you and they visit here. They're not all Pleiadians, did you know that? Instead, they're from all over the galaxy. You see, they also represent the seeds of the Pleiadians, and they keep you safe. You wouldn't have it any other way, would you? "Safe from what?" you might ask. ….”

"The Timing of Creation"– Aug  12, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“…. The First Look

About 200,000 years ago is when it literally began. The concept of the "divine seeding" of planet Earth happened at that point, and the fields metaphorically started to be ploughed. There is an issue and we're going to call it the way species work with Gaia. This is something that happened simultaneously with the grid creation of Gaia. For now we give you something that no one has thought about. When we speak of the grids of the planet, you make an assumption that these grids always existed on the planet. For the planet is old and you might say, "Well the grids have always been there." But I'm here to tell you that only one was always there, and that's the magnetic grid. But it was spiritually void. That is to say, it only had that which was created from the Earth's core movement. Today, when we talk about the grids of the planet, our conversation involves the consciousness of humanity, which is imbued upon the magnetic grid. We also tell you about the Crystalline Grid and about the Grid of Gaia consciousness. Both of these react to Human compassion.

Now, here is the puzzle: If you don't have divine Human consciousness, then what about the grids? Do they exist without the Human Being? The answer is that they needed to be created simultaneously with the seeding of divine DNA. So what the Pleiadians did was not only to start the seeds of humanity's change into divine DNA, but they created the conscious grids of Gaia as well. They had to, for the conscious grids of Gaia are a confluence of humanity's decisions brought to Gaia's energy. The consciousness that we are talking about is the spiritually sanctioned Human Being that exists with a piece of God inside him, and with DNA that has 23 chromosomes instead of the common 24 that all the others have through biological evolution.

Let us back up and say it again and make it simpler, my partner [admonition to Lee to speak more plainly]. The triad of grids on this planet that we have spoken of over and over are the consciousness grids of Gaia, and were created at the same time as the seeding of humanity with Pleiadian DNA. For all the teachings we've been giving, especially about the Crystalline Grid, these grids have been reacting to Human consciousness and compassion. Therefore, the very essence of the current Gaia energy is also related to the creation of humanity.

These are the attributes of the Pleiadians work 200,000 years ago, and it was done quantumly in ways that you have no conscious awareness of at the moment. For these things are beyond your ability to understand right now, since you are still in a single-digit dimensionality. But the result back then was "a conscious Gaia." So you might say Gaia itself was actually created quantumly from the Seven Sisters energy, just like you.

The Gaia that existed before then was still Gaia, but not as it is now. It was a Gaia that was creating the dirt on the earth and the energy of biological life of the earth. It was the mother of all life on the planet, but not a Gaia that responded to Human consciousness. That's very different. So Gaia greatly expanded when the Pleiadians came, and that was by design.

It took 110,000 years for this to settle itself, and for the ground to be ready for more than 16 species of Human Beings to leave so that only one was left. When that occurred at approximately 90,000 years ago is when you can start calibrating who Humans were and who they became.

The Others

Now, what about all of those other types of Humans, and how did they leave? I'm  going to give you an attribute of something that exists even today. This is difficult for my partner, for he has not heard this before. This information has not been brought in this fashion before. Go slowly, my partner.

The variety of species on this planet comes and goes accordingly as they are needed for the energy they create. So one of the tasks of Gaia is to create and eliminate species. When they are no longer needed for the purpose of Gaia's development, they cease to exist and they die out. If new life is necessary, if new concepts of life are needed, Gaia is cooperative and they are then created. The actual creation of species is something that environmentalists have not clearly seen. That is to say the mechanics of how it works is not fully recognized as something that is strongly coordinated with your weather. But you have already seen the mechanics of some of this in your long-term studies, for you have already noted the coming and going of many species through the ages. It's ongoing.

The Appropriateness of the Elimination of Species

Now, along come Humans and they see all this coming and going of living things, but they want to save them all - all the species that exist. For in their linear mind, all species should remain and exist, since they are here. The attribute of Gaia, however, is to eliminate them, cull them out, to bring in new ones. I just gave you the mechanics of the reasons species come and go. It's appropriate and is a natural building process for new species.

When the Pleiadians started to create the grids of the planet, Gaia cooperated in what was to come, knew the purpose, and what was needed for survival of this new spiritual Human. Gaia knew this since the energy of Gaia had seen it before [reason given below]. So the old attribute, which needed many kinds of Human Beings, slowly died out. It was natural. There was not a war. There were no horrible plagues. There were no volcanoes or tsunamis that consumed them. Through attrition, appropriateness, and 110,000 years, they disappeared.

So approximately 110,000 years ago, there was only one kind left, and this is science, for everything that you study will bear this out, and anthropologists have already seen it and have asked, "What happened back then at this time that would have eliminated these other kinds of Human variety?" It's a puzzle in science that I have just answered, for science looks only for physical events as triggers. But instead, it's the marriage of Gaia consciousness that you call "Mother Nature," which facilitated this. It's the same today when you see a variety of species diminish as Humans take over a greater portion of the earth. I'll call this "the appropriate elimination of unique life forms, which allow for the growth of global awareness and quantum evolution." Some species only exist to allow others to climb the ladder of nature, then they disappear. Gaia knows what the ladder looks like. You don't. ... ”

"The Physics of Consciousness - The Future Revealed" - June 29, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ …You're a young civilization, dear one, so young that it's difficult to even give you a perspective of how young you are. Your solar system, with your civilization as part of it, hasn't even orbited the galaxy one time yet! It has only moved a fraction of the distance of one revolution [rev]. It takes almost 200 million Earth years to travel around the center of the galaxy one time [one rev]. How does it make you feel to know that there are societies and civilizations on other worlds far from you who have been around three revs? The Pleiadians (your seed biology) – half a rev. This is just to show you how old some life is in this galaxy. Some of them visit you, but none of them, none of them are able to influence you to the degree that you can influence yourselves. The galaxy teams with life and you're well hidden, by the way. Until now.

We've seen planetary maturity happen before, so I want to give you a bigger picture. Your age as a Human on this planet starts to explain why the earth has been through such a horrendous time. Historic Earth civilization history looks ugly to you, doesn't it? Your past and your history are filled with survival energy: killing, ugly weaponry, mass destruction and no elegance or respect for life at all. Torture was common, and public execution was a sport. Dear one, all those planets went through that! They all did, because civilization does this; it builds itself through time and growth. Part of growth doesn't always go the way of maturity. It has the ability to destroy itself, or the seeds of its knowledge, along the way. Sometimes that happens, and sometimes it does not. As you know, your Earth just passed a point where that was a possible scenario. …”