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Mata Menge

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Lat/Long:
-8.69, 121.09
Country:
Indonesia
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Mata Menge is an early Middle Pleistocene paleoanthropological site located in the Ola Bula Formation in the So'a Basin on the island of Flores, Indonesia. Lithic artefacts and hominin remains have been discovered at the site. The level of sophistication of the Mata Menge lithic artefacts is described as being 'simple'.

In October 2014, the fossil remains of an early hominin were discovered at the site. A mandible and six teeth were discovered. The hominin fossils belonged to at least three distinct individuals. The hominin fossils were dated to around 700,000 BP, making the Mata Menge fossils the oldest hominin fossils yet discovered on the island of Flores. The fossils at Mata Menge are likely to belong to hominins that resulted from the effects of insular dwarfism working on Homo erectus.

47 lithic artefacts were discovered in the layer containing the hominin fossils. The remains of Stegodon florensis, Hooijeromys, Komodo dragon, and crocodile were also discovered in the layer associated with the hominin fossil remains.