Floresians "Hobbit" location between large asterisk symbols

I was exploring on Google Earth, and decided to look up the site where the controversial "Hobbits" and their tools were found. The site is the Liang Bua Cave on Flores, an island of Indonesia (type in Liang Bua cave, Flores in Google earth). I noticed that the cave is located directly in between two very large asterisk symbols, to the east and west of it. The right asterisk (on the east) looks to be plots for growing crop, the stepped type. The asterisk on the left (west) however, looks to be roads/trails cut into the forest all leading to one location. The west asterisk is not as noticeable as the east one is. Both asterisks seem to be of equal sizes, and are very proportionate. They do not look like natural formations to me.
Some theories I have, they are trails leading up a hill to the peak. If that is the case than they are spaced out almost perfectly. Could they be Google anomalies? (The west one mainly) Or possibility they could be something like the Nazca lines?
First post, and fairly new to ATS so I'm still working on getting Google Earth images up on here. If you put in Liang Bua Cave, Flores in the Google Earth search, look just north west and south east for the asterisks.
I am interested in what others have to say.

[edit on 22-4-2009 by THEBIGPICTURE]

1. The politically correct term is not "hobbits" it is "Floresians"

From my research:

"Finally I moved onto the next chapter about the Floresians. In September 2003, a group of archaeologists including R.P. Soejono and Michael Morwood, from the Indonesia Center for Archaeology and the University of New England Armidale (respectively) were doing field work in Liang Bua, a limestone cave located on the Indonesian island of Flores, between East Timor and Sumatra. 20 feet down in the cave they found the remains of most of a female, who was about 30 years of age. She appeared hominid but was only 3 feet tall, and located near some other bones which seemed to have been from around 9 members of the same species. Here’s something amazing- the oldest sample of the bones dated to around 94,000 years ago, and the youngest to 12,000 years ago. Just the samples in this cave, using radiocarbon and thermoluminescence testing. In the same cave there were the skeletons of fish, frogs, snakes, bats, giant rats, tortoises, and birds, and also dwarf Stegedons, which are extinct pygmy elephants, Komodo dragons, and a larger lizard. There was also charred bone pieces, which means that it is possible that the hominids (known as the Floresians) could use fire. There were also some small tools and blades which were used as weapons with wooden staffs. Some of them were located very close to the remnants of the Stegedons, so the Floresians may have hunted them.

The Floresians had skulls about the size of a grapefruit, and therefore smaller brains than us, about a third the size of ours. Scientists are unsure of the connection between brain size and intelligence, and a brain this small would suggest that the Floresians were less intelligent than ourselves. However, they were more capable (judging by the tools found) of advanced function than the chimpanzee with a larger brain! The cause of the small size of these hominids is unclear. It has been suggested that they are some form of pygmy. The species has been named Homo floresiensis. It is theorized that, because of the island's isolation, the species evolved differently, similar to the large lizards and small elephants, because there were different (and less) environmental resources  than that of on the continents. Some believe that the Floresians descended from Homo erectus, who might have ended up on the island around 840,000 years ago, allowing a great amount of time to evolve into a smaller species. Michael Morwood theorizes that the Floresians also had a type of primitive language used to communicate during hunting and tool-making, but this is debated among experts. The first remnants of modern humans on Flores date back to 11,000 years ago, which is fairly close to the 12,000 year old Floresian remnants. This means that not only did the two species exist at the same time, they may have existed in the same place. The modern humans may have migrated to the islands and then hunted the remaining Floresians into extinction.

Some people believe that the Floresians are actually a type of modern human of the Austrolomelanesid race, dating back to only around 1,500 years. It has also been suggested that they are modern humans with microcephaly, a "dwarf" genetic abnormality. The chances of this are slim if you ask me, because the chances of 9 people suffering from microcephaly in one area and time are practically none. Some people have marked similarities between the bones found in the cave and those of a person with microcephaly from Crete, however the credibility of the comparison has been debated. Also, they may be ancestors of the pygmy inhabitants of Rampasasa, a village in Flores near the cave where many of the bones were found.

DNA testing could be helpful in discovering the place of the Floresians in the complex web of hominids. However, no usable samples have been extracted from the bones. It is interesting that the inhabitants of Flores believe in the Ebu Gogo, little hairy people who also live on the island today. It is thought that the Floresians were wiped out by the volcanoes, which may have erupted around 12,000 years ago, and it is possible that some of these Floresians survived. The Ebu Gogo are described as being 3 feet tall with long arms and fingers and are capable of speaking to each other in a primitive tongue. The last report of a sighting of the Ebu Gogo on the island occurred before the 16th century when the Dutch settled the island, probably killing off any remaining specimens.

On another Indonesian island called Sumatra, located near Flores, there have also been sightings of the Orang Pendek, another 3 foot tall, human-like species. In the Kerinci Seblat park in Western Sumatra there have also been reports of a strange primate/hominid, even documented by zoologists for over 150 years, and hairs and footprints have been found! Many believe that these are related to the Floresians, and that it is likely they are exactly the same species, or that the Floresians survived until very recently. Many scientists judge by the recent findings of unknown species in Southeast Asia that it may be very likely that a live specimen of the Floresians may be found. This species was unknown until very recently (2003) and there is a lot of room left to research them.

I have to make a point about the cryptozoological exploration of the Floresians. I do not support catching them in any way shape or form if they do exist! These are hominids. They have tools. They have a language. Clearly they are intelligent and can think, and are more like us than possibly any other animal known to man. I even shy away from using the word animal, because the descriptions I have read seem to indicate that they are much more like humans than animals. I believe it would be incredibly cruel to capture and study anything capable of thinking and anything that has an identity. There is not much cryptozoological information in this book, but that is generally my stance on things like that. Bigfoot may be intelligent. Most hominids and great apes are, and it would be –incredibly- unusual for us to be the only hominids on the planet. I wouldn’t want an orangutan to capture me and stick me in a cage and poke me with needles and separate me from my friends and talk to me in strange tongues and do tests on me. Not cool. I really have an issue with the way the end of this chapter was presented because I do not support the capturing/hunting/removal of Floresians from their natural habitat, or any other human-like creature. For that matter, I really don’t support any of those activities in relation to any living creature. That is my stance and my lecture on why this chapter was really awesome and then made me mad."

I'm having trouble locating the "asterisks" you refer to. Perhaps you could give some precise coordinates or upload a screen grab.

Indonesia is home to extensive logging and mining operations, both legal and illegal, as well as agriculture. It's possible that what you are looking at are the access roads to a mine or sawmill.

Welcome to ATS.

OK, thanks for your politically correct term, and the extra info on the race. However, I would like to know what you have to say about my post regarding the large asterisks seen on Google Earth. Thanks.

Sorry I should have put up the coordinates

Latitude 8°36'51.08"S
Longitude 120°19'12.25"E

This is the west asterisk in the woods.

Latitude 8°36'47.82"S
Longitude 120°19'27.82"E

This is the east one, which looks like food plots

reply to post by THEBIGPICTURE


Well. Then.
Google Earth is notorious for being a poor source, just like Wikipedia and YouTube. The graphics images overlap the terrain layers in many places and it's also very easy to manipulate the images.

So it's not a good source and I don't know why anyone who is genuinely interested would blame Google Earth for a conspiracy over something like this. It's better to just get your own evidence.

Besides, Floresians wouldn't show up on it even without the asterisks. Chances are it's just a coincidence and probably a natural formation.

Thanks for the coordinates, now I see what you're talking about. When I put the cave in the search bar, it took me to a spot some distance to the east.

I think you're right about the eastern one being land cleared for crops. I suspect the western one is an area that has not yet been cleared, but has had roads or trails put in place to prepare for such. Looking around the area, particularly to the south and southwest, you can see several other similar patterns in various stages of development.

My revised guess is that you are correct in assuming that the eastern asterisk, and that the western one has not yet (as of the date of the image) been cleared. An alternative is that it is, in fact, a crop that has not yet been harvested, though the former seems more likely to me.

Interesting to look at though. I wonder what the Floresians would make of it all.

reply to post by ravenshadow13


I don't think the OP was really suggesting that there is a conspiracy surrounding the Floresians, it seems these features presented themselves to him when he peeked at the location of the cave. Having looked at these locations, I don't see anything either anomalous or suggestive of manipulation; these are simply images of land-use techniques not often used in the West.