I am grateful to my much-missed colleague, Emeritus Professor Colin Groves. Colin and I worked together on the H. floresiensis question from the time of its announcement until Colin’s passing. He was a true scholar and an inspiring teacher. I am deeply indebted to Colin for his collegiality, his clear and objective thinking, his intellectual acumen, his sense of humour and his unflappable nature.
I thank the late Professor Mike Morwood, Dr Tony Djubiantono, Dr Thomas Sutikna and ARKENAS for kindly affording me the immense privilege of studying the H. floresiensis bones—a highlight of my life. Mike and Thomas I also thank for facilitating my visits to Flores and Liang Bua cave. A thank you, too, to members of the Liang Bua team for your support of my research endeavours on Flores.
It was a pleasure to work with Richard Wright, Denise Donlon, Dave Cameron, Bill Jungers and Mike Lee on the H. floresiensis question. Thank you all for your collegiality and contributing your expertise.
Many people generously shared personal recollections of their discoveries and research work with me for inclusion in this book. Your experiences have greatly enriched this work and I am grateful to each of you for your willingness to share your insights, and for taking time out of your busy days to chat with me. Thank you Linda Ayliffe, Peter Bellwood, Adam Brumm, David Cameron, Jon de Vos, Florent Détroit, Elen Feuerriegel, Mike Gagan, Wahyoe Hantoro, Jatmiko, Susan Larson, Mike Lee, Glenn Marshall, Hanneke Meijer, Armand (Mandy) Mijares, Phil Piper, Bert Roberts, Heather Scott-Gagan, Garry K Smith, Thomas Sutikna, Matt Tocheri, Gert van den Bergh, Frido Welker and Clément Zanolli.
Other colleagues and friends contributed feedback and insights, or helped in other ways: Hannah Bulloch, Christine Cave, Marilyn Chalkley, Phyll Dance, Rokus Awe Due, Dean Falk, Stewart Fallon, Natasha Fijn, Gregory Forth, Heloisa Mariath, Michael McFadden, Mark Moore, Anton Nurcahyo, Mark Oxenham, Myron Shekelle and Lawrie St Hill.
Very early in the piece, Julie Jefferis made a most generous offer to read my draft chapters. This is a time-consuming task that requires patience and care. Thank you Julie for your thoughtful reading and for your insightful suggestions and ongoing encouragement. These were of invaluable help along the way.
Geraldine Cave crafted the maps and diagrams beautifully. Thank you Geraldine for your willingness to do this, and for your ingenuity in solving the pictorial challenges inherent in presenting information diagrammatically.
I thank Andrew Schuller, who considered my book to have publishing potential and kindly took up the case.
Nathan Hollier, Duncan Fardon, Cathryn Smith and the team at Melbourne University Publishing have been great to work with. I very much value the input of copy-editor Paul Smitz. I imagine working under COVID conditions would have been very challenging for everyone and I appreciate how nicely things flowed.
I thank Stephen Oppenheimer and several anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of various chapters.
I sincerely thank an anonymous reader of the book who provided useful comments as well as some extra information. I hope I have done justice to the remarks, and I have incorporated the new information, duly attributed to the reader.
The Australian National University, the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the College of Arts and Social Sciences have supported me throughout my studies. I very much appreciate the opportunities this has afforded me and I truly enjoy being part of such a lively academic community.
The Australian Research Council has been most generous in providing the financial backing for Colin Groves’ and my H. floresiensis research project DP1096870.
Very special thanks go to my husband, Fraser Argue, for his boundless support and enthusiasm for my research.
I will be mortified if I have inadvertently missed someone in my acknowledgements. If this has happened, I am deeply apologetic.