Fig. 2: Context of the Mata Menge hominin fossils.

a Digital Elevation Map (DEM) of Flores showing the location of the So’a Basin and the cave Liang Bua. b DEM of the So’a Basin showing the location of the Mata Menge excavations. c Photo of the west baulk of the southern excavation sector (Sector 32C) in the upper fossil-bearing interval at Mata Menge. Layer III is a reddish sandy paleosol, overlain with an erosional contact by a sandy fluvial layer (Layer II). Layers II and III are covered by a series of clay rich ashy mudflow units (Layers Ia-f). Deciduous canine SOA-MM10 was recovered at 5 cm below the top of Layer II (indicated with the blue dashed rectangle; the blue rectangle is enlarged in e). Also note the large Stegodon bones resting on top of Layer II and covered by the mudflow units. d Photo of the northwest corner of the excavation in sector 32 A, taken on 7 November 2013, four weeks after the retrieval of the hominin humerus fragment SOA-MM9. The fossil was excavated from the top of Layer II, with the approximate position indicated with the dashed blue oval. e Detail of the contact between Layer I and Layer II at the spot of the deciduous canine SOA-MM10. f SOA-MM10 still partly embedded in the sandstone of Layer II. g Mata Menge excavation grid (UTM Zone 51 L) showing the 1 ×1 m quadrants excavated towards the end of the 2016 field season in gray. The positions of the hominin fossils described in this paper are indicated with green dots, those described previously⁹ with gray dots. Light shading represents the step trench excavated in 2010, which first revealed the presence of the Mata Menge upper fossil-bearing interval bone bed. h SOA-MM11 surrounded by its sandstone matrix when excavated in 2016. The maps (a and b) created with GeoMapApp (www.geomapapp.org) / CC BY / CC BY (Ref. ⁶⁷)”.