Spinal Fire Scientia Est Potentia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6294101.stm
What I find moist interesting about this issue (aside for the anthropological ramifications) is the damage of the bones by the head of the field;
"In 2004, Professor Jacob - known as Indonesia's "king of palaeoanthropology" - took the bones away from their repository in Jakarta to his lab in Yogyakarta, 443km (275 miles) away, against the wishes of the researchers who found them.

They were eventually returned. But the discoverers claimed the bones were extensively damaged in Jacob's lab during attempts to make casts.

The damage included long, deep cuts marking the lower edge of the Hobbit's jaw on both sides, said to be caused by a knife used to cut away the rubber mould.

In addition, the chin of a second Hobbit jaw was snapped off and glued back together. Whoever was responsible misaligned the pieces and put them at an incorrect angle.

The pelvis was smashed, destroying details that reveal body shape, gait and evolutionary history."

Unfortunately I think this damage is indicative of a sort of cover up/special pleading that is a few dying scientists attempting to protect their legacy. I believe we have had discussions of Zahi Hawass who is the head of the Giza necropolis and his stonewalling of legitimate researchers and scientists who hold a different theory then the mainstream line. All too often I have seen evidence ignored, disappeared, or swept under the rug to protect the status quo. I remember reading a National Geographic where research was presented that showed the presence of coca or cocaine in Egyptian mummies, evidence which is near bulletproof corroboration of a trade route between the Egyptians and south Americans far prior to Columbus. But what to we hear of this evidence...Crickets... I have also read of Phoenician pottery being found amidst the ruins of the Anasazi (?)...yet more evidence ignored.

Science will progress when the old guard dies (Kuhns). I think more so then other sciences Archeology and anthropology seem to be mired in the early 1900's when both were pioneered in Germany and continued to flourish under the Nazis.

We must remember the words of Orwell;
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

How can we make a determination as to the validity of a theory when some of the relevant evidence is not made available?