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Prehistoric America

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Cleito
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« Reply #15 on: February 24, 2007, 01:06:29 am »

Clovis speakers discuss man's origins in the United States

MEG KINNARD

Associated Press


COLUMBIA, S.C. - A University of Texas archaeologist opened the highly anticipated "Clovis in the Southeast" conference at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Thursday by rejecting the premise on which many experts once based their theories on man's North American origins.

At the meeting, sponsored in part by the University of South Carolina, Michael Collins called the idea that the first inhabitants traveled by way of a land bridge from Asia "primal racism." Instead, Collins said, they arrived by water, because "the rich marine environments" along the northern Atlantic and Pacific coasts are "very attractive regions for human exploitation."

Conference staffer Thomas McDonald said that roughly 400 people had pre-registered for the four-day conference on Clovis - the culture traditionally thought to have been the first in North America. In recent years, many experts have begun to consider other explanations, such as migration from Europe, and not Asia. That idea was advanced by Dennis Stanford, head of the archaeology division of the department of anthropology at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History.

Other speakers talked about the wide array of paleo-Indian artifacts throughout the southeastern region. University of South Carolina archaeologist Al Goodyear discussed his research at the Topper site in Allendale County, calling the spot "the Goldilocks location to be doing archaeology." In 1998, Goodyear announced that he had discovered artifacts thousands of years older than Clovis materials at Topper.

University of Tennessee professor David Anderson also encouraged private collectors to consider sharing their artifacts with the public. Be "thinking about where you're going to be 100 years from now," he said. "We're all part of the archaeological record."

Afternoon speakers discussed the discoveries of Clovis tools from sites throughout the Tennessee River Valley. Showing slides of the dozens of samples recovered from a Tennessee location, John Broster of the Tennessee Department of Conservation said, "It sorta gets boring in a way, after a while, I guess, but it's still really exciting."

On Friday, Jim Welch will moderate a discussion that Goodyear said "might get a little hot and heavy." Goodyear said he hoped artifact collectors would attend and help to heal some of the "antipathy" between professionals and collectors in the field.

Scheduled events culminate in a Saturday visit to the Topper site.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13014657.htm
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« Reply #16 on: February 24, 2007, 01:09:01 am »

Alleged 40,000-year-old human footprints in Mexico much, much older than thought

Berkeley -- Alleged footprints of early Americans found in volcanic rock in Mexico are either extremely old - more than 1 million years older than other evidence of human presence in the Western Hemisphere - or not footprints at all, according to a new analysis published this week in Nature.
The study was conducted by geologists at the Berkeley Geochronology Center and the University of California, Berkeley, as part of an investigative team of geologists and anthropologists from the United States and Mexico.

Earlier this year, researchers in England touted these "footprints" as definitive proof that humans were in the Americas much earlier than 11,000 years ago, which is the accepted date for the arrival of humans across a northern land-bridge from Asia.

These scientists, led by geologist Silvia Gonzalez of Liverpool's John Moores University, dated the volcanic rock at 40,000 years old. They hypothesized that early hunters walked across ash freshly deposited near a lake by volcanoes that are still active in the area around Puebla, Mexico. The so-called footprints, subsequently covered by more ash and inundated by lake waters, eventually turned to rock.

But Paul Renne, director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center and an adjunct professor of earth and planetary science at UC Berkeley, and his colleagues in Mexico and at Texas A&M University report in the Dec. 1 issue of Nature a new age for the rock: about 1.3 million years.

"You're really only left with two possibilities," Renne said. "One is that they are really old hominids - shockingly old - or they're not footprints."

Renne's colleagues are Michael R. Waters, director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University; Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales and Mario Perez-Campa of the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History; Patricia Ochoa Castillo of the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology; and UC Berkeley graduate students Joshua M. Feinberg and Kim B. Knight. The Berkeley Geochronology Center, located a block from the UC Berkeley campus, is one of the world's preeminent anthropological dating laboratories.

Paleoanthropologist Tim White, professor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley, is familiar with the "so-called footprints" and knows Renne well, frequently collaborating with him in the dating of million-year-old sediments in an area of Ethiopia where White has excavated numerous fossils of human ancestors. He is not surprised at the new finding.

"The evidence (the British team) has provided in their arguments that these are footprints is not sufficient to convince me they are footprints," said White, who did not contribute to the new work that Renne's group is reporting in Nature. "The evidence Paul has produced by dating basically means that this argument is over, unless indisputable footprints can be found sealed within the ash."

Renne determined the new date using the argon/argon dating technique, which reliably dates rock as young as 2,000 years or as old as 4 billion years. The British-led researchers, however, relied mainly on carbon-14 dates of overlying sediments. Carbon-14 cannot reliably date materials older than about 50,000 years.

The idea for another test that, it turns out, throws more cold water on the footprint hypothesis came to Renne one morning in the shower. Many rocks retain evidence of their orientation at the moment they cool in the form of iron oxide grains magnetized in a direction parallel to the Earth's magnetic field at the time of cooling. Because the Earth's field has repeatedly flipped throughout the planet's history, it is possible to date rock based on its magnetic polarity.

Feinberg found that the rock grains in the volcanic ash had polarity opposite to the Earth's polarity today. Since the last magnetic pole reversal was 790,000 years ago, the rock must be at least that age. Because the Earth's magnetic polarity changes, on average, every 250,000 years, the argon/argon date is consistent with a time between 1.07 and 1.77 million years ago when the Earth's polarity was opposite to that of today.

Moreover, Feinberg found that each individual grain in the rock is magnetized in the same direction, meaning that the rock has not been broken up and reformed since it was deposited. This makes extremely unlikely the possibility that the original ash had been weathered into sand that early humans walked through before the sand was welded into rock again.

"Imagine two-millimeter-wide BBs cemented together where they're touching," Feinberg said. "The paleomagnetic data tell us that these things did not move around at all since they were deposited. They haven't been eroded and redeposited anywhere else. They fell while they were still hot, which raises the question of the validity of the footprints. If they were hot, why would anybody be walking on them?"

The British researchers, funded by the United Kingdom's Natural Environment Research Council, have promoted their hypothesis widely, most prominently at a July 4, 2005, presentation and press conference at the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition 2005 in London. The team, which includes Gonzalez as well as Professor David Huddart from John Moores University, also involves scientists from Bournemouth University, the University of Oxford and the Australian National University. They have yet to publish a peer-reviewed analysis of the footprints.

In all, the British team claims to have found 250 footprints - mostly human, but also dog, cat and cloven-hoofed animal prints - in a layer of volcanic ash deposited in a former lake bed now exposed near a reservoir outside Puebla. Its dating techniques returned a date of 40,000 years ago, in contrast to the oldest accepted human fossil from the Americas, an 11,500-year-old skull. This makes the rock "one of the most important areas in the study of early human occupation in the Americas and would support a much earlier human migration than is currently accepted," the team wrote.

One of the team members, Matthew Bennett of Bournemouth, was quoted on a Royal Society Web site as saying, "Accounting for the origin of these footprints would require a complete rethink on the timing, route and origin of the first colonization of the Americas."

Renne, Knight, Waters and the Mexico City archeologists visited the site at the Toluquilla quarry last year while collecting rocks from another anthropological site across the reservoir. Renne noted that the black, basaltic rock is very tough and is mined in slabs for building. Pre-Columbian Mexicans also constructed buildings from the rock, which they called xalnene, meaning "fine sand" in the Nahuatl language. Today, trucks headed toward the quarry routinely drive across the xalnene tuff in which the alleged footprints are found, and the rock itself is pockmarked with many depressions in addition to the alleged footprints.

"They're scattered all over, with no more than two or three in a straight line," which would be expected if someone had walked through the ash, Renne said. If the depressions were footprints, they could not have been made by modern humans, he noted, since even in Africa, Homo sapiens did not appear until about 160,000 years ago. Given the age of the volcanic rock and lacking other evidence of early human ancestors in the Americas 1.3 million years ago, the researchers wrote in their paper, "we consider such a possibility to be extremely remote."

Many paleontologists have withheld judgment on the alleged footprints, awaiting good geological dates, Feinberg said. "With this study, we're trying to nip any misrepresentation in the bud."


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/uoc--a4h112805.php
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« Reply #17 on: February 24, 2007, 01:11:52 am »

The Signposts Perspectives 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD

The Peopling of the Americas


Approximately 8,000 BC-6,000 BC: Human beings in many locations are constructing villages and developing agriculture and various handcrafts; brain surgery is being performed; the secrets of fire-starting are emerging and spreading
Humanity in southwest asia lives in villages and farms animals and grains. Pottery and weaving is in evidence.


-- page 789, "Stone Age", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
-- WHERE DID AGRICULTURE REALLY BEGIN? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #86, MAR-APR 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Leigh Dayton; "Pacific Islanders Were World's First Farmers," New Scientist, p. 14, December 12, 1992

Head injuries can require holes cut into the skull to relieve pressure due to bleeding; a practice utilized in modern medicine circa 2000 AD. It appears similar surgeries were being performed possibly further back than 5000 BC in France. Some of the prehistoric treatments seemed to be of high quality.

-- Stone Age surgery ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/magazine/article/0,5744,17987,00.html"] Discover Magazine; September 1997; Section: Break throughs: ARCHEOLOGY STONE AGE SURGERY


Up to around 7,000 BC Humanity is forced to maintain/feed a fire nearby 24 hours a day, seven days a week or else be forced to trade with someone else for a living flame. The alternative of waiting for a natural fire such as one set by lightning can require years or decades, and is not really practical.

In substantial communities maintaining one or more continuous fires is likely a critically important function.

Finally, in approximately 7,000 BC, people in various regions begin to discover reliable ways to start fires from scratch-- though the process will remain difficult and inconvenient for centuries to come. Thus, the continually burning flames of community centers will continue to be important for many generations.


-- fire; Encyclopædia Britannica ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/8/0,5716,34938+1,00.html"]

Note that global sea levels continue to rise, forcing a perpetual creeping movement inland and/or to higher elevations for most coastal, island, and riverside communities. This incessant creeping migration (and attendent unexpectedly severe damage and death tolls from sporadic storms and tidal waves which rising seas intensify) cannot help but sap the productive and innovative efforts of the populace overall, as many communities of fixed location are higher maintenance now than they will be after 4,000 BC to 3,000 BC.

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 8,000 BC-3,000 BC: Fresh peoples continue to pour into the Americas from all over the world
Around 8,000 BC-4,000 BC the Amerind's mitochondrial DNA incorporated a particular mutation common to southeast Asian/Polynesian branches (this may signify the integration of the Polynesians in California and Mexico, and the Australians in South America, all of which had already been living in those areas for many millennia by then).
A wave of Na-Dene peoples (such as Navajos and Apaches) and Eskimo-Aleut arrived in North America around 8,000 BC-3,000 BC. The languages of the Na-Dene appear to place their sources as China and Tibet, northern europe, and the western parts of the Pyrenees mountains separating France and Spain. Again sea crossings of the Pacific and Atlantic are implied, as well as far north excursions between Europe and North America.

Note that the Chinese/Tibetans almost had to get to America by boat, as the Bering land bridge disappeared beneath the sea again around 8000 BC. An intriguing alternative however is that lucrative trade in **** and tobacco may have spurred Chinese/Tibetans to actually travel the length of Asia into Europe or Africa, then cross the Atlantic or take a near-Arctic route to get to the Americas. There is some evidence for such lengthy journeys in scientific findings, despite the incredible nature of such prehistoric commercialism.

The influx of europeans across the Atlantic continues the trend described earlier.

The Eskimo-Aleut language sources appear to include Japanese and Ainu, Korean, and others ranging from Europe to India. Again sea crossings of the Atlantic and Pacific are suggested, and virtually any other route as well (except for the Bering land bridge).

The next/second earliest group which settled in north central and north eastern North America apparently were originally Jomon from prehistoric Japan. This group came in two waves, the first forming the peoples leading to the modern Blackfeet, Iroquois, and related tribes spread over Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Ontario, and the second becoming the Inuit. Other tribes of the eastern seaboard also share this heritage. Related peoples later became the Inuit. Other relatives of these appear to have migrated down to settle the entire eastern coast of North America.

This appears to be an anomaly in migration. Prehistoric Japanese crossing the Pacific and then an entire continent as well to settle in central and eastern North America? It may seem hard to believe, but that's what recent research describes.

Next came the Chinese, spreading through Alaska and into northwestern Canada, and south through Arizona and northern Mexico.

The languages of the Amerinds include a hodgepodge of terms seeming to originate from a broad array of peoples geographically: Europe, Asia, Africa, Polynesia, and Australia. These clues point to the Amerind migration involving sea-crossings of both the Pacific and Atlantic, as well as use of the Bering land bridge, and possibly island hopping and ice crossings in the far north between Europe and North America.

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 7,911 BC-7,090 BC: During this period there are perhaps seven substantial volcanic eruptions in various spots around the globe
Given that volcanically active areas are typically fertile and inviting to plant and animal life alike, and make for near ideal locales for human habitation, foraging, agriculture, and hunting-- and that humanity has been rapidly spreading over most of the world for thousands of years now-- there's a good chance these eruptions destroy one or more significant human settlements or cities.


-- page 99, "Ice on the World", National Geographic magazine, October 1988

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 7,000 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: Massive earthquakes possibly stronger than magnitude 8 pulverize many sites of early human civilization in Europe and North America
Note that such quakes typically do little harm or injury to primitive peoples, but for those cases where they cause landslides, avalanches, or tsunamis to directly strike villages. True urban civilizations however, with multi-story, complex housing and earthworks, and various structures of a civil engineering nature (like dams and canals), are a different matter. These may easily be decimated or completely destroyed by strong quakes, by way of large numbers of fatalities and injured, as well as severe damage done to housing, irrigation works essential to agriculture, and defenses erected against animals and human enemies.

Monster earthquakes may be occuring in many places around the world as the glaciers disappear-- especially in Europe and North America. Scientists were shocked at the apparent severity of quakes taking place in geologically stable Scandinavia during this time (as large as magnitude 8.2). The finding suggests less stable areas may have been undergoing still worse shocks.
-- Demise of the ice age sparked great quakes by R. Monastersky, Science News Online, November 2, 1996, http://www.sciencenews.org


Note that here is another possible enormous wave of destruction for emerging civilizations and their works, spanning perhaps a quarter of the world.

The likelihood of massive tsunamis accompanying or being triggered by these quakes has not yet been addressed by scientists. But tsunamis may actually have done more damage to fledgling civilizations during this time than the quakes themselves.

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 7,000 BC: The substantial migrations of Eurasians into North America long ago expanded into South America-- with dire consequences for the Australians who had lived there for millennia
Basically, the Australians are outnumbered and outgunned (the Eurasians bring with them new diseases for which the Australians have no resistance). This leads to those Australians which don't die of contagions being massacred or virtually enslaved by the Eurasians. The sea-crossing to the Americas had by necessity kept the initial numbers of Australians arriving in South America to tiny quantities, while the Eurasians crossing the Bering land bridge and overcoming other obstacles more recently could come in strength, over many millennia. Another long term reproductive strike against the Australians may have been a severe shortage of women among the earliest groups to make landfall.

Thus, the new native South Americans may have suffered a much smaller starting population than the new native North Americans, as well as severely limited reproductive capacities in early generations-- which also explains why the Australians made no significant forays into the northern continent even during the millennia it remained uninhabited, or devastated the South American megafauna prior to the arrival of the Eurasians.

If this invasion and apparent 'ethnic cleansing' proceeds like many others throughout history, any and all historical records and other knowledge stores of the Australians are effectively destroyed by the invaders during this time or shortly thereafter-- resulting in potentially a catastrophic loss of human knowledge and history regarding possibly as much as three continents (Eurasia, Australia, and South America) and the islands of Polynesia in the Pacific as well.


-- "Aborigines were the first Americans" By Sarah Toyne, August 22 1999, THE SUNDAY TIMES: FOREIGN NEWS ["http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/99/08/22/stifgnusa02003.html?99"], Times Newspapers Ltd.

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 6,200 BC-5,800 BC: The Northern Atlantic is cooled by 6 to 15 degrees due to collapsing ice dams in North America releasing enormous floods of icy water into the sea
-- "Catastrophic draining of huge lakes tied to ancient global cooling event", 21 JULY 1999, Contact: Don Barber, barberdc@ucsub.colorado.edu, 303-492-7641, University of Colorado at Boulder
-- "Two Glacial Lakes Caused Ancient Freeze-Up -Study" Reuters; http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News Science Headlines, July 21 1999


Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 6,000 BC - 1 AD: Sometime during this period the Earth, along with the rest of the Solar System, enters a vast cloud of interstellar gas
The cloud may be the residue of a super nova explosion in Scorpius-Centaurus around 250,000 years ago. Various effects upon the Earth could include climate and geomagnetic field changes around the time of entry.
-- THE EARTH HAS RECENTLY BEEN SWALLOWED BY A CLOUD OF INTER-STELLAR GAS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #98, MAR-APR 1995 by William R. Corliss, citing Priscella C. Frisch; "Morphology and Ionization of the Interstellar Cloud Surrounding the Solar System," Science, 265:1423, 1994, and I. Peterson; "Finding a Place for the Sun in a Cloud," Science News, 146:148, 1994

Seemingly excessive quantities of relatively short half-life aluminum-26 in interstellar space may indicate the solar system is moving through the debris cloud of a super nova explosion no older than 10,000 to a million years in age. Such a nearby explosion may have affected life on Earth when the blast first reached our vicinity, as well as the rest of the solar system (planetary interaction with the debris could be significant too).

-- THE MESSAGE OF ALUMINUM-26 From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #39, MAY-JUN 1985 by William R. Corliss, citing "Are We inside a Supernova Remnant?" Sky and Telescope, 69:13, 1985

The solar system entered an expanding shell of gas several thousand years ago originating from the Scorpius-Centaurus Association. The density of material in this region could fluctuate greatly as we move through it. We might at some point find ourselves enshrouded in gas and dust thick enough to reduce the sunlight reaching the Earth-- perhaps to catastrophic levels. There's little indication of when we might encounter such conditions, or how long they might last when we did. But the possibility of such a dimming will exist for at least another 50,000 years beyond 1996.

-- "NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER" From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #107, SEP-OCT 1996 by William R. Corliss, citing Ray Jayawardhana; "Earth Menaced by Superbubble," New Scientist, p. 15, June 22, 1996


Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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« Reply #18 on: February 24, 2007, 01:13:22 am »

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Approximately 6,000 BC: The giant flying carnivorous birds of North America ("Thunderbirds") may be declining drastically in numbers
The "Thunderbirds" may have been facing extinction during the period 8,000 BC- 6,000 BC.

-- Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #52, JUL-AUG 1987 by William R. Corliss, citing Bernard Heuvelmans; "Annotated Checklist of Apparently Unknown Animals with Which Cryptozoology Is Concerned," Cryptozoology, 5:1, 1986
TERATORNIS was a huge flying predatory bird of up to 25 foot wingspan, possibly living as late as 8,000 BC or so.

-- TERATORNIS from Extinct Birds ["http://www.zoomdinosaurs.com/subjects/birds/Earlybirds.shtml"]


Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 6,000 BC: Nomadic hunters of high plains worldwide may now be moving to the lowlands...
...perhaps because massive glacial flooding and rising sea levels have wiped out and/or so disorganized and demoralized the civilizations previously living in the lowlands that those regions are now rich targets for scavengers and raiders.


-- history.literate ["http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/smart/history.html"] (a part of the Robot Wisdom WebLog ["http://www.robotwisdom.com/"])

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 6,000 BC- 3,000 BC: Mound building in North America
The North American mound-builders create impressive structures over a vast area of the continent, for purposes which will remain unclear to 20th century scientists.

The earliest mounds seem to be created simply as repeated 'clean ups' of tribal trash; i.e., the people bring in dirt to cover over old refuse and then live atop the fresh ground. Eventually they find themselves living atop a small hill.

Later built mounds increasingly show less sign of permanent habitation or trash, and more signs of artifice. Seasonal, perhaps ritualistic, visitations are implied. Some locations appear to serve as trading centers.


-- Ancient Louisiana mounds intrigue scientists By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Nando Media/Associated Press, December 5, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com)

Approximately 3,000 BC- 1,200 BC (or beginning in the latter stages of the mound builders' era) a huge copper mining operation was underway on the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale in Michigan. Though the vast majority of this ore will remain unaccounted for as of the late 20th century, some of it may be finding its way into some mounds, in the form of 'reels', which appear to be copper sheets shaped much like animal skins with four corner protrusions. They share much in common with the 'oxhydes' often seen in Bronze Age Europe.


-- MISSING: 500,000 TONS OF COPPER From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #90, NOV-DEC 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Betty Sodders; "Who Mined American Copper 5,000 Years Ago?" Ancient American, 1:28, September/October 1993
The Watson Break site near Monroe Louisiana have been dated to 3,440 BC- 3,040 BC (or 5,400- 5,000 BP (Before Present)).

-- ABOUT AS ANOMALOUS AS MOUNDS CAN GET From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #114, NOV-DEC 1997 by William R. Corliss, citing Joe W. Saunders, et al; "A Mound Complex in Louisiana at 5400-5000 Years before the Present," Science, 277:1796, Heather Pringle; "Oldest Mound Complex Found at Louisiana Site," Science, 277:1761, 1997, and Dick Stanley; "Finds Alter View of American Indian Prehistory," Austin American Statesman, September 19, 1997. Credit: D. Phelps


Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 5,000 BC: World population may be 50 million; The "Red Paint" people seem to have established a trans-atlantic domain which includes North American Labrador to New York state, and the northwestern coast of Europe; mysterious mound-building civilizations are appearing in the Amazon
These people may or may not have been involved with the Celtic peoples of Europe, and responsible for some of the megalithic works of North America


-- AMERICA B.C. AND EVEN EARLIER from Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #73, JAN-FEB 1991 by William R. Corliss, citing Public TV programming regarding North America's Red Paint People, George F. Carter; "Before Columbus," Ellsworth American, November 23, 1990. Cr. R. Strong, "Megalithes d'Amerique du Nord," Kadath, no. 72, Spring 1990, and David H. Kelley; "Proto-Tifinagh and Proto-Ogham in the Americas," Review of Archaeology, 11:1, 1990
Pre-Columbus Carribean peoples possessed both the seamanship and watercraft (carrying capacities of as many as 80 people, in boats as long as 80 feet) necessary to reach Europe-- especially with favorable winds and sea currents. Several anomalous bits of European historical accounts hint at red peoples appearing in Europe from afar, and there seem to be signs of Eskimos reaching Ireland and Scotland before the historic journey of Columbus to the Americas.

-- THE AMERICAN DISCOVERY OF EUROPE! From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #87, MAY-JUN 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Brian Kluepfel; "Native Americans May Have Found Europe, Says Scholar," Berkeley Voice, January 28, 1993. Cr. P.F. Young


World population could amount to as much as 50 million.


-- 3.4 Human Population History and Future; Geography 210: Introduction to Environmental Issues, Created by Dr. Michael Pidwirny, Department of Geography, Okanagan University College, 12/20/99, Human Population History and Future (http://www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/conted/onlinecourses/geog_210/contents/210~3~3~4.html)
In 1540 AD European explorers reported large cities on flood plains in the Amazon. By 1700 AD the cities will have been hidden by the jungle. Now (1990) some speculate that the civilizations discovered high in the Andes may in fact have begun in the lowlands of the Amazon centuries before. One lowland site (Marajo island) holds 400 enormous earthen mounds and may have been inhabited for a millennium or more. It may have been built around 5000 BC. Other sites display vast regions once under intensive cultivation and irrigation by natives.

-- GREAT ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS IN AMAZONIA? RIDICULOUS! From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #71, SEP-OCT 1990, by William R. Corliss, citing Ann Gibbons; "New View of Early Amazonia," Science, 248:1488, 1990


Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 4,000 BC -3,000 BC: Rising global sea levels finally stabilize at heights roughly equivalent to that of the late 1990s AD
Author's Note: Isn't it fascinating that most all the evidence circa 1999 AD humanity will find of sophisticated ancient civilizations date back to NO EARLIER than the end of the great global deluge which washed away everything existing several hundred feet lower in altitude during earlier millennia? Keep in mind all these lowlands that will be underwater in 1999 AD were prime seafront and fertile riverside property thousands of years before-- precisely the kinds of places where people would settle and build cities and ports and trading centers. Even the human civilization of 1999 AD would find it a struggle to overcome a sudden rise in sea levels worldwide of hundreds of feet which decimated the majority of our largest cities and most important centers of food and goods production and commerce...End Note.

-- "Antarctic Ice Melt May Come In Next Generation" By Andy Soloman, Reuters; http://dailynews.yahoo.com/, 1-27-99
3000 BC is the date for sea level stabilization given by history.literate ["http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/smart/history.html"] (a part of the Robot Wisdom WebLog ["http://www.robotwisdom.com/"])



a - j r m o o n e y h a m . c o m - o r i g i n a l
Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 3,000 BC: Asians are utilizing an early form of abacus for calculations; some rich kids in western Asia are attending school; farmers in the Americas are performing genetic engineering to create better crops...
...while Egyptians are creating their hieroglyphics and papyrus writing tools, and becoming the leading engineers and surveyers of their time, constructing pyramids and fleet ships.


-- The digital century: Computing through the ages by the PC World staff, (IDG) /CNN, November 24, 1999
-- "Neolithic farmers grew modified maize", New Scientist ["http://www.newscientist.com"], 20 March 1999, and Milestones in Technology, February 26, 1999, The Knoxville News-Sentinel ["http://www.knoxnews.com/"]


Complex social development and impressive architectural works are arising in the area of Peru in South America (3,000 BC - 1,500 BC), that seem to predate the better known civilizations of Central America by a healthy margin.


-- NEW WORLD CULTURE OLD From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #67, JAN-FEB 1990 by William R. Corliss, citing William K. Stevens; "Andean Culture Found to Be as Old as the Great Pyramids," New York Times, October 3, 1989. Cr. J. Covey

"High schools" similar to those of future 20th century America exist today in Sumer/South Mesopotamia to teach writing and other subjects to the children of wealthy citizens.


-- "BC High", page 14, Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 3,000 BC- 1,200 BC: An enormous copper mining operation involving thousands of pits is underway on the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale of Michigan
On average some 278 tons per year is taken from the site, over a period of 18 centuries.
There is little sign of where all this metal ended up anywhere on the entire continent of North America.

There are clues that this is a european operation. The project may or may not involve hundreds or thousands of native american slave laborers.


-- MISSING: 500,000 TONS OF COPPER From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #90, NOV-DEC 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Betty Sodders; "Who Mined American Copper 5,000 Years Ago?" Ancient American, 1:28, September/October 1993

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2,400+ BC: Native South Americans are developing metal gilding techniques to apply to ornaments and perhaps clothing.
Metal working in the new world seems to precede smelting by quite some time-- according to artifacts found at Mina Perdida in Peru.

New clues offer evidence that metallurgy was being practiced in the central Andes at an early date. Hints of experiments using the heat of fires to improve the metal have also been uncovered.

Similar finds across the Atlantic in Turkey however are (so far) much older-- dating to around 6000 BC.


-- "Metalwork In New World Older Than Thought - Study" By Michael Kahn, http://dailynews.yahoo.com/; Reuters Limited, 11-6-98

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Approximately 2,354 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
The causes may have been asteroid/comet impacts (or near-misses dusting the atmosphere) or large volcanic eruptions.

-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com

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Approximately 1,628 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
The causes may have been asteroid/comet impacts (or near-misses dusting the atmosphere) or large volcanic eruptions.

-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com

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Approximately 1,600 BC: Central Americans are adding juice from morning glory flower vines to rubber tree sap to make rubber
They produce bouncing balls for gaming from the material, as well as molded figurines and other items.
They are also using their liquid rubber for paint and medicine purposes.


-- "Morning Glory Gave Rubber Bounce - Report", Reuters Limited; http://dailynews.yahoo.com/; News, Science Headlines, June 17 1999

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Approximately 1,500 BC: The Olmecs populate the Mexican Gulf coast; a Chinese expedition seems to record a trip to North America (and an encounter with a mammoth)
-- World History, page 552, The 1996 World Almanac and Book of Facts, World Alamanac Books
The Chinese document Shun- Hai Ching seems to describe a violent encounter with a mammoth

-- A MAMMOTH TALE! from Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #62, MAR-APR 1989 by William R. Corliss, citing C.F. Eckhardt; "Prehistoric Explorers of the West?" National Tombstone Epitaph, p.17, October 1988. Cr. H.J. Hanson


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Approximately 1,500 BC: The Mayan civilization is emerging in the Central Americas; bark paper processing technology (such as the Mayans will use) seems to be brought to the Americas from Southeast Asia now
-- World History, page 554, The 1996 World Almanac and Book of Facts, World Alamanac Books
-- A PAPER TRAIL FROM ASIA TO THE AMERICAS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #77, SEP-OCT 1991 by William R. Corliss, citing Paul Tolstoy; "Paper Route," Natural History, 100:6, June 1991

Watson Brake Louisiana boasts a mound group created between 6000 BC and 3000 BC-- the oldest known in the western hemisphere as of 1999 AD. Their purpose remains unknown, but their builders seemed to visit them only seasonally.

-- Ancient Louisiana mounds intrigue scientists By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Nando Media/Associated Press, December 5, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com


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Approximately 1,200 BC: The Olmecs of Mexico are building "temple cities" and large stone sculptures.
The Olmecs have also established a calendaring and writing system.

-- World History, page 552, The 1996 World Almanac and Book of Facts, World Alamanac Books

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Approximately 1,159 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
The causes may have been asteroid/comet impacts (or near-misses dusting the atmosphere) or large volcanic eruptions.

-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com

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Approximately 128,000 BC- 1,000 BC: World sea levels may be highly unstable throughout this entire period
There are indications it may be changing quickly between 3,000 BC and 1,000 BC. Around 1,500 BC it may fall a meter in just 10 to 50 years.

-- Scientists Challenge Conventional Sea Level Theory; http://dailynews.yahoo.com/; Reuters, Science Headlines, December 3 1999

Note that such changes as these may occasionally wreak havoc with coastal settlements and especially major sea harbors and ports of call.

Is it any wonder that many cities are deserted, then become buried in sediment or shifting sands-- or even submerged? At least a few instances of city losses may occur so fast many residents find themselves unable to escape.

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« Reply #19 on: February 24, 2007, 01:14:23 am »

Approximately 1,000 BC: The wheel is in common use throughout eurasia; textile production is now the largest endeavor of most of humanity worldwide; periodic contact between the peoples of southwestern North America and Central America with China (and China with Europe) seems to be occuring.
-- page 33, "Ignoring the Wheel", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
-- "The mummies of the Urumchi" by MITZI PERDUE Nando Media/Scripps Howard News Service, June 8, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com

-- "Study: China Influenced Ancient Americans" By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Brief, DISCOVERY ONLINE, http://www.discovery.com, found on or about 9-3-99

Some Egyptian mummies from 1000 BC or earlier apparently test positive for traces of tobacco and **** use during life. Rameses II also tests positive. This indicates some sort of trade contact between Egypt and the Americas.

Large amounts of nicotine seem present in some bodies from Austria, Germany, and China dying sometime between 3,700 BC and 1,100 AD as well.

There are clues pointing to a torturous trade route for such goods spanning Asia through China and across the Pacific to Central and South America, rather than the much more direct route across the Atlantic. Such a route implies that these substances would have been fabulously rare and expensive goods for their time, affordable only by the wealthiest individuals. The supply line was apparently months to years long, indicating significant problems about maintaining freshness in the products too.

-- TOBACCO AND **** IN ANCIENT EGYPT From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #111, MAY-JUN 1997 by William R. Corliss, citing Priscilla Ross; the New England Antiquities Research Association Transit newsletter, 9:5, Spring 1997

The Egyptian pharaoh Henut Taui exhibits signs of both tobacco and **** use.

-- MYSTERY OF THE STONED PHARAOH From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #116, MAR-APR 1998 by William R. Corliss, citing Bernard Merigaud; "La **** des Pharaons," Telerama, p. 122, September 3, 1997. Cr. C. Mauge


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Approximately 208 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
The causes may have been asteroid/comet impacts (or near-misses dusting the atmosphere) or large volcanic eruptions.

-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com

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Around Zero or One AD: Humanity may have settled and re-settled many Polynesian islands across the Pacific many times
Some of the vessels used to cross and colonize the Pacific were surprisingly large for such ancient times, carrying as many as 250 people-- plus ample supplies-- at a time.

-- Illustrated Transcript of The Future Eaters, Illustrated transcript of episode 2, Nomads of the Wind, Presented and Narrated by Dr Tim Flannery, Author of the Future Eaters, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. email: science@your.abc.net.au, http://www2.abc.net.au/, found on or about 9-12-99

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Approximately 1 AD: Elephants may only now be going extinct in Florida and Central and South America
Clues to late survival of elephants and their relatives in the Americas continue to appear, such as in the oral histories and art and sculpture of native americans, reports to a Revolution-era US president, and younger than expected fossil remains in some areas.
-- RECENT SURVIVAL OF THE ELEPHANT IN THE AMERICAS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #68, MAR-APR 1990 by William R. Corliss, citing George F Carter; "A Note on the Elephant in America," and "The Mammoth in American Epigraphy," Epigraphic Society, Occasional Publications, 18:90 and 18:213, 1989


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Approximately 100 AD: Native Americans are using wheels in toy-like burial artifacts and other small items
-- page 33, "Ignoring the Wheel", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990

The perplexing absence of the wheel in common use for vehicles and other purposes in the Americas at this late date is used by many as evidence for little or no meaningful contact between the Americas and other continents until Columbus. However, civilizations much nearer to the heart of the Old World such as Egypt also for some reason disdained the use of the wheel for many centuries after others known to them had adopted the device. Greece similarly ignored the true architectural arch while others around them did not. Other examples of different cultures choosing differently in regards to use of certain innovations over periods of centuries or even millennia also exist.


-- The Diffusionists Have Landed by Marc K. Stengel, The Atlantic Monthly, J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 0, http://www.theatlantic.com

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100 AD-150 AD: A civilization possibly predating the Teotihuacan in the Americas may exist at this time
The primordial city-state in Teotihuacan preceded the Aztecs in the Americas by centuries.

A structure named "the Pyramid of the Moon" in this location was under excavation by archaeologists in late 1998 AD. They were surprised to find clues inside the pyramid to a civilization possibly still more ancient than Teotihuacanos itself-- with a skeleton and artifacts dating back to 100 to 150 AD.


-- "Mexico's Pyramid of the Moon Beginning to Yield Some of Its Secrets", Associated Press/ CNN, 21-OCT-98

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Approximately 200 AD-300 AD: There seems to be at least a possibility of sparse and accidental contacts between europeans and the americas now...
...such as one or more Roman trading ships reaching the coasts of Brazil. Whether these events are the result of ships forced off-course by storms or Atlantic currents, simply lost, or carrying out rare (and possibly secret) trips for commercial trade purposes, will remain unknown by 1999 AD. Verified Roman wrecks have been found among the Azores in the mid-Atlantic.


-- page 123, "Romans in Brazil", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
An apparent Roman artifact from around 200 AD found near Mexico City in 1933 was unearthed in practically an ideal location and fashion with which to validate its authenticity.

-- Romans May Have Reached New World First-Magazine, Reuters; http://dailynews.yahoo.com/; Science Headlines, February 9, 2000

Did Romans shake hands with ancient Mexicans before Columbus? Author: Jonathan Knight, San Francisco, New Scientist issue 12th February 2000, Source: Ancient Mesoamerica (vol 10, p 207) New Scientist ["http://www.newscientist.com"] and EurekAlert! ["http://www.eurekalert.org/"]


Did some europeans not only visit but choose to settle in South America around this time? More specifically, did they found Tiahuanaco in Bolivia? Tiahuanaco, a complex including an impressive pyramid and temple, already existed as ruins by 1200 AD. Native american myths say Tiahuanaco was built by fair-skinned, bearded men, led by one named Viracocha. Mayan and Aztec tales also describe a light skinned, bearded man named Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl, respectively, making contact with their cultures. Possibly related legends about a return of such a man to South America may contribute substantially to the European conquest of native South American civilizations which will occur more than a thousand years from now.


-- The City of the White Men, The Unnatural Museum - Lost Cities ["http://www.unmuseum.org/lostcity.htm"] by Lee Krystek

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Approximately 400 AD: The American sweet potato is becoming a common food among Pacific islanders
This of course indicates some sort of contact with the Americas from across the Pacific Ocean.


-- The Diffusionists Have Landed by Marc K. Stengel, The Atlantic Monthly, J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 0, http://www.theatlantic.com

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Approximately 536 AD- 541 AD: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
The causes may have been asteroid/comet impacts (or near-misses dusting the atmosphere), large volcanic eruptions, or perhaps even the passing of the Earth through a great cloud of cosmic dust in space.

-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com
-- "Did the Dark Ages begin with a bang?" by Robert Matthews Connected, Electronic Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk, 29 July 1999, Telegraph Group Limited


The period of climatic disaster following in the wake of the event looks to have lasted roughly 15 years.


-- THE 536 AD DUST-VEIL EVENT From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #96, NOV-DEC 1994 by William R. Corliss, citing "Raining Death and Dark Ages," London Times, July 27, 1994. Cr. A. Rothovius and M.G.L. Baillie; "Dendrochronology Raises Questions about the Nature of the AD 536 Dust-Veil Event," The Holocene, 4:212, 1994. Cr. L. Ellenberger

One characteristic of the event is a record-breaking widespread and long-lived dry fog over Europe and the Mideast such as 20th century science will recognize as a sign of atmospheric ash and gases from large volcanic eruptions. Such fogs seem to afflict one or more areas of the world every few centuries.


-- MYSTERY CLOUD OF AD 536 From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #33, MAY-JUN 1984 by William R. Corliss citing R.B. Stothers; "Mystery Cloud of AD 536," Nature, 307:344, 1984

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Approximately 600 AD: It may be possible that a handful of europeans are reaching the americas by now
There's an Irish folk tale about an abbot and monks taking a fantastic ocean journey, the details of which strongly imply sights and experiences that lengthy sea voyages to the americas and other open Atlantic locales could entail. In 1977 Timothy Severin used a boat built to specifications likely for the group in the folk tale, and managed to successfully travel from Ireland to Newfoundland.


-- pages 114-115, "The Fabled Voyage of Brendan", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990

Glass windows are invented by the Romans.


-- "TIME TRIPPING", July 14, 1999, San Francisco Chronicle, Page 2/Z1, www.sfgate.com, found via http://www.robotwisdom.com/

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Approximately 1,000 BC-1,000 AD: Central American natives are processing tree bark into cloth and paper.
Their procedures for this seem suspiciously similar to those used in southeast Asia-- prompting some 20th century scientists to think there may have been contact between the two cultures. Specifically, between the peoples of pacific islands Celebes and Borneo, and central Mexico.


-- pages 122-123, "A Paper Trail from Asia to the Americas", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990

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Sometime before 700 AD: The Maya build a suspension bridge at Yaxchilan Mexico now that will not be surpassed in size and structure until 1377 AD by European engineers.
-- A PICTURE SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #105, MAY-JUN 1996 by William R. Corliss, citing James A. O'Kon; "Bridge to the Past," Civil Engineering, p. 62, January 1995. Cr. S. Jones

The practical engineering expertise displayed in the Mayan culture by items like the bridge above seemed the exception rather than the rule-- for the Maya seemed to excel more in the theoretical than the mechanical, or physical world. They managed to accurately devise a calendar extending hundreds of millions of years, and perform surprisingly sophistocated astronomical calculations.

And yet they never appeared to bring the wheel into mainstream use, or achieve other feats of practical technology which were at the same time or before appearing elsewhere in the world.

The incongruity of these two aspects of Mayan culture has led to speculation that perhaps a single Einstein-type genius appeared in their midst at some point to push their theoretical sciences ahead by decades or centuries, all on his own-- or the Maya alternatively received such information from others, perhaps outsiders visiting them from faraway lands.


-- The Mayans Move Out , The Unnatural Museum - Lost Cities ["http://www.unmuseum.org/lostcity.htm"] by Lee Krystek

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Approximately 780 AD - 900 AD: An unusual member of the Mayan elite helps lead his nation into ruin to serve his own ends
[Caution: Extreme speculation ahead; this section mostly created for "What If?" entertainment value]
Click here to see the surprising possibilities
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Approximately 980 AD-990 AD: Vikings apparently reach and settle the americas at Newfoundland in Canada...
...though the settlement doesn't continue for long (maybe just three years or so); being perhaps too far and isolated from the majority of related peoples and lands. There were perhaps as many as 160 persons in the party. The actual settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, seems to be made a bit after 1000 AD according to the Atlantic Monthly (see citation below).


-- page 1,830, "Sea Warriors from Scandinavia", Webster's Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary, Tormont Publications Inc., 1987, 1990
-- The Diffusionists Have Landed by Marc K. Stengel, The Atlantic Monthly, J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 0, http://www.theatlantic.com


There remains some mystery attached to these far flung Viking expeditions...and to the relatively brief stay made in what was apparently an inviting place compared to where the Vikings had come from....


One possibility is that one or more unusually long droughts were affecting parts of North America around this time. Evidence exists indicating lengthy droughts between 912 AD and 1112 AD, and 1210 AD to 1350 AD, in the vicinity of the Sierra Nevada.
-- Climate conclusions drawn from research on ancient trees By JOHN D. COX, Nando Media/Scripps McClatchy Western Service, January 1, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com



To Be Continued...
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Approximately 950 AD-1,200 AD: This is a warmer than usual time in terms of world climate; the city of Cahokia, population 15,000, is prospering where someday Collinsville, Illnois, USA will be located.
-- page 99, "Ice on the World", National Geographic magazine, October 1988
-- Unraveling History's Mysteries By Joseph B. Verrengia The Associated Press Aug. 30, 1999, ABC News Internet Ventures, http://www.abcnews.go.com/


Cahokia may be the central hub of a trade network encompassing much of the eastern USA at this time, created by a people 20th century scientists will call the Mississippians. Cahokia's population may have reached as high as 20,000. Cahokia is a very unusual organization of people and resources for this time and place. Cahokia shows signs of both a sudden rise and sudden collapse. Thus, it appears a single charismatic leader may have been responsible for much of Cahokia's existence-- and the community may have lasted pretty much only so long as his influence was present.

Cahokia arose in mere decades, and suddenly collapsed after 200 years. The settlement suffered lots of disease and injury near the end, as well as armed conflict, power struggles, and exhaustion of its lands from farming, or climate change. Cahokia's decline began by 1200 AD, as residents began moving out.

The Mississippians were apparently responsible for similar mound works across the southeast USA. The Mississippians of Cahokia were a small-sized people that partook of ritual sacrifice but for the most part avoided violence. Cahokia included an array of individual homes surrounding a great central mound. Over a hundred other mounds in the vicinity were used as homes or tombs for the elite of Cahokia (as well as their servants), or as ritual sites. The city was protected by a two mile long 15 foot high fence.


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« Reply #20 on: February 24, 2007, 01:15:55 am »

-- RESEARCHERS ON TRAIL OF LOST CIVILIZATION 1,000-YEAR-OLD SOCIETY OF MOUNDS WAS UNLIKE OTHERS OF ITS TIME ["http://www.chicago.tribune.com/version1/article/0,1575,SAV-9912240190,00.html"] Chicago Tribune Traditional Version - Chicago January 20, 2000/Associated Press December 24, 1999


a - j r m o o n e y h a m . c o m - o r i g i n a l
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Approximately 1,200 AD- 1,400 AD: Dramatic shifts between drought and flooding are occuring more often than usual in North America
-- Underwater Sediments Yield Clues To Past Climates, 02-Dec-1999, UniSci Daily, http://www.unisci.com
Evidence exists indicating lengthy droughts between 912 AD and 1112 AD, and 1210 AD to 1350 AD, in the vicinity of the Sierra Nevada.

-- Climate conclusions drawn from research on ancient trees By JOHN D. COX, Nando Media/Scripps McClatchy Western Service, January 1, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com


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Approximately 1,334 AD - 1,351 AD: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: Black plague kills a third the population of europe (as well as others throughout Asia and northern Africa)
-- Could A Nasal Vaccine Finally Get Rid Of The Black Death? New Scientist ["http://www.newscientist.com"], 2 DECEMBER 1998, Contact: Claire Bowles claire.bowles@rbi.co.uk 44-171-331-2751

The Hohokam and Anasazi cultures of southwestern North America half a world away also begin a rapid deterioration now. Could it be contact with europe or asia has brought the plague to this part of the New World? Inhabitants of this region of North America will continue to suffer sporadic outbreaks of the disease even into the late 20th century.

The Bubonic Plague may have first appeared in Athens Greece around 430 BC.


-- BUBONIC PLAGUE AS AN INDICATOR OF DIFFUSION? from Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #45, MAY-JUN 1986 by William R. Corliss, citing L. Lyle Underwood; "Bubonic Plague in the Southwest," Epigraphic Society, Occasional Publications, 14:207, 1985
One possibility is that one or more unusually long droughts were affecting parts of North America around this time. Evidence exists indicating lengthy droughts between 912 AD and 1112 AD, and 1210 AD to 1350 AD, in the vicinity of the Sierra Nevada.

-- Climate conclusions drawn from research on ancient trees By JOHN D. COX, Nando Media/Scripps McClatchy Western Service, January 1, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com


As described elsewhere on this site, most ocean islands may get scrubbed clean of their inhabitants every other millennia or so by terrific storms or tidal waves. However, just as sufficiently heavy construction may weather even the winds of hurricanes, so too might it survive much of what tsunamis or a week or so of fierce wind-blown seas could mount against it. Such fortifications may have been what the builders of Nan Madol had in mind.

Nan Madol on Micronesian Pohnpei is a substantial complex of artificial islands with robust walled structures built atop them, in the Pacific Ocean. Besides offering the builders extra dry real estate where such stuff is rare, they also offer barriers against storm and wave otherwise not available in the vicinity.

The heavy duty construction appears to be completed (or interrupted) around 1,400 AD-1,500 AD-- which suggests the possibility that the bubonic plague has reached this most remote of places too by now.


-- THE LOST CITY OF NAN MADOL From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #45, MAY-JUN 1986 by William R. Corliss, citing Charles J. Hanley, "Oregon Anthropologist Unravels Story of Lost City of Pacific," The Oregonian, February 3, 1986. Cr. D.A. Dispenza

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Approximately 1,250 AD-1,400 AD: The Zunis of New Mexico North America apparently receive an infusion of Oriental peoples among their numbers...
...according to a careful analysis of Zuni culture, biology, and oral histories which will be done hundreds of years from now by late 20th century scientists.

-- THE ZUNI ENIGMA From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #87, MAY-JUN 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Nancy Yaw Davis; "The Zuni Enigma," New England Antiquities Research Association Journal, 27:39, Summer/Fall 1993

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Approximately 1,420 AD: Some Mayans of this time show signs of suffering from venereal disease
So it may be that european conquerers did not introduce the disease to the americas 100 years later as once thought.

-- "Mexican Experts Find Syphilis in Mayan Remains", LatinoLink, LatinoLink Enterprises, Inc., http://www.latinolink.com, July 28, 1999

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Approximately 800 AD-1,480 AD: The Chacahpoyas empire, consisting of a tall and fair-skinned people, is building impressive city complexes in the mountains of Peru
The Inca eventually conquer the Chacahpoyas, perhaps absorbing their populations into their own.

-- IMMENSE COMPLEX OF STRUCTURES FOUND IN PERU From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #42, NOV-DEC 1985 by William R. Corliss, citing "Ruined City Found in Jungle in Peru," New York Times, July 7, 1985. Cr. M. Hall via L. Farish

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1,440 AD-1,500 AD: Western european science is beginning to surpass Islamic efforts; the total native population of the Americas may be around 30-40 million; Gutenberg creates the printing press...
...by 1,500 Europe will boast over 1,000 print shops in operation.

-- Milestones in Technology, February 26, 1999, The Knoxville News-Sentinel ["http://www.knoxnews.com/"]

Algebra and trigonometry have been created by Arabs. Significant works of chemistry, optics, and astronomy also are coming from the Arabs. But the world of Islam tends to discourage such efforts among its members during this time.


-- Tracing the millennium in the stars By GAIL RUSSELL CHADDOCK, October 28, 1999, Nando Media/Christian Science Monitor Service, http://www.nandotimes.com

Thirty to forty million native Americans may exist around 1492, and speak over a thousand different languages.


-- HOW MANY MIGRATIONS WERE THERE? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #51, MAY-JUN 1987 by William R. Corliss, citing Merritt Ruhlin; "Voices from the Past," Natural History, 96:6, March 1987

95% of the native American population of both continents will soon die due to raging epidemics among their numbers stemming from viruses brought across the Atlantic by the Europeans.


-- Why Are There So Many of Us? Description and Diagnosis of a Planetary Ecopathological Process by Warren M. Hern, University of Colorado, Why Are There So Many of Us? (http://www.drhern.com/fulltext/why/paper.html), found on or about 1-17-2000.

Note the virulance of the diseases brought from Eurasia to the Americas beginning now. A 95% mortality rate! Such a high mortality rate does indicate some form of extended isolation of populations-- but perhaps not the kind commonly described in historical texts. It may be that several factors combined to kill off so many native Americans at this time; with new diseases from the Europeans accounting for only one. Others might have been:

(One), the native populations themselves appeared to be booming, bringing about greater chances for native diseases across the two continents to break out of previously isolated enclaves to wreak widespread havoc.

(Two), the native populations may have become considerably more mobile as their cultures began suffering the shock of technologically advanced invaders on both continents. This mobility would have increased the chances for diseases to spread.

(Three), the native populations were possibly entering the range of critical mass in regards to interaction with their own domesticated animals to allow the creation of new illnesses passing from animals to humans. The incoming Eurasians themselves had already undergone such a process at least centuries before-- therefore they were somewhat protected from so sourced new American diseases while the natives were not.

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Approximately 1,519 AD: Cortes of Spain conquers the Aztec empire in the Americas
-- page 58, "Aztec", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989

Here again an enormous and possibly crucial store of ancient knowledge and history is destroyed due (largely) to ignorance, racism, religious intolerance, and barbarism. This time the knowledge store razed is a major portion of that native to both the North and South American continents. Only four books out of possibly thousands will be known to have survived by the late 20th century.


-- overview of The Mayan Prophecies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/mayan/"] (1995) by Adrian Gilbert and Maurice Cotterell
-- Mayan Civilization ["http://www.indians.org/welker/maya.htm"], which seems to be a compilation of writings edited by Glenn Welker


Among other things, the Aztecs knew how to create and use concave metallic mirrors to start fires with reflected, concentrated sunlight.


-- fire; Encyclopædia Britannica ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/8/0,5716,34938+1,00.html"]

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 1,532 AD: Spaniard Francisco Pizarro begins the conquest of the Incan empire in the Americas
-- page 390, "Inca", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989


A MOMENT OF EXTRAORDINARILY GOOD LUCK FOR SOME, BAD FOR OTHERS
Pizarro, an illiterate ex-farmhand, enjoys not one but several extraordinary strokes of luck which allow him to perform one of the most astonishing feats in history: the conquest of a sophistocated empire of millions of people and considerable wealth with only 200 men equipped with horses (horses had never before been seen by the Incas), and only somewhat superior weaponry.

Lucky events or circumstances included: Terrible biological weapons brought from Europe (diseases for which the Incas had no resistance) which sickened and killed millions of the natives with no effort at all on Pizarro's part; beginning the conquest immediately on the heals of a long civil war within the empire, which had exhausted its resources; help from some natives eager to overthrow the native leadership; and a fortuitous quick capture of the chief Inca early on.


-- Chronology of the Conquest ["http://www.he.net/~archaeol/online/features/peru/conquest.html"], 1999, the Archaeological Institute of America

Among other things, the Incas knew how to create and use concave metallic mirrors to start fires with reflected, concentrated sunlight.


-- fire; Encyclopædia Britannica ["http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/8/0,5716,34938+1,00.html"]
Aztec Mexico and the Inca Empire of Peru were fabulous nations and cultures rivaling and surpassing in some ways the best of Eurasia across the Atlantic, during comparable periods of history. The Tahuantinsuyu (Inca) Empire boasted a population larger than ten million, and 20,000 miles of paved roads. It managed to successfully integrate many different cultures, religions, languages, and ideas into one sophistocated state over a matter of centuries. Long distance relays of runners carried important mail. The government maintained great food and supplies banks to be drawn down to sustain the people in times of drought and other disasters. Even with their superior military technologies, it is unclear that the Europeans could have overwhelmed these civilizations so easily without the natural biological weapons they carried in the form of diseases for which the native Americans had no resistance, and the strange coincidence of native american myth and internal Incan turmoil of the time which helped the Europeans gain a powerful advantage in their initial dealings with the natives.

But these South American civilizations had been preceded by others, over thousands of years.

Weaving and ceramics appeared to have been strong points of the ancient Peruvians (1000 BC and before). Successes with brain surgery are also evident. Electroplating was in use.

These South Americans bred and domesticated small pack animals like llamas and alpaca, devised sophistocated crop irrigation and anti-erosion schemes, grew cotton, and established elaborate systems of trade and governance.

The environment of Peru was one of the more challenging ones on Earth of the time: desert coastlines jammed against steep mountain ranges, and near arctic condition plains bearing soil not well suited to agriculture. Add to this frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, as well as tsunamis, and the results are not promising. But the peoples of the time found a way to not only survive but prosper.

The earliest known stoneworks of substantial size and quality seemed to be built by a people called the Chavin, in the Andes of the north (1000 BC). The Paracas also built combination tombs/temples to the south at around the same time. Then came the Nazca in the south and the Moche in the north. The Moche built huge mounds and pyramids. Later in the north arose the Chimu-- eventually themselves swallowed in conquest by the Incas. The Chancay appeared on the central coast. Sometime after 1438 AD the Inca conquered the Chancay, as well as other nations in the region.

-- Empires of Mystery: Unraveling the mysteries ["http://www.sptimes.com/peru/unraveling.html"] By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times staff writer, St. Petersburg Times, found on or about 12-11-99]

Tahuantinsuyu was the Incan's own name for their empire. At its peak Tahuantinsuyu was the greatest nation on the planet in terms of land area, and may have been the largest native american country to have ever existed.

Around 1500 AD Tahuantinsuyu boasted a population of 10 million. Its capital was Cuzco. Citizens paid taxes to the government in the form of work, involving construction projects as well as other matters. Citizens earned income from the government in the form of food and clothing.

Much of Inca life took place at high altitudes, since they possessed one of the highest mountain ranges in the world. 15,000 feet altitude was commonplace, while rituals might take place still higher, such as 22,000 feet and above. Much labor and hardship was involved in toiling at such frigid heights, as well as transporting supplies and building materials there. Their robust road system connecting all regions of the empire despite often horrific terrain was a marvel of ancient engineering. There were no wheels, and so no carts or wagons.

Basic Incan food staples included many kinds of corn and potatoes. The government was similar in many ways to modern socialist practices. Urban living was primarily a province of government and religious affairs and associated workers, with most citizens living outside the cities. Crime seems to have been rare, as the Inca possessed no prisons. For murder, or insults against the highest leaders or the gods, people would be punished by falls from high cliffs. Imprisoned starvation for adultery involving ritualistic virgins, or a leader's wife, and cut off hands or feet or blinding for smaller offenses, were other notable crimes and punishments of the Inca.

Young male runners relayed messages throughout the empire, over hundreds of miles.

The Incan empire had already been undergoing timultuous times before the arrival of their Spanish conquerers in the 1500s. The small pox and other diseases brought by the Spaniards devastated the Inca and others throughout the Americas.

-- Incan Indians ["http://www.crystalinks.com/incan.html"]


Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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1,539 AD- 1,542 AD: A large and impressive european expedition travels across and interacts with virtually all of southeast North America and its native groups-- but afterwards all trace of the journey dissappears from the continent
The army of Spaniard Hernando De Soto meets and trades with hundreds or thousands of native americans over a wide region spanning Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Oklahoma. The trade even includes livestock from europe. But afterwards all the goods and animals disappear forever and even the army's march itself is forgotten by the natives.
The disturbing lack of evidence left behind by such a grand european foray into the early americas shows how easily history may swallow up without a trace even the mightiest single ventures across oceans and continents-- not to mention many multitudes of smaller efforts.


-- The Diffusionists Have Landed by Marc K. Stengel, The Atlantic Monthly, J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 0, http://www.theatlantic.com

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 1,540 AD- 1,598 AD: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: A once-in-a-1000-year drought afflicts much of North America and Mexico
The drought does not afflict all parts of the region equally. The worst hit spots suffer extended drought conditions for up to 40 years.
Spanish colonists living on Parris Island, South Carolina record the years 1,566 through 1,569 as the worst. The Parris Islanders abandon their colony in the same year as the famous disappearance of the Roanoke Island colony takes place: 1,587.

The severe drought conditions in northern Mexico and the North American Southwest may be the cause of native Americans abandoning their communities around 1,540-1,598. From 1,550 to 1,590 the Mexican Chichimeca War between native Americans and European colonists rages.


-- Researchers Find Evidence Of 16th Century Epic Drought Over North America, Source: University Of Arkansas (http://www.uark.edu/), ScienceDaily Magazine, 2/8/00. Related URLs include: http://pigtrail.uark.edu/news/Feb00/drought.html and http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/02/000208075420.htm
In 1540 European explorers were also reporting large cities on flood plains in the Amazon. By 1700 the cities will have been hidden by the jungle. Now (1990) some speculate that the civilizations discovered high in the Andes may in fact have begun in the lowlands of the Amazon centuries before. One lowland site (Marajo island) holds 400 enormous earthen mounds and may have been inhabited for a millennium or more. It may have been built around 5000 BC. Other sites display vast regions once under intensive cultivation and irrigation by natives.

-- GREAT ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS IN AMAZONIA? RIDICULOUS! From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #71, SEP-OCT 1990, by William R. Corliss, citing Ann Gibbons; "New View of Early Amazonia," Science, 248:1488, 1990


Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 1,500s AD: The traditions of the Cherokee tribes of southeastern North America describe a group of pygmies or little people living in the southern Appalachian mountains; accounts of pygmies in northwest North America also exist
If such a people did once exist, they may have been descendents of a migration of pygmy Aetas from the Philippines. Prevailing sea currents could easily have deposited them in the North American northwest (with them becoming known as the "Et-nane" by average-sized natives there) after a crossing of the Pacific. The great influx of large newcomers across the Bering land bridge could have forced such people to move deeper into North America, eventually settling in the pleasant surroundings of the southern Appalachians. Sometime after that they seem to have either died out from disease or other reasons, or been absorbed into the average sized tribes surrounding them.

-- SOME NEWLY DISCOVERED ARCHEOLOGICAL ANOMALIES FROM NORTH AMERICA From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #48, NOV-DEC 1986 by William R. Corliss, citing the Epigraphic Society, Occasional Publications, 15: 33, 77, and 77, 1986
-- AMERICAN PYGMIES From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #84, NOV-DEC 1992 by William R. Corliss, citing Virgilio R. Pilapil; "Was There a Prehistoric Migration of the Philippine Aetas to America?" Epigraphic Society, Occasional Papers, 20:150, 1991



a - j r m o o n e y h a m . c o m - o r i g i n a l

[Caution: Extreme speculation ahead; this section mostly created for "What If?" entertainment value]
Other, more exotic explanations for little people worldwide also can be had. For instance, few people circa 2000 AD will be aware that the primate precursors to humanity circa 45,000,000 BC included truly tiny monkey-like creatures so small they could stand on a 21st century person's thumb. These creatures enjoyed an evolutionary headstart of roughly 40 million years on humanity, as well.


-- Fossils of Tiny Primates Found By DAVID KINNEY, Associated Press/Yahoo! Science Headlines, March 16 2000

And tiny brains can often do more than we give them credit for. For example, those birds equipped with suitable vocal mechanisms can display impressive speech and speech comprehension skills, circa 2000 AD.


A particular 24 year old African gray parrot named Alex possesses only a walnut-sized brain, but can speak significant portions of human language-- apparently with thought and meaning. He also can display emotions and social skills roughly equivalent to a two to three year old human child. Intellectual skills seem approximately those of a 5-6 year old child-- better than adult chimpanzees in some respects, apparently, who rate at around 4 years in human child equivalence.
-- Conversing With Parrots ["http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/CloserLook/wnt_000303_CL_parrot_feature.html"] By Ned Potter, March 3 2000, ABCNEWS.com http://www.abcnews.go.com/

Adult 20th century chimpanzees seem to possess intellectual capacities roughly equivalent to a four year old human child.

-- "Scientists identify chimpanzee 'culture'" By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, Nando Media/Associated Press, June 16, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com)

Some scientific studies indicate that human beings may function pretty much normally even with virtually all their brain's cerebral cortex missing. Specific cases studied included cases of hydrocephalus.

These studies may also imply that relative brain sizes may not be as important in determining intelligence as some might think.

-- IS YOUR BRAIN REALLY NECESSARY? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #15, Spring 1981 by William R. Corliss, citing Roger Lewin; "Is Your Brain Really Necessary?" Science, 210:1232, 1980

The most advanced or complex cells of life do not necessarily possess the greatest amount of genetic material. The cells of certain plants and animals may possess 100 times more DNA than their human equivalent. Partly this is due to 'junk' DNA-- or material that human scientists have so far found no obvious purpose for in the genetic media. But it may be that this extra material serves much the same purpose as a cluttered garage or basement for a human being: spare parts of various kinds which might come in handy someday, or heirlooms which might eventually prove valuable in some future circumstance. In the junk DNA's case of course, the potential value would be of an evolutionary sort.

-- GENETIC GARRULOUSNESS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #41, SEP-OCT 1985 by William R. Corliss, citing G. Ledyard Stebbins and Francisco J. Ayala; "The Evolution of Darwinism," Scientific American, 253:72, July 1985


What might have happened if some tiny primate managed to evolve into something akin to tiny human beings or better, over the 40 million year headstart they enjoyed over us? 40 million years is a staggering number. 21st century human beings themselves are only some 6 million years separated from chimpanzees. 40 million years is also a long time in terms of artifacts preservation. It may be that a pretty advanced civilization of tiny primates could have sprang up 30 million years or so ago, suffered a catastrophe, and disappeared, with little or nothing remaining behind to prove they ever existed. If their main civilization existed on only one continent-- and that continent was Kerguelen-- then 20 million years ago their whole world would have sank below the Indian Ocean.


-- "'Lost continent' discovered" By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News Online: Sci/Tech, 5-27-99, BBC Homepage ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/"]

There's many ways such a civilization-- even a relatively advanced one-- could have died and been erased from the face of the Earth. If the center of the civilization had existed in Chesapeake Bay around 35,000,000 BC, it would have been erased instantly by way of a great comet impact.


-- Tiny Teeth Shed Light on Ancient Comets; 3/20/98; News Release; U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Geological Survey, Central Region Outreach Office, P.O. Box 25046, MS 150, Denver, CO 80225-0046. Contact Heidi Koehler Phone 303-236-5900 ext. 302 Fax 303-236-5882

Chesapeake Bay and vicinity would appear to be a very unfortunate place for any civilization to arise-- for the cosmic impact described above was the second-- the first took place about half a million years earlier.


-- GIANT IMPACT-WAVE DEPOSIT ALONG U.S. EAST COAST From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #87, MAY-JUN 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing C. Wylie Poag, et al; "Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 612 Bolide Event: New Evidence of a Late Eocene Impact-Wave Deposit and a Possible Impact Site, U.S. East Coast," Geology, 20:771, 1992

But enough with tiny Atlantean monkey people. What if a somewhat larger monkey species merely evolved to a state good enough to become trusted early human companions in the pre-wolf/dog days-- as seems possible from some discoveries regarding Procynocephalus monkeys and Homo erectus around 2,250,000 BC?


-- EARLY HOMO ERECTUS TOOLS IN CHINA by RUSSELL CIOCHON and ROY LARICK, NEWSBRIEFS, Archaeology, Volume 53 Number 1, January/February 2000, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/0001/newsbriefs/china.html

If such a thing happened, then the special monkeys and human ancestors also parted ways again sometime afterwards. Why? And what became of the monkeys? Could they have continued to evolve? Could it be that the reason the two split was that the monkeys began competing rather than cooperating with their human allies, by some point? Note that this scenario would appear much more plausible than the tiny Atlantean monkeys, just by virtue of much larger brain cases and overall physical sizes more comparable to small humans than mice.

What if these monkeys lacked tails, and walked upright? Walking upright over millions of years might eventually cause them to develop feet of a shape and size much like that of a human child-- thereby leaving behind footprints which would rarely attract human attention as being something out of place. What if they were also largely hairless? From a distance they would likely look like human children or short adults. If they wore clothing as well, observers would likely have to be pretty close to them to notice anything unusual about their appearance (And even then, such appearance might still fit within the extreme outer bounds of normal human variation in physical appearances).

What if they developed their own parallel but hidden society over the millennia? Avoided human beings like the plague? Retained nocturnal habits and eyesight from the early evolution days of primates? Grew to prefer subterranean or semi-underground dwelling over surface living?

Such a scenario could go far to explain age-old myths and legends the world over concerning strange and elusive little people: leprechans, elves, dwarves, fairies, etc., etc. Extra things like wings and magical powers could simply be literary embellishments to plain little people discovered living in various spots around the world.

Some believers will claim in 2000 AD that little people live in places like the southwestern United States. Perhaps by mere coincidence, lots of other claims of unusual finds or phenomena regarding the American southwest will make up a significant part of the American rumors circuit for centuries to come.

Yet another possibility is that some form of 'little people' evolved as symbionts to a wholly different humanoid species than mankind, accompanying them into space and sometimes returning to Earth for reasons of observation or others (please refer to A lost civilization on the Kerguelen continent, circa 21 million BC? for details on this speculation)

Peopling of Americas 8,000 BC- 1,600s AD Contents


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Approximately 1,200 AD-1,850 AD: The Little Ice Age; this is the coldest period for world climate since the last deglaciation; some Plains Indians such as the Comanche begin acquiring horses from european visitors around 1650 AD
-- page 99, "Ice on the World", National Geographic magazine, October 1988

Or was it 1645-1715? There's varying time periods offered by my sources. The Little Ice Age may have coincided with a Maunder Minimum-- or a time when sunspot activity becomes very rare. It seems the Sun actually expands in girth during such minimums, perhaps lessening its radiative heat output as well.


-- A LARGER SUN DURING THE MAUNDER MINIMUM From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #51, MAY-JUN 1987 by William R. Corliss, citing E. Ribes, et al; "Evidence for a Larger Sun with a Slower Rotation during the Seventeenth Century," Nature, 326: 52, 1987
Yet another varying esitmate of the period of the Little Ice Age is given as the 1400's to around 1850. With the period ending abruptly over just ten years around 1840-1850.

-- Evidence of catastrophic volcanic events locked in Wyoming glacier ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/usgs-eoc022800.html"]; EurekAlert! 27 FEBRUARY 2000 Contact: Heidi Koehler hkoehler@usgs.gov 303-202-4743 United States Geological Survey


Some native Americans likely begin acquiring horses from Spanish explorers and colonizers around 1650 AD.


"...Plains Indians like the Comanche probably acquired horses from the Spanish in northern New Mexico beginning about 1650 through raiding or trading."
-- Rock art depicting commanches, horses clad in leather armor discovered in Colorado ["http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/uoca-rad033004.php"]; Contact: Mark Mitchell Mark.Mitchell@colorado.edu 303-913-2435 University of Colorado at Boulder; 31-Mar-2004


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http://www.jrmooneyham.com/pamer2ref.html
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« Reply #21 on: February 24, 2007, 01:06:59 pm »

Topper-site proving 50.000 years old Americans?

http://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php/topic,87.0.html
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« Reply #22 on: February 25, 2007, 09:56:34 pm »

Ancient European Skeleton Recovered In West Virginia Cave

Cave Skeleton is European, 1,300 Years Old, Man Says

Sept. 29, 2002

MORGANTOWN - The man who first advanced the theory that markings carved on in a Wyoming County cave are actually characters from an ancient Irish alphabet has found human remains at the site, which tests indicate are European in origin and date back to A.D. 710, he maintains.

Robert Pyle of Morgantown says that a DNA analysis of material from the skeleton's teeth roots was conducted by Brigham Young University. That analysis, he says, shows that the skeleton's DNA, when compared to samples from Native American groups and an array of European sources, most closely matches samples from the British Isles.

Pyle says the DNA test, plus a radiocarbon test that dates the skeleton to 710, suggest the presence of a European visitor to the North American continent nearly 800 years before the arrival of Columbus, and nearly 300 years before Viking Leif Erickson.
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« Reply #23 on: April 29, 2007, 05:36:11 pm »

Ancient camel bones found in Arizona

Sat Apr 28, 6:55 AM ET

PHOENIX - Workers digging at the future site of a Wal-Mart store in suburban Mesa have unearthed the bones of a prehistoric camel that's estimated to be about 10,000 years old.
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Arizona State University geology museum curator Brad Archer hurried out to the site Friday when he got the news that the owner of a nursery was carefully excavating bones found at the bottom of a hole being dug for a new ornamental citrus tree.

"There's no question that this is a camel; these creatures walked the land here until about 8,000 years ago, when the same event that wiped out a great deal of mammal life took place," Archer told The Arizona Republic.

Wal-Mart officials and Greenfield Citrus Nursery owner John Babiarz have already agreed that the bones will go directly on display at ASU.

Archer said some of them may be placed on display very soon, but most will take several months "to get sorted out and stabilized."

"In my 15 years at ASU doing this work I can think of six or seven times when finds this important have been made," Archer said. "This is the first camel. Others have been horses, once a mammoth on Happy Valley Road. This sort of thing is extremely rare."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070428/ap_on_sc/prehistoric_camel_5
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« Reply #24 on: April 30, 2007, 01:08:05 pm »

Here's what Edgar Cayce said in a life reading for an entity who lived in America prior to 10,000 B.C.:

Quote
2780-3  M 10  12/11/43  b. New London, Connecticut
Before that the entity was in the land of the present nativity, during those early periods when there were the diverse changes, as would be looked upon in the present, that will come again.

In portions of what is now Ohio, the entity was a sun worshiper but one who worked in cloth, weaving of camel's hair and those things having to do with creating of clothes from the long-haired animals in those particular periods.

The name then was Ekl.
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« Reply #25 on: April 30, 2007, 09:55:35 pm »

Here's what Edgar Cayce said in a life reading for an entity who lived in America prior to 10,000 B.C.:

Quote
2780-3  M 10  12/11/43  b. New London, Connecticut

In portions of what is now Ohio, the entity was a sun worshiper but one who worked in cloth, weaving of camel's hair and those things having to do with creating of clothes from the long-haired animals in those particular periods.

The name then was Ekl.

Truely amazing - all those points of information seems to relate to our present knowledge...!
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« Reply #26 on: April 30, 2007, 10:42:34 pm »

P695:6, 61:2.8
30,000,000 years ago the modern types of mammals began to make their appearance. Formerly the mammals had lived for the greater part in the hills, being of the mountainous types; suddenly there began the evolution of the plains or hoofed type, the grazing species, as differentiated from the clawed flesh eaters. These grazers sprang from an undifferentiated ancestor having five toes and forty-four teeth, which perished before the end of the age. Toe evolution did not progress beyond the three-toed stage throughout this period.

The horse, an outstanding example of evolution, lived during these times in both North America and Europe, though his development was not fully completed until the later ice age. While the rhinoceros family appeared at the close of this period, it underwent its greatest expansion subsequently. A small hoglike creature also developed which became the ancestor of the many species of swine, peccaries, and hippopotamuses. Camels and llamas had their origin in North America about the middle of this period and overran the western plains. Later, the llamas migrated to South America, the camels to Europe, and soon both were extinct in North America, though a few camels survived up to the ice age.

>>>>>>>

P696:8, 61:3.4
20,000,000 years ago was indeed the golden age of mammals. The Bering Strait land bridge was up, and many groups of animals migrated to North America from Asia, including the four-tusked mastodons, short- legged rhinoceroses, and many varieties of the cat family.

The first deer appeared, and North America was soon overrun by ruminants -- deer, oxen, camels, bison, and several species of rhinoceroses -- but the giant pigs, more than six feet tall, became extinct.

The huge elephants of this and subsequent periods possessed large brains as well as large bodies, and they soon overran the entire world except Australia. For once the world was dominated by a huge animal with a brain sufficiently large to enable it to carry on. Confronted by the highly intelligent life of these ages, no animal the size of an elephant could have survived unless it had possessed a brain of large size and superior quality. In intelligence and adaptation the elephant is approached only by the horse and is surpassed only by man himself. Even so, of the fifty species of elephants in existence at the opening of this period, only two have survived.


15,000,000 years ago the mountain regions of Eurasia were rising, and there was some volcanic activity throughout these regions, but nothing comparable to the lava flows of the Western Hemisphere. These unsettled conditions prevailed all over the world.

The Strait of Gibraltar closed, and Spain was connected with Africa by the old land bridge, but the Mediterranean flowed into the Atlantic through a narrow channel which extended across France, the mountain peaks and highlands appearing as islands above this ancient sea. Later on, these European seas began to withdraw. Still later, the Mediterranean was connected with the Indian Ocean, while at the close of this period the Suez region was elevated so that the Mediterranean became, for a time, an inland salt sea.

The Iceland land bridge submerged, and the arctic waters commingled with those of the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic coast of North America rapidly cooled, but the Pacific coast remained warmer than at present. The great ocean currents were in function and affected climate much as they do today.

Mammalian life continued to evolve. Enormous herds of horses joined the camels on the western plains of North America; this was truly the age of horses as well as of elephants. The horse's brain is next in animal quality to that of the elephant, but in one respect it is decidedly inferior, for the horse never fully overcame the deep-seated propensity to flee when frightened. The horse lacks the emotional control of the elephant, while the elephant is greatly handicapped by size and lack of agility. During this period an animal evolved which was somewhat like both the elephant and the horse, but it was soon destroyed by the rapidly increasing cat family.

>>>>>>

P698:4, 61:4.2
10,000,000 years ago began an age of widespread local land deposits on the lowlands of the continents, but most of these sedimentations were later removed. Much of Europe, at this time, was still under water, including parts of England, Belgium, and France, and the Mediterranean Sea covered much of northern Africa. In North America extensive depositions were made at the mountain bases, in lakes, and in the great land basins. These deposits average only about two hundred feet, are more or less colored, and fossils are rare. Two great fresh-water lakes existed in western North America. The Sierras were elevating; Shasta, Hood, and Rainier were beginning their mountain careers. But it was not until the subsequent ice age that North America began its creep toward the Atlantic depression.

For a short time all the land of the world was again joined excepting Australia, and the last great world-wide animal migration took place. North America was connected with both South America and Asia, and there was a free exchange of animal life. Asiatic sloths, armadillos, antelopes, and bears entered North America, while North American camels went to China. Rhinoceroses migrated over the whole world except Australia and South America, but they were extinct in the Western Hemisphere by the close of this period.

In general, the life of the preceding period continued to evolve and spread. The cat family dominated the animal life, and marine life was almost at a standstill. Many of the horses were still three-toed, but the modern types were arriving; llamas and giraffelike camels mingled with the horses on the grazing plains. The giraffe appeared in Africa, having just as long a neck then as now. In South America sloths, armadillos, anteaters, and the South American type of primitive monkeys evolved. Before the continents were finally isolated, those massive animals, the mastodons, migrated everywhere except to Australia.

>>>>>>>

P699:5, 61:5.5
2,000,000 years ago the first North American glacier started its southern advance. The ice age was now in the making, and this glacier consumed nearly one million years in its advance from, and retreat back toward, the northern pressure centers. The central ice sheet extended south as far as Kansas; the eastern and western ice centers were not then so extensive.


1,500,000 years ago the first great glacier was retreating northward. In the meantime, enormous quantities of snow had been falling on Greenland and on the northeastern part of North America, and erelong this eastern ice mass began to flow southward. This was the second invasion of the ice.

These first two ice invasions were not extensive in Eurasia. During these early epochs of the ice age North America was overrun with mastodons, woolly mammoths, horses, camels, deer, musk oxen, bison, ground sloths, giant beavers, saber-toothed tigers, sloths as large as elephants, and many groups of the cat and dog families. But from this time forward they were rapidly reduced in numbers by the increasing cold of the glacial period. Toward the close of the ice age the majority of these animal species were extinct in North America.

Away from the ice the land and water life of the world was little changed. Between the ice invasions the climate was about as mild as at present, perhaps a little warmer. The glaciers were, after all, local phenomena, though they spread out to cover enormous areas. The coastwise climate varied greatly between the times of glacial inaction and those times when enormous icebergs were sliding off the coast of Maine into the Atlantic, slipping out through Puget Sound into the Pacific, and thundering down Norwegian fiords into the North Sea.

Quote
author=Boreas link=topic=362.msg10619#msg10619 date=1177988135]
Here's what Edgar Cayce said in a life reading for an entity who lived in America prior to 10,000 B.C.:

Quote
2780-3  M 10  12/11/43  b. New London, Connecticut

In portions of what is now Ohio, the entity was a sun worshiper but one who worked in cloth, weaving of camel's hair and those things having to do with creating of clothes from the long-haired animals in those particular periods.

The name then was Ekl.

Truely amazing - all those points of information seems to relate to our present knowledge...!
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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
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« Reply #27 on: May 01, 2007, 09:32:43 pm »

Majesto,

Even more amazing. The overall view of Urantia is g.d. incredible too.

Just keep onto an open mind to both of them and be aware of philosophical gridlocks of "fundamentalism". We do not need to call one or any of them "absolutely rigth", but be ready to revise details of specific locations and time-lines. Thus the Cayce/Urantia connection is truely very valuable.

Though, it still requires that we include the outstanding part of konventional academia, such as Prof. Warren's great work as well as Mr Cremo's. Then we have a set of compatible sources that may realy add proves to eachothers significance. Finally we may adapt the Bock-saga to the syntesis - and we do indeed have some ground-braking insigths comming up - about the ancient antiquety of the Meso-America and Eurasia aike...!

 Wink
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« Reply #28 on: May 16, 2007, 07:22:39 am »

Malibu Archaeological Find Is a Point of Contention
• Artifact Could Have Impact on North American Migration Theory While Roiling Local Waters


BY ANNE SOBLE



Malibu celebrity status can take many forms, but one of the more unusual recipients of local attention is a spearhead, or projectile point, that could have been used by hunters in the Clovis cultural era around 11,000 years ago to pursue a giant mammoth or buffalo in the vicinity of what is now Point Dume.
The so-called Clovis point even has its own media-savvy spokesperson, an archaeologist who consulted for the “Indiana Jones” film trilogy named Gary Stickel, who says the artifact is “a major discovery of national and international significance.” He also contends that the private property where the point was found, which has been designated Farpoint on the state archaeology rolls, should be the subject of additional research.
The point was found in September 2005 by Edgar Perez, a cultural resources specialist for the Tongva Tribe in Los Angeles, who was hired as the Native American monitor at a Point Dume residential construction site. Stickel said Perez was overseeing backhoe digging and spotted the spearhead in the bucket before it was crushed.
Dr. Stickel says that the crew’s elation at the find was not shared by the owner of the property, whose identity and address are not being disclosed to protect privacy as well as prevent vandalism of the site. He says the owner has questioned the authenticity of the artifact and prevents research from continuing at the site.
The archaeologist also contends that City of Malibu planning personnel have declined to cooperate with facilitating additional work at the location. He asserts that the city may have tried to block a press conference that Stickel scheduled last week on the grounds of the Page Museum with its backdrop of the La Brea Tar Pits, where examples of the animals that Clovis hunters stalked can be now seen.
Stickel says that a staffer at the museum told him that “the City of Malibu phoned,” then de­clined to elaborate further.
Malibu Surfside News calls to the municipal planning department for comment on Stickel’s assertions of what he calls “city censorship” were not returned.
Stickel says the purpose of the press conference was “to make the public aware of what we found and garner public support for more research.” He and colleagues stress the importance of the spearhead, the first example of Clovis culture found this far west, hence the site being named Farpoint. The significance of the discovery is reiterated in numerous communications from arch­ae­ol­ogists and anthropologists at universities and museums.
The point itself has been auth­enticated by Dr. Dennis Stanford, the director of the Paleo­in­dian/ Paleoecology Program at the Smithsonian Institution, who writes that he examined the point and “there is no question that the artifact was made using Clovis tech­nology and thereby indicates that the site was occupied by Clovis people over 11,000 years ago.”

Stanford adds, “The discovery of a Clovis age occupation at the site is extremely important not only for the local archaeological record, but for understanding the earliest pre-history of the Americas. Hence the site is of national significance and requires an interdisciplinary research program and protection.”

The point and other site data are now housed at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Stickel says the residence on the property has been completed, stressing he “never tried to stop it,” but he is now concerned that trenches dug for sprinkler systems have impacted the grounds.
The archaeologist says, “There are eight No Trespassing signs” on the two-plus-acre property, “some probably there for my benefit.” Still, he said he is pleased that the property has ex­tensive surveillance equipment, because otherwise “crazies might come out and try to vandalize the site.”

Interestingly, some descendants of the post-Clovis Chumash, traditionally considered Malibu’s earl­iest residents, are wary of Clov­is findings. Their oral histories may vary but, in some form, they subscribe to the prevailing coastal migration route theory that the first “Americans” were Asians who crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia.
Dennis Stanford, however, has put forth the thesis, which Stickel thinks the Clovis finds support, that the earliest mi­grants came across the Atlantic from southwestern Eur­ope on ice packs that bound all of the land masses closer together some 21,000 to 16,000 years ago.
This is not just ivory tower quibbling, but highly-charged debate that is closely interwoven with ethnic politics and beliefs. The Clovis point is not some esoteric curio, but a potential confirmation of who initially populated North America after the Ice Age.
The question of who got here first not only has tremendous im­plications for history, but also for the professional careers of individuals who ally themselves with one theory or another. That is assuming one is willing to discount any possibility that both migratory patterns could have taken place si­mul­taneously.
Stickel stresses that the “Farpoint Site may well yield more data critically important to our understanding of how the New World was first inhabited by the earliest people. Any portion of the site may contain a Clovis human tooth, and DNA analysis of it would help scientists to identify the human genetic origins of the New World.
“There’s a fantastic panorama of human occupation here and we need to understand it.”

He contends that “cultural resources should be treated like some mineral rights and granted special status. We need to find ways to facilitate obtaining this material so it is available for the common good.”

Stickel says that because of his em­phasis on the importance of accumulating this data, he has clashed with City of Malibu personnel who he says are more concerned with expediting Malibu private property development than adding to the knowledge of who were the community’s earliest residents.
Last November, one of the many scholars interested in the Farpoint Site sent a letter to then Mayor Ken Kearsley, in which he urged the city to “allow Stickel and his associates to put in a minimally intrusive, time-limited, final observation pit close to the house for the purposes of completing their mitigation work.
“I predict that the owner and other responsible citizens of Malibu will look back and be very proud to have done so.”





CAPTION 1
PRESS CONFERENCE—Archaeologist Gary Stickel points out excavated areas on the Point Dume property where the Clovis projectile point, or spearhead, was found. The location has been formally designated by the State of California as the Farpoint Site. The second map marked with red lines represents what Dr. Stickel calls “destroyed site areas.” He is critical of the City of Malibu, asserting that planning personnel “are very negative” about archaeological research in the community and may “have tried to stifle the press conference” that he and colleagues held last week outside the Page Museum, home of the La Brea Tar Pits.  MSN Photos/Frank Lamonea


CAPTION 2.
FIND—Edgar Perez, the Na­tive American monitor at the Point Dume residential construction site, retrieved the Clovis point from a backhoe bucket during excavation of a trench on Sept. 25, 2005. Everyone quickly gathered around him because there was a sense that the discovery was important, and this photograph was taken to commemorate the event. The site archaeologist asserts that the owner has tried to impede continued research at the location and has even ac­cused him of “seeding” or placing the point at the site.


CAPTION 3.
DIVERGENCE—Two competing theories of migration are at stake as more information is derived from artifacts such as the Clovis point. One theory is that the Clovis people immigrated from Asia over the Bering Strait; the other is they were people from southwestern Europe who crossed a differently configured Atlantic Ocean 16,000 years ago or more.


CAPTION 4.
SCALE—Ray Corbett, the Anth­ropology Collection Manager at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, holds the actual Clovis point, which is also shown on this week’s cover. Replicas have been made for research and educational use.   
 
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://malibusurfsidenews.com/stories/200705/20070510001.html
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« Reply #29 on: May 16, 2007, 07:28:00 am »

Modern, historic canals follow those of a vanished people
Childs
High Country News
May. 13, 2007 12:00 AM

First of a three-part series




Phoenix, which has more than doubled to nearly 4 million residents over the last two decades, is growing faster than any other population center in the nation. Thirty new skyscrapers are proposed for downtown alone, while metastatic sprawl carves up surrounding desert. But if you lift the rug of Phoenix, buried directly below you will find the remains of an ancient city, a Neolithic version of Phoenix.
 


The first communities appeared in the low basin of the Salt River 3,000 years ago, as shown by remains recently discovered under the new Phoenix Convention Center. From there, prehistoric settlements took an escalating course of empire, filling the basin to overflowing. They sprawled all the way south to present-day Tucson, while satellite communities appeared even north of what today is Flagstaff. They grew until they were no longer able to sustain themselves.

Then, their civilization fell.

The culture was known as Hohokam, a Pima word meaning "all used up." The doubled first syllable accentuates the sentiment, telling of a people who completely burned themselves out. When Anglo settlers arrived shortly after the Civil War, they found a desert studded with grand adobe ruins, vestiges of an inexplicable culture. They called their new settlement "Phoenix," imagining themselves rising from the ashes of a lost city.

Look across Phoenix at night and it seems resplendent, unassailable, along seamless corridors of light where the once lonely towns of Mesa, Tempe, Chandler and Goodyear converge, absorbed into a greater municipality. Curiously, these lights define the same settlement patterns archaeologists have found among Hohokam communities. The two cities overlap as if made for each other.

The original Anglo settlers began digging canals in the mid-1800s, and wherever they dug, they unearthed the remains of Hohokam canals below. For the next 150 years, engineers planned new canals throughout this growing city, and nearly each one follows an original Hohokam grid, as if pouring water back into an ancient hydraulic empire, bringing a ghost to life. New and old waterways follow the same gradients, the same courses.

The Hohokams built nearly a thousand miles of canals and laterals, quenching fields of cotton, corn, pumpkins, amaranth and beans. They filled basins for domestic water at innumerable villages and town sites. Modern Phoenix followed suit, becoming a cotton-growing mecca, a city of water in the heart of the desert. Communities sprang up in the same places that Hohokam settlements once stood. Even the saline content of modern Phoenix's water matches the chemical signature of Hohokam water just before the fall. The two cities lie along a similar environmental trajectory, and they may face a similar end.

"The Hohokam kept extending their canal systems farther and farther from the river," said Tom Wright, a local contract archaeologist. "You tend to find their later sites under present-day Chandler or out in Goodyear. They kept increasing from the Valley outward. The irrigation canals were the system that fed growth. Water was the lifeblood that flowed through these communities.

"Now, the lifeblood is traffic. The city grows along patterns of freeways. Water doesn't seem to count anymore. We take it for granted. But whether people know it or not, like the Hohokam, we are an irrigation society living on imported water, and we're outstripping our resources. Sound familiar?"


Cheering the demise?


Government officials and businesspeople cheer every time Phoenix has yet one more season of record-breaking prosperity; archaeologists eye our downfall from centuries away. Some say Phoenix has 300 years to go, some guess it's more like 50. Either way, they agree the end of this luminous city is inevitable.

After the Hohokam civilization dwindled and fell in the 15th century, unattended adobe buildings crumbled. All that remained when Anglo settlers arrived were lone-standing walls and half-rooms. A thin layer of arid, buff-colored dust covered everything on the ground. Now, many Hohokam remains tend to lie a mere 6 inches below the city surface. When you park your car and step out, there is a good chance you are walking across meticulously arranged burials or cremations, or the sunken field of a pre-Columbian ballcourt.

Until recently, most modern construction in the city was shallow, with simple foundation slabs; there were few basements. But because development has been going deeper, with underground parking and taller buildings that require substantial foundations, much more of the Hohokams is coming to light. At the same time, more stringent laws, such as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, require thorough archaeological inventories whenever someone digs. Skeletons and ancient cremation vessels are now being excavated, catalogued and handed over to desert tribes, the O'odhams and the Akimels, that bury them again on their reservations.

More has been learned about the Hohokams over the past several years than in the previous several decades. As Phoenix witnesses exponential growth, archaeologists are being sent out in droves to examine proposed construction sites and collect artifacts. Fantastic maps have been prepared, illustrating a Hohokam city more widespread and complex than previously thought.

The Hohokam picture we now see is a marketplace spread over a broad desert valley ruled for 1,500 years by Stone Age farmers. Reddish adobe buildings were clustered into innumerable courtyard communities. Busy trade routes stretched north to Colorado and south into Mexico, while local goods were produced on an industrial level, different parts of the city specializing in their own manufacture. Large water containers came from the base of South Mountain, kitchenware from the northern shores of the Salt River, and richly painted pottery from settlements a day's walk to the south.

Todd Bostwick, head archaeologist for Phoenix, explains that the Hohokam landscape was expertly mapped for the manipulation of water. They were farming every spot of land they could dampen. Bostwick recognizes an abundance of water symbols in Hohokam iconography: waterbirds painted on vessels, seashells carved into frogs. He believes that water was the crux of Hohokam sacredness and livelihood.

"The main difference between us and them," Bostwick said, "is that they were constrained by principles of gravity. We brought pumps." He thought about it, and added that we can also build massive dams for storage. I asked Bostwick if these pumps and dams would be enough to keep our own civilization from falling the way the Hohokams fell. He smiled, shrewd eyes probing from behind his glasses. "I'm the city archaeologist," Bostwick said. "It's a delicate matter. I don't think I should speak to that."


Digging into the past


Archaeologists dig in the dirt with wood-handled trowels. They work salvage archaeology, clearing the way for oncoming development. I found none who believes our newly formed desert civilization will last. Many say our tailspin has already begun.

"Personally, I'm terrified," said Banks Leonard, a bearded archaeologist wearing a dirty T-shirt and digging up artifacts in west Phoenix for a prestigious archaeology firm.

Smoking a cigarette out of the corner of his mouth, Leonard named various catastrophes in the making, a litany of worldwide emergencies. He sees a future of global warming; imperial American warfare; internal, national conflict over water; and general environmental degradation. He believes Phoenix will be one of the early dominos that will fall in a larger arena of collapse.

Like many of his colleagues, Leonard sees modern Phoenix as fragile, its economy and infrastructure booming out of control, demanding more water all the time. At the moment, the city has ample surplus, but with drought deepening and demand increasing, the projected future supply is in question.

"(The Hohokams) built to the carrying capacity of the land, and then they tumbled," Leonard said. "We just don't know the carrying capacity of the land with the technology we have now. You know what I think? I think we're there. I think it's just about time for the fall."

According to Leonard's timeline, the fall probably means an eventual leveling-off of growth and a subsequent decline. It could happen tomorrow or centuries from now. It does not mean sudden chaos in the streets, store windows smashed out. But Leonard, in his gritty, cynical voice, does not deny the possibility.

"This is the biggest civilization here so far, the most globally connected," he said. After another drag off his cigarette, he reminded me, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

Next Sunday: What could the fall look like?



Craig Childs, who grew up in the Valley, is author of several books including "The Secret Knowledge of Water," "The Desert Cries" and, most recently, "House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest." This article first appeared in High Country News ( hcn.org), an awarding-winning newsmagazine that covers the West's communities and natural resource issues.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/0513hohokam0513.html
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