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Re: Australian finds >100 000 BP?
Amit Mehta (armehta@eniac.seas.upenn.edu)
Wed, 02 Oct 1996 19:28:45 -0400
Bob Keeter wrote:
>
> Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk (Paul Crowley) wrote:
> <snip>
> >Thanks for the information. It's very exciting. Is there any chance
> >of someone typing in the full article?
> >
> You might try: "http://www.smh.com.au:80/daily/"
> >
> >Where is the site?
> >
> >Has the area been geologically raised in the last 150 kya? IOW was
> >the site a coastal one at the time of occupation?
> >
> >It does not disprove "Out of Africa" as another poster suggests.
> >If they had boats they could have come from anywhere.
> >
> Ah, Paul, you miss a "really" important issue. To the best of my
> knowledge, Austrailia has been separated from mainland Asia (and
> Africa) for quite a long time. If the local yokels made it across
> on a boat or raft, if they flew, or swam, or whatever that makes
> early man quite a bit more mobile that anybody had reason to suspect!
>
> I'm not one of those who have to depend on space aliens to
> transport man around the different continents, BUT I am a
> believer that man wasnt quite the homebody that some seem
> to imagine. If he got to Austrailia 100k years ago, what was
> keeping man out of the North American and South American
> continent in the same time frame? True, we dont have any
> evidence that indisputably goes back that far, but, if it
> were physically possible, the looking might not futile!
>
> Regards
> bk
Just a couple additions to your comments: since the gap between
Indonesian land and the Australian continent was approx. 160 km of
water, it is possible that archaic homo sapiens could have constructed
primitive watercraft. This can be accidental, such as floating on water
with logs, or even on purpose. While presently there is not proof of
watercraft, for man to get to Australia it does require some sort of
travel over water.
Similarly, man could have traveled to the Americas across the Bering
strait in non-glaciated times. As you know, the distance here is also
only about 100 km. This way man could travel downwards through Canada
without worrying about glaciers during any sort of ice age. Of course,
this would push the date of human arrival to the Americas back;
remember that we just now have discovered these ancient Australian
dates, and possibly we will find comparable ones in the Americas.
(e.g., At the site at Pedra Furada in Brazil one date was actually found
at 32,000 yrs. B.P.; though most dates in this area are only 8000 yrs.
B.P.) While this is not the conventional theory, it is beginning to
gain support due to the new evidence.
Amit
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