Posted on 08/05/2008 10:22:17 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The discovery of a European skull dating back more than 260 years has cast doubt that Captain James Cook was the first Westerner to step foot on the shores of New Zealand.
Captain Cook recorded in his log, a tale told to him by a Maori chief, of a ship having been shipwrecked many years earlier Scientists are baffled after carbon dating showed the skull, a woman's which was found near the country's capital, Wellington, dates back from 1742 – decades before Cook's Pacific expedition arrived in 1769.
The discovery was made by a boy walking his dog on the bank of a river in the Wairarapa region of the North Island, an area settled by Europeans only after the establishment of a colony by the New Zealand Company in 1840.
Dr Robin Watt, a forensic anthropologist called in by police who investigated the discovery, said yesterday: "It's a real mystery, it really is. "We've got the problem of how did this woman get here? Who was she?
"I recommended they do carbon date on it and, of course, they came up with that amazing result."
The mystery of the skull, found four years ago, was raked over last week at an provincial capitol inquest.
John Kershaw, the local coroner, was told that police at first thought they had a murder inquiry on their hands.
"One of the reasons some work was done on the skull was because it had a number of puncture wounds," Mr Kershaw said.
"We don't know how this lady met her death, although the historian we used indicated drowning was a reasonable guess."
The inquest heard that the skull was definitely not Maori - the only race known to have inhabited New Zealand in the 18th century - and almost certainly of European origin.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Ping
ping to self for later reading
If you don’t read it now, a European woman will read it first.
> If you don’t read it now, a European woman will read it first.
(BIG GRIN!)
“One of the reasons some work was done on the skull was because it had a number of puncture wounds,”
Restless natives.
Supposed to poke holes in the dinner before it’s microwaved?
sigh....
But the search for the perfect handbag goes on.
To Ursa Major and don't spare the horses, Ladies!
Hilarity!
You know I bet a MAN brought her skull there after she died! :)
Then again, maybe exponential functions used in carbon dating are as deceiving as positing such ancient histories to correspond with our perception of time.
Male ego. Just can't accept scientific proof.........that Coach is out there. And we're gonna find it.
At the very least the skull of the MAN who brought her there should be nearby!!!!!! :-p
Or why we're mad at them at any given time.
She obviously was trying to ask for directions...
For a European woman to be found alone on a remote island like New Zealand, she would have had to be transported there on a European ship by authorization of the Captain or be a stowaway.
In either case, no doubt she would have been a comfort to the Captain or the crew. So why was she left there at the mercy of the aboriginals?
I believe we have discovered the first recorded case of a woman being MAROONED because of PMS.
Good girls go to heaven.
Bad girls go everywhere.
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Thanks nickcarraway. |
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Darks had the perfect quip for a handbag: She had the face of a trucker. She made it into a purse.
(That’ll probably be banned in Boston...)
Whoops, thanks wildbill.
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