Posted on 05/22/2013 8:07:24 AM PDT by Renfield
Australians may need to rewrite their history textbooks.
A new archaeological expedition may prove that the continent may have been discovered earlier than previously thought. Ian McIntosh, professor of anthropology at Indiana University, says he plans on visiting the location where five African coins were found in Australia’s Northern Territory in 1944 that have proven to be 1,000 years old, AAP reports.
“Multiple theses have been put forward by noted scholars, and the major goal is to piece together more of the puzzle. Is a shipwreck involved? Are there more coins? All options are on the table, but only the proposed expedition can help us answer some of these perplexing questions,” McIntosh said in a statement.
The coins were found by Maurie Isenberg, an Australian soldier stationed on Australia’s uninhabited Wessel Islands during World War II. In 1979, Isenberg had the coins identified by a museum who confirmed they were 1,000 years old and marked a map with an ‘X’ to remember where he found them.
The coins had been relatively forgotten for some time until McIntosh decided to spearhead an archaeological dig in the long-abandoned Wessel Islands – the first-ever since the coins’ discovery.
The expedition will seek to answer the question of how the coins came to the Australian outback and whether British explorer James Cook was one of the first to discover the "terra nullius" in 1770.
McIntosh points to shipwrecks as a possible answer as to the origins of coins in the Australian outback. The islands lie on a popular ancient trading route that linked East Africa, Arabia, India and the Spice Islands. Four of the nine coins discovered belong to the Dutch East India Company.
The five remaining coins date back from the 900s to the 1300s and come from Kilwa Sultanate, now a World Heritage ruin south of Zanzibar, in Tanzania. Besides Africa and Australia, the coins have only been spotted in Oman.
Ping
A couple of days ago it was European coins and now they’re African.
You can see on the article that they have Arabic writing all over them. The coins originate obviously from Arab outposts and slave colonies in Africa.
Moochelle’s descendants taking another vacation?
And of course Australia will now be claimed as part of the “Caliphate “.
And doing some shopping while their at it?
What is the possibility of the coins being dropped of lost by someone who visited Africa and returned with the coins?
Oh, of course, LOL.
Holy cow, did I really say “descendants?” That would be ANCESTORS. More coffee....
The possibility is around 100%.
The idea is that someone from the time had traveled. It would not make sense that someone had these 900ad coins in 1771.. Hahahahahahaha
That’s OK...their=they’re...yep, more coffee needed :-)
The coins could still have been in circulation at a very late date. Charlemagne’s silver pennies remained in circulation for centuries. A 1300s coin could have been making its way around markets in Malaysia and Indonesia in the 1700s.
Only if they find other coins at the dig.
I would not carry just 1976 quarters in my pocket in 2013.
“Four of the nine coins discovered belong to the Dutch East India Company”.
Which proves that sub-saharan africans and the chinese had a civilization far superior than anything that came from North West Europe.
1,000 years old coins = Rocks
Almost half the coins were Dutch East India Company minted coins.
Which would be consistent with European travelers doing business in Java or Malaysia.
In 1775, 100+ year old coins would have been a lot larger percentage of the money in the average person's pocket than 40+ year old coins are in someone's pocket today.
Created in 1602, dissolved in 1798.
My point is that a VOC employee in the 1700s could very well have, in his pocket, some of his VOC coins and also some well-worn silver coins minted in Zanzibar that made their way along the Spice Route from 1300 to 1700.
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