Posted on 11/07/2006 1:28:01 PM PST by FLOutdoorsman
Mashantuckets, Ballard To Explore Ancient Coastline
They are questions that have intrigued scientists, archaeologists and historians for centuries: When did Native Americans first arrive on the North American continent, and where did they settle?
Now, Robert Ballard, president of the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Aquarium, and Kevin McBride, research director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, and other researchers hope to answer that question.
On Wednesday, Ballard, McBride and Dwight Coleman, the IFE's research director, outlined plans for a multiyear expedition to chart the location of ancient coastlines now underwater, identify sites of Native American settlements and find artifacts to prove they were there and date their arrival.
“The most important questions about early American habitation can only be addressed underwater,” said McBride, adding that the underwater vehicles and exploration technology developed by Ballard are finally making such research possible.
The work can only be done underwater because 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, ice covered much of North America. In Connecticut, it stretched all the way to the coast. Water levels were much lower, and the coastline of what is now Connecticut was 100 miles south of where it is today. In between was land that was flooded when the ice melted, and ocean levels began to rise.
Native Americans are known to have lived on high ground near rivers along the ocean because of access to a variety of food. Ballard and his team will look for those geographic features, which are now underwater. One clue will be huge piles of discarded clamshells and other items that formed ancient garbage dumps. The researchers hope tools, arrowheads and other items will be found nearby.
McBride said the original theory was that people arrived in North America from Asia by walking across the Bering Strait 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. He said recent finds show the real story is more complex and older than that.
“And the story probably involves coastal areas that are now underwater,” he said.
The team's work is scheduled to begin in March in the Flower Gardens National Marine Sanctuary, located 100 miles south of the Texas-Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. There they hope to find evidence of Native American habitation near underwater salt domes, which they theorize the Indians may have used to preserve food. Ballard said he dreams of finding actual ancient salt mines.
The team will use two underwater vehicles developed by Ballard along with the Navy's NR-1 nuclear research submarine and its support ship, the Carolyn Chouest, both based at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton
“There's a lot of potential here, but our goal is modest at first. If we find a single tool from the Flower Gardens, we'll be really happy,” McBride said.
In 2008, the work will shift to an area around Block Island, which was a mountain in ancient times and where Ballard and McBride have done previous studies, and then progress to other areas off the East Coast.
All of the expeditions will be broadcast live via satellite and Internet 2 technology from the research vessels not only to the aquarium, but to colleges, 20 museums and 60 Boys' and Girls' Clubs across the country. Ballard hopes that these upcoming expeditions as well as others he has broadcast in recent years capture the imagination of students and interest them in becoming the nation's next generation of scientists and engineers.
“We're not just going to reach local kids but tens of thousands of them across the country,” he said.
Among Ballard's other partners in the expedition are the University of Connecticut, which is providing its research vessel, the Connecticut, docked at the Avery Point campus, and the University of Rhode Island, which is providing a research vessel and building a new ocean exploration center to monitor the expeditions. Ballard has also established the country's first graduate program in archaeological oceanography there.
Ballard said it was two of his students at URI, one of whom is Corey Gillette of Old Lyme, who spurred him to put together the expedition because of their interest in early Native American habitation.
This expedition is the culmination of an idea Ballard had when he decided in 1994 to relocate his headquarters to the aquarium. Ballard said then that he envisioned a time when technology would allow him to not only broadcast his expeditions live but let him go on them from the comfort of his living room.
Ballard and McBride will monitor and direct the March expedition from a command center at the aquarium.
“It's going to be interesting. This will be the first time in 40 years that I haven't actually been on the ship. Bring the beer and pizza over, and we'll watch together,” he joked earlier this week.
Ballard and McBride will talk with Coleman as video images are beamed back to the surface from the submarine and remote vehicles 24 hours a day, and also will talk to students watching the work at other locations
Once the group proves its method of locating settlements, Ballard said it can be used around the world to find evidence of early human habitation.
For the 64-year-old Ballard, who has located the sunken wrecks of the Titanic, PT-109 and ancient Phoenician ships, this expedition is another chance to expand his legacy.
“I'm not sure what it's going to be, but we're going to find something,” he said.
j.wojtas@theday.com
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc.html
There's a link about halfway down the page that is titled " A Quick Background to the Last Ice Age " which deals with the climatic conditions prevailing in various time periods leading to the present...
It gives a good background on what sort of living conditions ancient man had to endure, and some insights into climatic changes and cycles that hint at good times among the bad..
I found it interesting that during the last 17,000 years or so, there have been several warm and cold periods, wet and dry periods, etc..
Change of climate could on occasion occur over a period of less than 100 years...
Imagine listening to your grandfather complain about how bad he had it as a kid, when it was really cold and dry, and everywhere one went was always uphill..
Oh.. Also a little lower down is a link to an article about a siberian glacial mega lake.. Much like Lake Agassi here in the northern midwest..
Given the time period, such flooding could drive some people to emigrate to relatively "safer" territory in the "new world"..
I'm sure there is plenty of other information out there that is far better and more complete, for a price...
This was available on the 'net, and it was free...
The author freely admits that the information is incomplete, and will probably require massive editing, correction, etc., in the future..
It is still one of the few sites I found with maps for the historical period that bore some resemblance to the sea-level map that blam posted..
The additional info was a "plus" in my opinion..
Agreed, once I dug deeper into the credits and citations. It's just taken too many years of chipping away at the "conventional wisdom" and "unassailable facts" to get some real science investigating the continental shelf and rolling back the clock another 50K years.
Am I reading that they are looking for SALT MINES underwater?
Wouldn't the salt disolve back into the sea water?
This sounds fishy to me.
No..
This is rock salt, or halite..
It has been compressed and heated by geologic forces until it has crystallized, become plastic and flowed like a liquid under pressure, then cooled..
Rock salt in these domes has to be blasted and drilled just like any rock or mineral..
There are miles deep salt layers on the bottom of the Mediterranean which has completely dried out 40+ times. The last time it was completely dry was 5 million years ago.
Now, I suspect that it (The Mediterranean) was blocked from the world's oceans during some parts of the last Ice Age and may have been seperated into a number of sections and dessicated to very low water levels in those sections....the same may have happened in the Gulf Of Mexico.
Thanks.
The discovery by CRICHTON E M MILLER is an absolute trip. The guy figured out that the cross, in particular the cross as depicted by the celtics, is in fact a highly accurate navigational device. The device makes navigation to the new world a cake walk. I for one cannot beleive that this highly sophisticated, yet simple, navigational/surveying instrument has been right in front of our very eyes for millenium. If only the Greeks and other civilization had realized what the cross really depicted. Below is a summary of a book the guy wrote.
This artifact is capable of measuring all angles possible and coupled with sufficient astronomical knowledge it reveals all the mysteries of the ancients, how they kept time and measured the stars, sun, moon, planets and sailed the oceans of the world.
But it goes further than that, exposing the Ancient’s fundamental spirituality and understanding of the world, nature and the universe.
Crichton has discovered and published this rich source of understanding in his book “The Golden Thread of Time” ISBN 0-9541639-0-7.
Many of these revelations have never been seen by the public before and are a must for those who seek truth and understanding.
Crichton Miller applied for a patent on the cross and plumb line in 1998 and the patent was finally granted in November 2000 as an astronomical, surveying and navigational instrument by The British Patent Office.
The result of this patent is the instrument you see below, as you can see it is a faithful representation of the Celtic cross in (Figure 1).
Figure 3
This resurrected version of the cross is made so that modern people may understand it and compare it with the cross (in figure 1) or with any Celtic cross in any part of the world. The working cross is marked in degrees round the edge and the wheel spins freely on a hub. The cross arms are perforated with viewing holes to allow the observer to read the angles and the bottom of the wheel is weighted so that it will always point to the center of the earth.
The scale around the outer edge of the wheel runs from 0 degrees at the bottom to 90 degrees clockwise and anti clockwise so that horizontal measurements can be taken in any direction through the viewing holes.
You can see the advantages of this instrument immediately when you look at the photograph below of an observer measuring the angle of the sun as it rises in the east at dawn. As the world spins round, the sun appears to rise from the horizon and its angle of ascent may be read from the scale directly.
This angle changes, as the season’s progress throughout the year and time and place may be determined from the results of observing stars, planets and constellations
Figure 4
Crichton considers himself fortunate to have discovered the gift of the cross to pass on to his fellow man. The cross should be completely understood by as many as possible, for it was the foundation of the very roots of ancient Civilization, wisdom and understanding. Crichton believes that, in these current, dangerous and confused times, we could do well trying to understand the deeper knowledge of our ancestors and apply some of it to our present world.
Crichton’s website www.crichtonmiller.com
FYI: something that gets missed also.. 10-50K years of drift between NA and Europe needs to be subtracted. (as little as 2" to as much as 50"/year)
I've even heard of these being sighted off the coast of NH... during exceptionally low-tides.
More likely the lower sea level is the enabler here..
Most of the continental shelf would be dry land, extending the coast by several hundred miles..
On both the American side and the European side..
The combined distances could reduce the trans oceanic distance by as much as 1000 miles..
Add to that the possibility that seasonal winds blew from europe to america, and you have a viable scenario..
Wow, I hadn't realized that such "anomalies" in the coastal finds had been handed over to modern-day tribes. Given the way those five Indian tribes claimed to be heirs of that anomaly known as Kennewick Man, and thus demanded the remains, I can see how other groups want to cover up anything that doesn't fit traditional theory.
It's certainly a tragedy how Indians as a whole were massacred, abused, and herded onto reservations. Unfortunately, many folks tend to be ignorant or dismissive of their history... But this does not mean that their modern counterparts should be so anti-science and anti-research. It ultimately hurts their cause.
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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Note: this topic is from November 7, 2006.Thanks FLOutdoorsman.
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