Harebrained Hypotheses Prove Invaluable To Scientific Debate

The Columbus Dispatch ^ | 12-19-2006 | Bradley T Lepper

[blam]

Harebrained hypotheses prove invaluable to scientific debate

Tuesday, December 19, 2006
BRADLEY T. LEPPER

Archaeologist Richard Michael Gramly, in the current issue of Ohio Archaeologist, offers a startling explanation for the rise of the Hopewell culture in Ohio and neighboring regions 2,000 years ago.

Archaeologists defined the Hopewell culture predominantly on the basis of gigantic earthen enclosures, such as the Great Circle and Octagon Earthworks preserved at Newark, as well as dazzling works of art crafted from materials, such as mica and obsidian, brought from distant lands.

For Gramly, this remarkable florescence of art and architecture was the result of the extravagant largesse of uberrich Hopewellian drug lords, equivalent to the drug cartels that supported the economy of Colombia for many years in the 1980s and ’90s.

The notorious Emilio Escobar, for example, paid for many large-scale civic projects, such as sports stadiums and hospitals. But, instead of cocaine, the Hopewell kingpins supposedly acquired their wealth from controlling the distribution of tobacco in eastern North America.

Native tobacco certainly was a potent drug, which the Hopewell grew in their gardens and smoked in their elaborately carved pipes.

Personally, however, I see no evidence to support Gramly’s proposition, and I think it is about as bizarre as the notion that because wine is used in Holy Communion, the architectural and artistic splendor of the Vatican was bankrolled by early Christian moonshiners. Nevertheless, I think there is value in such seemingly outrageous ideas.

In 1926, Harvard University’s W.M. Davis published a paper in the journal Science titled, "The Value of Outrageous Geological Hypotheses." Davis argued that when a discipline, which in his case was geology, got too stodgy and conservative, it was in danger of "theoretical stagnation."

Science sometimes needs wild and seemingly harebrained ideas to shake things up and get people thinking outside the box. Davis wrote, "We may be pretty sure that the advances yet to be made in geology will be at first regarded as outrages upon the accumulated convictions of today, which we are too prone to regard as geologically sacred."

I agree with Davis and think his insights are just as applicable to archaeology as they are to geology. Gramly’s outrageous hypothesis can serve a useful purpose and should not be dismissed as "impossible" or "absurd."

Instead, it should provoke discussion about why the idea is wrong and which alternative explanations might be better. Vigorous, but still respectful, debate enlivens our understanding of the data and interpretations.

Bradley T. Lepper is curator of archaeology at the Ohio Historical Society.

[RightWhale]

Unlikely. There may have been trade in such substances such as the evidence of such substances in Egyptian mummies shows, but there was probably not much by way of law, especially international law, and warlords based on this would not have gone far economically.

[Dr.Deth]

Nah, it's really because they were from Atlantis. </sarcasm>

[Coyoteman]

Good post.

Ping in case any good discussion develops.

[blam]

"There may have been trade in such substances such as the evidence of such substances in Egyptian mummies shows, but there was probably not much by way of law, especially international law, and warlords based on this would not have gone far economically."

I think it was FReeper Fedora and I that have already discussed a possible drug trading route from S America across Siberia and on into the Middle East. Harebrained? Probably. (It was those red-headed guys)

[Redcloak]

I guess that every Brain needs his Pinky.

[blam]

Early Drug Runners?

Siberian Graveyard's Secret (More Red Heads)

"The discovery adds to the evidence that Siberia was not an isolated wasteland but a crossroads of international trade and cultural diversity, Natalia Fedorova of the Ural branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences said in an interview in her office in this central Russian city. Among the artifacts discovered at the site were bronze bowls from Persia, dated by style from the 10th or 11th century."

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Early Drug Runners?

How about Viking traders.

[blam]

"How about Viking traders."

Could be. May be these people were the Southern anchor of the drug route, huh?

Kuelap - The Machu Picchu Of Northern Peru (Chachapoyas - White, blonde haired people)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Interesting article. European pre indian Americans?

Archaeologists always seem to posit hundreds of thousands of years for man to spread around the globe. I would think decades or centuries is more like it. We get around.

[Popocatapetl]

Actually, this can be looked at from a purely economics-logistics point of view, to determine what validity it might have.

That is, most every developing society, from Europe to Asia, has specialized cities that harvested, mined, or otherwise produced some valuable substance. And they became wealthy, influential and powerful by doing so.

But the only way they could keep this power was both by controlling the market, and by keeping and extending active trade routes to those who wanted, or could want, their products. Markets also overlapped and could become quite complex.

Even the slave trade in the US could be looked at this way.

Boats carrying codfish and rum left New England and picked up rice on credit in Charleston. They traded the codfish and rice in Haiti for molasses, a byproduct of their sugar manufacture, harvested by slaves.

The rum was taken to West Africa to trade for slaves, who were then shipped to Havana and sold for cash, Spanish silver. On the way back up the coast, more slaves were sold in Charleston to pay off the rice debt.

Finally, the molasses and the cash went back to New England, where the molasses would be distilled into rum in Medford.

But you need to see the entire system to know that it was really managed from, and most profits from slavery went to, New England.

Now in North America a thousand years ago, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico was much like Chicago is today, a central hub to trade and a banking center. The great trade route went all the way from New England to South America, and the currency of the time, in lieu of trade goods, at least in the western region, was semi-precious turquoise chips.

So what was the prized commodity of the time? The product that drove the rest of the market?

[blam]

" European pre indian Americans?"

Maybe?

Vintage Skulls

[blam]

"The great trade route went all the way from New England to South America, and the currency of the time, in lieu of trade goods, at least in the western region, was semi-precious turquoise chips."

Ironically, most of the turquoise used to make 'native' jewelry in the SW today is imported from Australia.

[Fedora]

LOL! Yes, I recall discussing the red-headed mummies' "Siberian Connection" a while back :-)

[Coyoteman]

Archaeologists always seem to posit hundreds of thousands of years for man to spread around the globe. I would think decades or centuries is more like it. We get around.

Travel that quickly, over long distances was probably rare.

One possible exception is the early coastal migration now being posited for the west coasts of North and South America.

Watercraft, traveling with the current and prevailing winds, indeed could have made that journey in a short time.

When the Spanish were trying to colonize California, their sailing ships often left from San Blas. It frequently took months to reach California, and many ships never did. At least one ship was never heard from again.

But when they gave up trying to reach California and turned south, they could be back at San Blas in just a few days--traveling with the winds and currents.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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