Posted on 05/31/2008 12:25:17 PM PDT by blam
Footprints in the ash
By Sid Perkins
May 29th, 2008
Humans may have been walking around what is now central Mexico 40,000 years ago
HUMAN PRINTS
Footprints (one left) left in volcanic ash that fell in central Mexico’s Valsequillo Basin about 40,000 years could be evidence that humans have inhabited the Americas far longer than previously confirmed. Laser scans of the prints (right) confirm their human origins, the researchers report today at the American Geophysical Union meeting.
Footprints left in volcanic ash that fell in central Mexico’s Valsequillo Basin about 40,000 years ago are evidence that humans have inhabited the Americas far longer than previously confirmed, a new study suggests.
Analyses of three-dimensional laser scans of the imprints (example at right) confirm their human origin, says Silvia Gonzalez, a geoarchaeologist at Liverpool John Moores University in England.
Previous finds of human remains elsewhere in the region couldn’t be precisely dated because they were found in layers of mixed gravels that probably incorporated materials of many different ages.
However, a new analysis of the coarse-grained, print-ridden volcanic ash — which would have hardened quickly after it fell, says Gonzalez — strongly suggest the material fell around 40,000 years ago, she and her colleagues reported today in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Excavations at several sites have suggested that humans have inhabited the Western Hemisphere for at least 20,000 years, but results suggesting dates of occupation before 14,000 years ago typically haven’t been confirmed and remain controversial.
Nevertheless, says Gonzalez, recent excavations at a site in Baja California have unearthed a rock shelter containing heaps of shells that have been carbon-dated as 44,000 years old, a finding that bolsters the notion that people lived throughout the region about 40 millennia ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Forgive my grammar errors there, please. I can botch it when I take excessive time to finish a sentence I’m working on.
I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it is what it is.
“”Actually it is not until Christ that mankind advances - we were still cave dwelling at 0 AD.””
“Really? “
Yes, the 2000 years BC cant hold a light to the 2000 years AD.
You never noticed that?
The species Equus evolved in the Americas, died out here around 8,000-10,000 years ago. Obviously, early Equines did not need boats to cross over into Asia, but they did. They were eventually domesticated by humans around 5000 years ago. They came full circle when they arrived back in the Americas with Christopher Columbus in 1492.
Human beings have always been creative, insightful and knowledgeable about how to manipulate the natural world to their benefit.
I would pay money to see anyone attempt it today, using nothing that wasn't available 40,000 years ago.
Haven't you ever heard of Thor Heyerdahl? In 1947, in order to test his theory about how Polynesia and the Hawaiian Islands may have been populated, Heyerdahl built a replica of an aboriginal balsa raft (named the "Kon-Tiki") using only materials available to ancient Peruvians. Heyerdahl and five companions left Callio, Peru and crossed 4300 miles in 101 days to reach the Raroia atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago. Despite skepticisim, the seaworthiness of the aboriginal raft was thus proven and showed that the ancient Peruvians could have reached Polynesia in this manner.
Of course I have. But I'm not sure it's relevant to 40,000 years ago or 15,000 years ago, and the direction is exactly opposite of where the migration would have had to come from.
You're not going to be able to make a "Kon-Tiki" argument for any pollination of humans into South America. Or maybe you can.
I don't care who is right or wrong. I want to know what happened.
By the way, the horse thing has always puzzled me.
~~~~~~~~
You are still in a mental and spiritual "cave".
Are we to believe that the walls of Jerusalem were built around "caves" -- and that Solomon's temple was a "cave"?
Study and understand the Bible before you make such dumb--- statements!!!
Your ignorance besmirches your claim to belief. And it shames me to see you claim that you worship the same Creator and Savior that I do.
Self-imposed ignorance is not the equivalent of faith!
“Are we to believe that the walls of Jerusalem were built around “caves” — and that Solomon’s temple was a “cave”? “
All this nonsense about ID vs evolution is a lot of smoke as it is the advent of Christ that brings intelligence.
The 2000 years before Christ can be characterized as small piles of rough rocks evolving into large piles of prettier rocks.
The 2000 years AD is from the pretty rocks to men on the moon, internet, etc.
How dare you deny the obivious?
The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes:
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks Blam. |
||
|
· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
“So we’re still looking at the Bering Crossing, but by canoe instead of walking.”
That part confuses me. If it was an ice age harsh enough to lower the sea level enough to expose a land bridge across the Bering, then the ice should have extended down over that bridge as well, shouldn’t it?
A several thousand mile journey across ice as barren and hostile as a glacier doesn’t seem all that survivable.
“Feasible, but incredibly remarkable for 40,000 years ago.”
The tech available 200 years ago to the Aleuts and arctic area indigs could well be the same general level of tech from that period. The tools required for kayak construction didn’t rely on iron or metals. Bone, hide, and wood.
“It would have failed far more often than it would have succeeded.”
Most things do. Didn’t stop man from learning how to fly either.
Of course, I’m just guessing. But the sea born coast hopping route does seem to have all the pluses it needs.
Your division of human history in these two parts seems to be quite arbitrary. One could make a stronger case for a pre- steam-engine and post-steam-engine classification...
ping
“Your division of human history in these two parts seems to be quite arbitrary. “
Really?
What scientific wonders were discovered before Christ? What feats of engineering?
The Pyramids? Not really, as there were many previous “piles of rocks” that collapsed and they kind of bungled into doing a proper pile of rocks.
The elan vital of Christianity is that God gave Light to Man and we are no longer blindly following a set of rules
We now have the Holy Trinity and the Holy Ghost in each of us provides for free will and an aspiration to heavenly perfections.
That is what explains the explosion in cognitive function in the last 2000 years.
Who needs ID when you have IC (Intelligent Christ).
How dare you deny the Old Testament?
(Where in the Scriptures is the doctrine of "obivious" found?)
And when were the marvels of Roman and Greek architecture - and engineering - surpassed by later European endeavors? The first seven, eight centuries after Christ look quite pitiful in this regard... What was the great invention of the medieval people? The wheel-barrow... While Christians were expecting the immediate return of Jesus Christ in the first centuries, there was no impetus to improve the living conditions here on earth.
And when were the marvels of Roman and Greek architecture - and engineering - surpassed by later European endeavors? The first seven, eight centuries after Christ look quite pitiful in this regard... What was the great invention of the medieval people? The wheel-barrow... While Christians were expecting the immediate return of Jesus Christ in the first centuries, there was no impetus to improve the living conditions here on earth.
I don't think so. The theory is that the land bridge across the Bering Sea approximately 13,000 years ago was caused by declining sea levels due to glaciation on the continents.
This was the time when glaciers were carving Yosemite Valley, for example.
There might well have been some snow on the Bering Sea landbridge, but not a whole lot as snowfall has always been light in that area.
The problem is that the land bridge was definitely not there 40,000 years ago, so any migration to the Americas would have to have been by boat or raft, a difficult and dangerous proposition at best.
Somebody apparently made it, though, if the evidence from Mexico is credible.
However, since we haven't found much evidence, if any, of a human presence between the period of 13,000 years ago and this evidence of 40,000 years ago, it is suggestive that whoever made that earlier passage was unable to maintain a population.
Whoever made this footprint in the ash might well have ended up as supper for a saber-toothed cat.
The people are not confused. The data is confused. There are as many hypotheses as dig coordinators, and the origin or purpose of the Crystal Skull remains unknown.
I tend not to use it very much. I see too many problems with relic obsidian (old pieces being reused).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
