Posted on 11/26/2002 7:57:18 AM PST by blam
Archaeologists announce discovery of underwater man-made wall
2002/11/26
The China Post staff
Underwater archaeologists yesterday announced the discovery of a man-made wall submerged under the waters of the Pescadores Islands that could be at least six and seven thousand years old.
Steve Shieh, the head of the planning committee for the Taiwan Underwater Archaeology Institute, said the wall was discovered to the northwest of Tong-chi Island in the Pescadores towards the end of September.
The stone wall, with an average height of one meter and a width of 50 centimeters, covers a distance of over 100 meters, Hsieh said.
The wall ran along the ocean floor at depths of between 25 and 30 meters, he added.
Shieh said that divers found several places along the wall where holes were apparently filled up with pebbles, possibly in an attempt to block winds.(Maybe to keep out the rising water?)
The wall was located by a team of divers working in cooperation with the National Museum of History and the Department of Environmental Sciences at the National Sun Yat-sen University.
In August, researchers scanning waters in the area with sonar discovered what appeared to be the remnants of four to five man-made walls running along the bottom of the sea.
Please see WALL on page(I could not find a map, if you can, please post it.)
Despite difficult diving conditions, Shieh said that a team of more than ten specialists was able to ascertain the positions of at least three of the wall sections.
The proximity of the wall to a similar structure found in 1976 suggests that it may be further evidence of a pre-historical civilization.
A three meter high underwater wall was discovered by amateur divers in waters off the nearby Hu-ching (Tiger Well) Island.
British archaeologists examined the find and proclaimed that the wall was probably made between 7,000 and 12,000 years ago.
The current find stands a mere 100 meters from the site of that discovery.
Six years ago, evidence of a sunken city in the area was found when amateur divers found the remains of what appear to be city walls taking the shape of a cross on the ocean floor.
Further examination suggested the ruins were made between seven and ten thousand years ago as well, although Japanese researchers put the walls construction at between 10,000 and 80,000 years ago.
Taken together, the discoveries have helped to overturn the established notion that Taiwan's earliest aboriginal inhabitants made their way here from mainland China some 6,000 years ago.(There goes the giant hynea theory, huh?)
The underwater finds are part of a growing body of evidence suggesting the existence of civilizations older than anything previously imagined.(suprise, suprise, suprise--Gomer Pyle voice)
On this theory, entire cities ended up underwater after sea levels rose towards the end of the last Ice Age, a date cited by Plato as being some 9,600 years ago.
One of the most dramatic examples of evidence of civilizations found on ocean beds has been megalithic structures off the coast of Yonaguni-jima in Japan that have been interpreted in some circles as being built for sacrificial rites. According to Shieh, a similar structure has been located off of the shores of Taiwan's Pingtung County .
Shieh said that he and his association have plans to explore that location as well as what appears to be a man-made path on the ocean floor off of Taitung County sometime next year.
Yup. That was Lake Agassiz that covered most of Canada. It was responible for the Younger-Dryas period when it 'broke through' to the Lawerence Seaway.
That is the big question. If the wall is submerged now it can at least be dated to when it was last above water, making some assumptions. But inorganic ruins by themselves would have to be dated by association with other objects and materials. If they find a piece of wood, there is the chance of using dendrochronology, a powerful new tool.
I just saw an hour special on this site the other night. Geologist Robert Schott said that he thinks it's a natural formation, he did say that humans may have been present at the site before it was covered with water, but, they did not build it. I trust his judgement. He's the geologist that started the controversy about the age of the Sphinx being 9-10,000 years old.
Yup. I think he is the one who brought the geologist Schott into the Sphinx fray.
Concrete can set underwater, it's a chemical reaction. Also, welding can be done underwater. There doesn't seem to be much rebar from 10,000 years ago, not that it rusted away, it just appears steel wasn't used much back then.
Anticipating similar confusion 10,000 years from now, I'm leaving sticky-notes on all the stuff at my house to help the future archaeologists identify it when they dig it up. If they're lucky, maybe the 10 cent deposit on bottles and cans will have increased in that time also.......
Yep, and History can be a strange mixture of Science (honest Archeology, if you are lucky), Social "Science" (Anthropology, masquerading as a biological science), Political "Science" (raw hidden political agenda) and Theology (the dead weight of Culture & Tradition).
Any one of them can screw up the result called "History". And in the case of finding The Lost Tribes of Israel that is certainly true.
Portland Cement sets under water, the Romans invented it. Mortar and concrete are mixtures of Portland and aggregate.
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.