British Claim On Boomerang (6,000 Years Old)

News.comau ^ | 5-7-2004 | Paul Mulvey

[blam]

British claim on boomerang

By Paul Mulvey in London
May 7, 2004

A BRITISH historian has claimed to have uncovered the world's oldest evidence of the returning boomerang – in Yorkshire.

Terry Deary says his research indicates a rock carving on Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire is of a four-armed boomerang which dates back as far as 4000BC.

The carving on what is known as the Swastika Stone was first discovered in the 1870s and has long been considered by experts to be a swastika motif which was common in ancient Greek and Roman art.

But Deary believes ancient Britons developed sophisticated boomerangs and the age of the rock, which archaeologists estimate dates back to 3000-4000BC, coincides with the emergence of art in the Yorkshire region.

Deary considers the 10,000-year-old preserved boomerangs found at Wyrie Swamp in South Australia were throwing sticks which did not return.

"I compared the image of the stone from photographs with today's four-bladed boomerangs. The similarity was obvious," Deary said.

"I checked back on the Wyrie Swamp boomerang and it has no aerodynamic qualities. It's a throwing stick.

"Boomerangs come back, throwing sticks don't. Wyrie doesn't have the aerodynamic qualities to come back. So that keeps my bid in the pot.

"My real interest is to challenge the establishment and to stop people saying `if an expert says this, it must be true'.

"I want to stimulate discussion, I'm quite prepared to say I'm wrong.

"But I want to provoke debate, to get people to look at it and get people in Australia to look at it and ask questions."

Deary's claims have been disputed by the West Yorkshire District Archaeologist Gavin Edwards who says the flowing four-pronged carving had always been considered a swastika motif which has also been found in Italy, Sweden and Portugal.

As the only carving of its type in England, Edwards said it was unlikely to be that of a popular weapon.

He also said it was impossible to date rock carvings.

"It is that sort of shape but it's the first I've ever heard of anyone linking it to a boomerang," Edwards said.

"The slightly more extreme ideas tend to come forward when people are dealing with carved rocks.

"There are certain individuals who have set themselves up as being experts. I would not support their interpretations in any shape or form."

He also believed the carving could have been tampered with during the 19th century.

"It seems it is possible it was modified to make it appear more important and unusual," Edward said.

"But it's all guess work. That's the trouble with carved rocks, you just cannot date them.

"There is a lot of speculation and zany ideas which may be right because at this point in time, none of us know for definite what it is really all about."

[blam]

I'll post something on the Swastika Stone.

[blam]

Swastika Stone

Iron Age(?) Rock Carving
Ilkley, West Yorkshire OS Map Ref SE096470

This is a Victorian copy of the original much fainter carving.

Probably the most well known carving on the Moor, the Swastika stone is unusual in that it is thought to date from the Iron Age and so is later than the rest of the Bronze Age rock art in the area. Situated on the edge of Woodhouse Crag with extensive views, there are in fact two Swastika stones here - the carving closest to the footpath is a Victorian copy of the now much fainter original carving just a metre or so beyond it.

The design itself consists of four spiral arms with a cup in the loop of each arm and also one within the outer ring of each arm. There is also a cup in the centre of the design meaning the cups themselves form a 5x5 cross figure. A strange squiggle also emerges from one of the arms. What this design means is unclear, although it is known that in many ancient civilizations the swastika is recognised as a symbol relating to the sun.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Actually it is the first B-49 Flying Wing.
The stone has been at Area 51 where the technology was meticulously copied.
Just ask George Noory.

[farmfriend]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.

[farmfriend]

Looks like that weapon in the movie Krull.

[curmudgeonII]

Boomerangs can last for a long time.
How do you throw one away?

[blam]

"How do you throw one away?"

Have you ever tried throwing a trash can away. The trash guy won't take it.

[jrushing]

The carving on what is known as the Swastika Stone was first discovered in the 1870s



Looks like revolution #9 on the side.

[ClearCase_guy]

That's the trouble with carved rocks, you just cannot date them

Funny. A while ago, a dealer came up with a stone sarcophagus that bore a carving saying it contained the remains of James, the brother of Jesus. Experts immediately began examinign the carvings and said they could determine if the carvings were 2000 years old, or just a more modern hoax.

I guess the ability to date carved rocks comes and goes.

[jrushing]

How do you throw one away?

Never try to catch one. They'll chop your fingers off!

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

[Free Trapper]

A case "could" be made that the carving is an artistic interpretation of a bola.FWIW.

[bayourod]

Two thousand years is a very short time in the Middle East. I've driven streets and slept in houses more than two thousand years old. I'm typing by the light of a lamp (converted water jug)) that's at least that old.

In Damasus I visited the second oldest Mosque in the world. I saw a coffin that they believed contained the head of John the Baptist. A few years ago the Pope traveled there to see it.

[JimSEA]

"There are certain individuals who have set themselves up as being experts. I would not support their interpretations in any shape or form."

Some 40 years ago, in Arizona, I accompanied a lady named Alice Carpenter to Indian ruins in the Oracle, Arizona area as she did salvage work for the U of Arizona. We found a small stone ring that was too small for a digging stick weight or bracelet but too big for a ring. Alice took it to a professor and asked what he thought it was. Without hesitation, the expert said it was a stone ring used in religious rituals where the medicine man would place it on the ground and yell through it to the earth spirits. Very impressive of the expert since any medicine man would have died some 1200 years ago at this site.

Alice was less than impressed by the Professor's explaination. After making sure he wasn't bs'ing her, she too it to an Apache friend of hers who immediatly told her it looked just like a weight for a spindle whorle (sp?) the Apache and Navaho still used to make thread and twine.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

My boomerang won't come back!
My boomerang won't come back!
I've wag'd the thing all over the place,
Practiced till I was blue in the face,
I'm a big disgrace to the Aborigione race,
My Boomerang won't come back!

Anyone remember this old song?

[lizma]

Have you ever tried throwing a trash can away.

LOL! Been there. Now that can be a major ordeal.

[shamusotoole]

"But it's all guess work. That's the trouble with carved rocks, you just cannot date them."

This is an incorrect statement in some instances. Certain minerals oxidize at a known rate. If a stone such as granite has been dressed, i.e., made regular so it can be carved, the weathering in the carved furrows can be compared to the dressed stone. They should be the same as the dressed surface. If carvings are added later, weathering would vary.

In my younger days, I dated some with the intellect of rocks, but they were curved, not carved.

[blam]

" Certain minerals oxidize at a known rate. If a stone such as granite has been dressed, i.e., made regular so it can be carved, the weathering in the carved furrows can be compared to the dressed stone. "

Yup. Oxidation rates of most substances are known and they are constant at certain conditions.

I had a go with the 'curved' substances too.

[blam]

BTW, the rates of oxidation diminishes over time. (The more it odides, the more the oxidation rate slows.)

[tet68]

Obviously this is a stoneage carving of a flexible impeller
used in outboard motors. Simple really, you can see the exhaust port off to one side.