Posted on 07/28/2007 6:00:30 PM PDT by blam
1m-years-old footprints found at Margalla Hills
By Sher Baz Khan
ISLAMABAD, July 27: In what appears to be a major discovery, archaeologists have found two over one million years old human footprints preserved on a sandstone at the Margalla Hills.
The Indusians Research Cell, which is working under the supervision of world renowned archaeologist and historian Dr Ahmad Hassan Dani of Taxila Institute of Asian Civilisations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, has made the discovery, which is likely to add a new chapter to the archaeological history and heritage of the federal capital and attract visitors.
A footprint of 1 feet is in complete and well preserved form while another is broken from the finger side which is also of the same size in comparative manner. The notable marks of the feet are the clear veins and opposite folded appearance.
“A huge stone on the top of the hill is the secure home of these prints since about over one million years ago,” says A.K. Azad, an archaeologist and head of the project.
Further research may give more clues of the foot marks through anthropological and geophysical methods, he observed.
The recent discovery is the continuity of the Indusian Research Cell’s earlier research about human evolution which previously revealed a fossilised upper jaw from the site of Dhudhumber, foot and hand prints from Attock and Palaeolithic cave from Margalla hills.
Pakistan’s geomorphologic research was conducted to compare with the Alps of Europe during the period of 1930-1939 by a French mission. Since then, lots of other dimensions of the research opened the doors of scientific research in Pakistan as the country provided the glacial sequence, fossilised evidences of Pre-Cambrian to Holocene epochs, earliest evidences of the anthropoid existence, earliest cultural centre at Mehargarh (contemporary of Jericho and Jarmo) and most advanced civilisation of the world (Indus valley).
Indusians Research Cell started the second phase of the project “Post-earthquake Explorations of Human Remains in Margalla Hills” under the supervision of A.K. Azad.
According to Mr Azad the formation of the Margalla Hills goes back to the Miocene epoch. The dominant limestone of the Margalla is also mixed with the sand stone.
“So we can assume that due to availability of the water in ancient times many marks of the zoological as well botanical significance may lead to our objectives,” the young archaeologist hopes.
In 1976, Pakistan opened another chapter of human evolution, which makes case for Asian anthropoid origin from this region.
During the ‘60s and ‘70s, Pilbeam led expeditions to the Siwalik Hills badlands of northern Pakistan, searching for further Ramapithecine remains.
In March 1975 and January 1976 team members made surface recoveries of four bone fragments which fit together to form the most complete mandible recovered yet. The mandible shows that Ramapithecus did not have a parabolic, human like dental arcade, as originally thought, but rather a V-shaped, more apelike arcade. Though the shape of the arcade is not now regarded as one of the more anatomically important characters, Ramapithecus is no longer granted the high status that it once received.
Different scholars have defined the word ‘Potohar’ differently. But, anthropological research marked it, as the grand father of hominid, also known as Punjabicus found from the Potohar region.
So the government of Pakistan had given the name to this specie Potoharmans.
According to Mr Azad, the problem of human evolution is still hanging around that when and where Anthropoid got physical changes from the Apes?
After India, Kenya and China, he says important discovery was from the Potohar region from fossils of the similar species found in 1976 and 1982. The probable dating given to this specie was 20 million years.
“It has provided a missing link, which was spread of 6 million years. So Potoharmans declared as the grand father of hominid, which evolved from the different stages and reached at the Homo sapiens,” he observes.
The stories behind the similar marks are also significant in mythical associations with saints and renowned people i.e. hand prints of the Baba Guru Nanik near Hassanabdal, foot prints of Hazrat Ali in Hyderabad, foot prints of the Guru Padma Sambhava (Second reincarnation of Buddha) in Swat, Adam’s peak of Sri Lanka etc.
“If these are true than we can also claim of the mother Eve’s foot prints from Margalla Hills,” Mr Azad observed.
Because man changes as he sees fit to. Does not mean that the measurements of the Bible are incorrect.
I see the Darwinist moonbats are out in full force today.
Got to go - someone is calling me - and He’s not happy.
If you already knew what you were going to do, why did you even bother to ask me what I thought.
I don't know why you all have the same argument over and over, no-one ever changes their opinion or view, it's like 'Ground-Hog Day' when it gets started.
I've lost a lot of conservative FRiends from FR on both sides of this issue. Seems like such a waste.
Science, by definition, is the process of self-correcting the knowledge base. Such will be the case until man’s mind has completely comprehended the universe.
That might take a while.
Bring lunch.
That has got to be the stupidest comment I've ever heard from a creotard and nearly every creotard comment I've ever seen posted on FR was pretty darn stupid.
And if evolution is real where are the living intermediates now, or are you a believer of Hopeful Monsters.
All false!
All you have to do is open your eyes and google "ring species." Everything you are asking for is shown by several existing ring species. Here is some information:
Ring species provide unusual and valuable situations in which we can observe two species and the intermediate forms connecting them. In a ring species:
- A ring of populations encircles an area of unsuitable habitat.
- At one location in the ring of populations, two distinct forms coexist without interbreeding, and hence are different species.
- Around the rest of the ring, the traits of one of these species change gradually, through intermediate populations, into the traits of the second species.
A ring species, therefore, is a ring of populations in which there is only one place where two distinct species meet. Ernst Mayr called ring species "the perfect demonstration of speciation" because they show a range of intermediate forms between two species. They allow us to use variation in space to infer how changes occurred over time. This approach is especially powerful when we can reconstruct the biogeographical history of a ring species, as has been done in two cases. Source
Is this what you really want?
Because that seems to be just what you are aiming at.
Blam has asked you and others politely on numerous occasions to refrain from posting religion to his threads, yet you ping your creation list, bringing a bunch of anti-science folks to disrupt the discussions. You know better than anyone that once you ping your list, the science part of a thread gets trashed.
Why don't you just stick to the other threads and leave Blam alone? He's about the last of the good, old-time non-controversial posters left here. It will be a real loss if he leaves because of your childish actions.
buffyt wrote: “Well, it is either Creation OR Evolution. Can’t be BOTH.” I gather from your following remarks that your own thinking runs along similar lines.
While I respect this view, I must confess I do not share it. I see no reason whatsoever that evolution might not be a tool that God uses to express His Will WRT His creation.
After all, it seems clear that the creation -- the universe, or cosmos in all its spiritual and physical dimensions -- is involved in a temporal process. If it is, then it can express in one of two ways: either as an instantly “done” and already perfect creation from the very beginning (i.e., there is no distinction to be made between time and eternity on this model), or a creation that is free (under divine law) to develop and change, ultimately to express God’s purpose in creating it. What can change and develop requires time (and space) in which to do so. In a universe capable of change, the “time stretch” between Alpha and Omega can be seen as involving an evolutionary process.
Actually, it seems God gave a dress rehearsal of a perfect creation in the Garden of Eden. But then Adam fell, and took the entire creation down with him into his fallen state. This to me signifies the beginning of the temporal process -- when Adam fell into mortality as the consequence of his rebellion against God, his Father. With this act, which justly earned him banishment from the timeless Eden, he and all his descendents fell under the rule of time. This is God’s Will in action.
Anyhoot, that is my conjecture. Ultimately it is based on the recognition that God gave us four revelations: (1) the Holy Scriptures themselves; (2) the incarnation of the Logos, the Word of the Beginning, the Son of God manifest in the man Jesus the Christ, the revelation of the full presence of Emmanuel, of “God with us,” at once fully and truly God, and fully and truly man; (3) the revelation of resurrected Jesus Christ’s Holy Spirit in our own souls; and (4) the Creation itself, the “book of Nature.”
The glorious thing about these four revelations is that they do not and cannot ever contradict one another. That is because each is a creation of God; and God is Truth.
Not only do they not contradict one another, but each sheds light on each of the others.
Obviously, the only revelation accessible by the methods and tools of science is the “book of Nature.” And I have to say that the big bang/inflationary universe model posited (and increasingly well-documented) by modern-day physics seems perfectly consistent with Genesis 1….
Also I see nothing in Holy Scripture that says evolution is not “true.” But in saying that, I am not speaking of the Darwinian theory, which posits that biology must begin in biology, not in an act of God. I’m using the word “evolution” in its most generic sense: as referring to a process that unfolds in time.
If God chose to work this way, then who among you, Christian brethren, would object?!
May I borrow the term “creotard” sometime? :-)
..."Einstein was very upset about the repeated attempts at by certain parties to use his comment of a 'personal God' as a confirmation of his belief in organized religion"
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expessed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
I think I'll wait for more evidence on this one.
Why? General conservative skepticism? The media's abysmal record of science reporting? Or does Pakistan have a history of exciting discoveries that turn out to be less important than originally claimed?
A Welcome Relief!
I think I'll wait for more evidence on this one.
Why? General conservative skepticism? The media's abysmal record of science reporting? Or does Pakistan have a history of exciting discoveries that turn out to be less important than originally claimed?
The article seems oddly worded, as if its a poor translation. It might equally well be badly written. In either case, the lack of precision is troublesome.
And I usually wait until claims have been kicked around for a while before I trust them much. The peer review process works pretty well, but going directly to the media short-circuits that process.
But the biggest problem is that a couple of footprints is a very small sample. As a counter example, there were some footprints Mary Leakey worked in Africa a couple of decades ago, but in that case there were many footprints, and they were from more than one individual. There was a lot of evidence to work with, and those footprints were studied by a team whose names I recognized as being authorities in the field.
All in all, I think I'll wait for the late returns on the Pakistani finds.
“you’ve woken up the Troglodites, and caused them to declare their own ignorance.”
ROTFLMBO!
Thanks for the ping, “interesting” discussion as usual!
This would be my favorite:
“I want to know God’s thoughts—the rest are details.” — Albert Einstein
and about the six days - “If time didn’t exist -everything would happen at once”
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