ANCIENT UNDERSEA WALLS DISCOVERED OFF PENGHU (TAIWAN) COAST

The Taipei Times ^ | 11/26/02 | Melody Chen, Staff Writer

[goody2shooz]

Details about an undersea site reportedly containing ancient city walls more than 10,000 years old will soon be unveiled as the government announced its support for an exploratory project yesterday.

Huang Yung-chuan, deputy director of the National Museum of History, announced the project in a press conference.

The site, located between Hsichi island and Tungchi island, which belong to Penghu County, has attracted the attention of a group of experienced divers since August because of local legend regarding an undersea temple.

"After numerous attempts, we finally discovered the stone walls at the northeast side of Tungchi island at the end of September," said Steve Shieh chairman of the Chinese Dolphin Diving Club.

"These stone walls are on average 1m high and 50cm wide. They are about 100m long. Our water sonar date revealed there are about five such stone walls at the site," said Shieh.

The Public Television Service Foundation (PTSF) deployed a team to the archeological site to shoot film of the walls.

"When I was examining the stone walls, I found heaps of coral pieces and pebbles at the leeward sides of the walls. These could hardly be natural accumulations," said Ke Chin-yuan, an editor from PTSF.

Huang said the accumulation of coral pieces and pebbles is only one piece of evidence proving the stone walls may have been built by humans.

"The walls are very straight and only 50cm wide. It is extremely rare for natural forces to form such straight and thin walls," Huang said.

Huang said these walls could even have been built about 10,000 years ago.

Tian Wen-miin, associated professor from the National Sun Yat-sen University's department of marine environment, presented three sonar graphs in the press conference.

"These sonar graphs show the seabed around the site is very even. However, at near the stone walls there are many regular protrusions that look like alleys, staircases, walls and stages," Tian said.

[goody2shooz]

More evidence for the possibility of sophisticated civilizations existing prior to the end of the Ice Age.

[goody2shooz]

ping

[patriciaruth]

I've been following news on these archeology finds around the world and wondering if the demise of that civilization was due to the rise of the oceans due to global warming from the precession cycle of the Earth's axial tilt and changes in Earth's orbit OR some other change, like shift in magnetic polarity.

Please ping me if you see anything else. I have an article on precession on my profile page.

[Pliney the younger]

The discovery channel did a report on a similar finding in Japan but it was their opinion that those walls were a natural result of the spontaneous breakdown of stratified layers of rock. Which were broken off by wave action and fell on top of one another resembling walls. They were also first felt to be a temple. The photos they showed sound a lot like these which were just discovered.

[FreePaul]

More evidence for the possibility of sophisticated civilizations existing prior to the end of the Ice Age.

Any day now they will find the remains of an SUV parked against one of those walls. That had to be the cause of the Global Warming that ended the Ice Age.

[eno_]

Unless there was some unique event that precipitated the rise of civilization, it would be odd, indeed, for the human species to start behaving differntly only in the past 5000 years.

[patriciaruth]

Aw, sorry to hear it was a natural phenom in Japan. My husband will be sorry, too. It's always more fun to think about lost civilizations and Europa than face boring reality.

[patriciaruth]

Wasn't the discovery of agriculture around 5000 years ago?

[4Freedom]

Or, was that the most recent re-discovery? ;^)

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

Unless there was some unique event that precipitated the rise of civilization, it would be odd, indeed, for the human species to start behaving differntly only in the past 5000 years.

This is a very strange statement with which i strongly disagree.

You are correct that our ancestors 100,000 years ago were equally capable of all the complex tasks that we do today, but they did not do it. I assume this is why you made this statement.

However, over the many thousands of years that man lived in small groups as nomadic hunter-gatherers, gradually new ideas, words ways of manipulating nature were picked up and adopted. Sometime between 5-10,000 years ago a critical mass was reached. There was enough knowledge present that the mastery of agriculture sparked a situation in which greater food production and specialization got the ball rolling toward the civilization where we now find ourselves.

Within our own period of civilization we have had stagnant ages followed by eras of rapid change. For the most part, however, expierience and a building up of knowledge and history have only accelerated the process. The changes since the industrial revolution (about 300 years) have been greater than the entire preceeding period of human history.

One could look at that period and say something dramatic must have happened to cause it. But, the reality is that enough knowledge graudal knowledge, combined with one or two innovative inventions sparked it. So we needn't look to climate change or aliens to answer why certain things happened in human histroy. It is just a process by which a creative, intelligent species is growing and maturing - guided by the hand of God.

[DAnconia55]

bump...

[blam]

Thanks for the ping. I posted this three days ago.

[blam]

"Wasn't the discovery of agriculture around 5000 years ago?"

Rainforest Researchers Hit Paydirt (Farming 11K Years Ago In South America)

[vannrox]

"...These sonar graphs show the seabed around the site is very even. However, at near the stone walls there are many regular protrusions that look like alleys, staircases, walls and stages..." Tian said.

Cool. Thanx for the ping. BTTT

[eno_]

For one, I'm no expert, and, for another, if there was an advanced civilization predating the past handful of millennia, one would think SOME trace of it would have been discovered. Still, I find it strange that a genetically modern human could have straggled around in small groups for 100s of millennia without either going extinct or developing written language, some technology, agriculture, and something recognizable as civilization.

[goody2shooz]

I'm so sorry! I did a title search and it didn't appear. We're supposed to post that way.

[blam]

"I'm so sorry! I did a title search and it didn't appear. We're supposed to post that way."

No problem. It happens to me too.

[SunkenCiv]

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