Posted on 06/15/2003 9:18:19 PM PDT by blam
'First Americans were Australian'
This is the face of the first known American, Lucia
The first Americans were descended from Australian aborigines, according to evidence in a new BBC documentary.
The skulls suggest faces like those of Australian aborigines
The programme, Ancient Voices, shows that the dimensions of prehistoric skulls found in Brazil match those of the aboriginal peoples of Australia and Melanesia. Other evidence suggests that these first Americans were later massacred by invaders from Asia.
Until now, native Americans were believed to have descended from Asian ancestors who arrived over a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska and then migrated across the whole of north and south America. The land bridge was formed 11,000 years ago during the ice age, when sea level dropped.
How rock art suggests a violent end for the "Australian" Americans However, the new evidence shows that these people did not arrive in an empty wilderness. Stone tools and charcoal from the site in Brazil show evidence of human habitation as long ago as 50,000 years.
The site is at Serra Da Capivara in remote northeast Brazil. This area is now inhabited by the descendants of European settlers and African slaves who arrived just 500 years ago.
But cave paintings found here provided the first clue to the existence of a much older people.
The costumes and rituals shown in rock art survived in Terra del Fuego
Images of giant armadillos, which died out before the last ice age, show the artists who drew them lived before even the natives who greeted the Europeans.
These Asian people have facial features described as mongoloid. However, skulls dug from a depth equivalent to 9,000 to 12,000 years ago are very different.
Walter Neves, an archaeologist from the University of Sao Paolo, has taken extensive skull measurements from dozens of skulls, including the oldest, a young woman who has been named Lucia.
"The measurements show that Lucia was anything but mongoloid," he says.
Walter Neves has measured hundreds of skulls
The next step was to reconstruct a face from Lucia's skull. First, a CAT scan of the skull was done, to allow an accurate working model to be made.
Then a forensic artist, Richard Neave from the University of Manchester, UK, created a face for Lucia. The result was surprising: "It has all the features of a negroid face," says Dr Neave.
Lucia's skull is 12,000 years old
The skull dimensions and facial features match most closely the native people of Australia and Melanesia. These people date back to about 60,000 years, and were themselves descended from the first humans, who left Africa about 100,000 years ago.
But how could the early Australians have travelled more than 13,500 kilometres (8,450 miles) at that time? The answer comes from more cave paintings, this time from the Kimberley, a region at the northern tip of Western Australia.
Here, Grahame Walsh, an expert on Australian rock art, found the oldest painting of a boat anywhere in the world. The style of the art means it is at least 17,000 years old, but it could be up to 50,000 years old.
And the crucial detail is the high prow of the boat. This would have been unnecessary for boats used in calm, inland waters. The design suggests it was used on the open ocean.
Fantastic voyage
Archaeologists speculate that such an incredible sea voyage, from Australia to Brazil, would not have been undertaken knowingly but by accident.
Just three years ago, five African fishermen were caught in a storm and a few weeks later were washed up on the shores of South America. Two of the fishermen died, but three made it alive.
Walter Neves says the negroid people disappear 7,000 years ago But if the first Americans had drifted from Australia, where are their descendants now? Again, the skulls suggest an answer.
The shape of the skulls changes between 9,000 and 7,000 years ago from being exclusively negroid to exclusively mongoloid. Combined with rock art evidence of increasing violence at this time, it appears that the mongoloid people from the north invaded and wiped out the original Americans.
Fuegean Cristina Calderon may be one of the few surviving descendants of the first Americans
The only evidence of any survivors comes from Terra del Fuego, the islands at the remotest southern tip of South America.
The pre-European Fuegeans, who lived stone age-style lives until this century, show hybrid skull features which could have resulted from intermarrying between mongoloid and negroid peoples. Their rituals and traditions also bear some resemblance to the ancient rock art in Brazil.
The identity of the first Americans is an emotive and controversial question. But the evidence from Brazil, and a handful of people who still live at the very tip of South America, suggests that the Americas have been home to a greater diversity of humans than previously thought - and for much longer.
Sorry, I can't remember his dates it was so many years ago that I read his book(s).
Professor Mike Baillie in his book Exodus To Arthur does some similar work but has a lot of supporting data that was unavailable to Velikovsky. Cosmic Winter by astronomers Clube and Napier is also very good.
Baillie said that Velikovsky's big mistake was trying to hard to explain everything.
Don't know.
I wonder how Mungo Man fits into this all?
Don't know.
I wonder how Mungo Man fits into this all?
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In suburban Maryland, just outide DC, there are lots of Mexican immigrants, and some of them look JUST LIKE the Olmec statues. The resemblance is quite striking.
The first Americans were the men who signed the Declaration of Independence.
I've been to Australia, New Guinea, and a number of the islands that make up Melanasia. As you go farther east, the inhabitants change from very dark Melanasians (aboriginals) into lighter Polynesians. However, there is no line where it is obvious, only a gradual change in form and hue. As far as culture goes, the Polynesian culture and Melanasian culture also melds from one to another. In some cases, they are identical in such things as art, canoe types, and navigation/settlement of their islands. So it correct to say that Aboriginals not only were "like" the Polynesians, but were the Polynesians.
Did you know that the Lombok Straits between Bali and Lombok (both in the country of Indonesia) separate the Indo-Malayan realm from the Austro-Malayan realm?
Yes, you are correct! That is known as Wallace's Line, named after the British naturalist who first noticed that. There was a thread on the "Hobbit" people discovered earlier this year on Celebes (Sulawesi) earlier this year.
Thanks for the ping to an old thread. One thing I find interesting about this is that migration from Australia to the Americas could plausibly take place indirectly via a northward migration towrards the Japan Current, which would result in a migratory pattern leading down the California coastline towards Latin America. Theoretically it seems direct migration via the West Wind Drift might also be possible, though I'm not sure how the logistics of that would work in terms of weather, since this route leads near Antarctic waters (but then who knows if the temperature in that region was the same then as now?).
is that because it appears that the Eqyptions had a couple of extended periods of their own "Dark Ages" where there are few records - and thus missing kings?
I've heard similar things in regards to "12".
Great tagline.
One reason for the king list problem is that even the original (by Manetho, which exists only as copies in other ancient writers) was made very late in pharaonic times.
Another reason is that the list was itself a political document.
Still another reason is that it was based on the New Kingdom inscription (found even today in a temple of Seti, which was completed by his son, Ramses / Ramesses II), which wasn't necessarily well understood by Manetho.
Still another reason is that the inscription was also a political document.
Of course, the main reason is, the Exodus didn't take place during the New Kingdom. :')
'The pre-European Fuegeans, who lived stone age-style lives until this century, show hybrid skull features which could have resulted from intermarrying between mongoloid and negroid peoples. Their rituals and traditions also bear some resemblance to the ancient rock art in Brazil.
'
iwould assume dna studies might ofer some help in this. surprised not done already.
"It just that the Aboriginees sailing to Brazil 12,000 years ago and wind up as a not so technological society, is a stretch. If the Olmecs, Aztecs, Incas, Mayans, Anasazi, etc. etc. are decendents of Aboriginal Australians, would it not make sense that Aboriginals be a little more sophisticated than their history suggest??? "
where on earth is anyone claiming the INDIAN civilizations you name are anything but Indian aka mongoloid?
LOL - For your enjoyment:
WINE EXPERT:
A lot of people in this country pooh-pooh Australian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Australian wines appeal not only to the Australian palate but also to the cognoscenti of Great Britain.
Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavoured Burgundy, whilst a good Sydney Syrup can rank with any of the world's best sugary wines.
Château Blue, too, has won many prizes; not least for its taste, and its lingering afterburn.
Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favourably to a Welsh claret, whilst the Australian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1970 Coq du Rod Laver, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: 8 bottles of this and you're really finished. At the opening of the Sydney Bridge Club, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half an hour.
Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.
Another good fighting wine is Melbourne Old-and-Yellow, which is particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat.
Quite the reverse is true of Château Chunder, which is an appellation contrôlée, specially grown for those keen on regurgitation; a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends.
Real emetic fans will also go for a Hobart Muddy, and a prize winning Cuivre Reserve Château Bottled Nuit San Wogga Wogga, which has a bouquet like an aborigine's armpit.
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