The largest ever genetic study of native South Americans identified a sub-population in Ecuador with an unexpected link to eastern Asia. The study, published in PLOS Genetics, concluded that Asian genes had been introduced into South America sometime after 6,000 years ago ...
But Lepper doesn't believe it. Well, read the article and judge for yourself. A large DNA study isn't good enough evidence for Bradley Lepper, evidently. What kind of evidence do you require, dude?
From The Columbus Dispatch
Archaeology | Studies examine clues of transoceanic contact
Sunday May 19, 2013 8:33 AM
Pottery offers a bonanza of information for archaeologists. It represents a revolution in container technology, and the clay from which it is made provides a canvas with many possibilities for self-expression.As a result, differences and similarities in pottery decorations can offer clues about cultural relationships over space and through time.
Residues on pots reveal important clues to how people used their pottery. An international team of scientists reported last month in the journal Nature the results of chemical analyses of the charred gunk on the surfaces of pottery shards from Jomon period sites in Japan. They determined it was composed mostly of the oily residue from cooking ocean fish.
The Jomon culture was mentioned in other news this month. The largest ever genetic study of native South Americans identified a sub-population in Ecuador with an unexpected link to eastern Asia.The study, published in PLOS Genetics, concluded that Asian genes had been introduced into South America sometime after 6,000 years ago — the same time the Jomon culture was flourishing in Japan.
Back in the 1960s, the renowned Smithsonian archaeologist Betty Meggers argued that similarities between the pottery of the contemporaneous Valdivia culture in Ecuador and Japan’s Jomon culture indicated that Japanese fishermen had “discovered” America about 5,000 years ago.
Few archaeologists took this idea seriously. Gordon McEwan and Bruce Dickson, writing in a 1978 issue of American Antiquity, pointed out significant flaws with the hypothesis. [Such as...]
First of all, Pacific Ocean currents did not provide a direct route from Japan to Ecuador. [So they could not possibly have landed in South America and travelled along the coast? Or landed and travelled on land near the coast?] Second, Jomon dugout canoes were unlikely to have been sufficiently seaworthy to allow a crew to survive an extended voyage across the ocean. Finally, food and fresh water would have been difficult to obtain. [After Kontiki and Kontiki II, are you frigging kidding me?]
Writing in 1980, Meggers expressed frustration that transoceanic contact as an explanation for cultural similarities was dismissed by dogmatic colleagues as “cult archaeology,” and she complained that “no amount of evidence” could convince them. [Guess what - she was right, judging by this dude!]
I can appreciate Meggers’ frustration [no you can't], but although it’s likely that no amount of the same type of evidence that she marshaled in support of her original argument could make a thoroughly convincing case, I believe that most archaeologists could be convinced if compelling new evidence for transpacific contact were uncovered. [And what, precisely, would be compelling enough to you to prove that Meggers was correct in her original instincts, hmmmmm?]
The discovery of an apparent genetic link between eastern Asians and Ecuadoran natives provides intriguing independent support for Meggers’ hypothesis. [Apparent genetic link?] Moreover, the fact that Jomon pottery was used predominantly for cooking seafood suggests that Jomon fishermen would have had little trouble feeding themselves on a long ocean voyage.
Transoceanic contact long has been a popular explanation for cultural similarities, such as the occurrence of pyramids in both Egypt and Mexico. Archaeologists have demonstrated, however, that such similarities are largely superficial and meaningless. When closely examined, Egyptian and Mayan pyramids turn out to be fundamentally different things. [And this is what you accept as conclusive evidence that NO Japanese ever stepped foot in South America during the period in question? Bwwwwwaaaaaahhhhaaaaaa! Perfect quote from The Ten Commandments: Ann Baxter as Nefertiri, to Yul Brenner as Ramses: Do you hear laughter, Pharaoh?]
Meggers might prove to have been right after all about the origins of Valdivia pottery, but she was wrong to attribute the rejection of her ideas to scientific dogmatism. [Not wrong, dude. Until you've walked in her shoes, how can you possible make such a silly assertion? How old are you? Twelve?] Meggers simply didn’t have the extraordinary evidence to support her extraordinary claim. [And where is your extraordinary evidence to disprove she was wrong, heh? I think it's quite clear that you have utterly failed to convince me that you are right, but you certainly have convinced me that you are a Schmuck - with a capital "S."]
Bradley T. Lepper is curator of archaeology at the Ohio Historical Society.
blepper@ohiohistory.org
Showing posts with label ancient navigators. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ancient navigators. Show all posts
Monday, May 20, 2013
Curator Lepper Disses Theory Put Forward in 1960's by Female Archaeologist
The largest ever genetic study of native South Americans identified a sub-population in Ecuador with an unexpected link to eastern Asia. The study, published in PLOS Genetics, concluded that Asian genes had been introduced into South America sometime after 6,000 years ago ...
But Lepper doesn't believe it. Well, read the article and judge for yourself. A large DNA study isn't good enough evidence for Bradley Lepper, evidently. What kind of evidence do you require, dude?
From The Columbus Dispatch
Archaeology | Studies examine clues of transoceanic contact
But Lepper doesn't believe it. Well, read the article and judge for yourself. A large DNA study isn't good enough evidence for Bradley Lepper, evidently. What kind of evidence do you require, dude?
From The Columbus Dispatch
Archaeology | Studies examine clues of transoceanic contact
Friday, January 25, 2013
Sweet Potato DNA Shows Early Polynesian-South America Contact
Oh, those ancient navigators! Thor Heyderdahl may have had it backwards when he suggested it was travellers from Peru (South America) who settled some of Polynesia, but he showed in 1947 that the trans-Pacific voyage could be done using technology available at the time.
From sciencemag.org
From sciencemag.org
Clues to Prehistoric Human Exploration Found in Sweet Potato Genome
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Ancient 'Neanderthal' Navigators
From New Scientist
Neanderthals were ancient mariners
Neanderthals were ancient mariners
- 29 February 2012 by Michael Marshall
- Magazine issue 2854.
IT LOOKS like Neanderthals may have beaten modern humans to the seas. Growing evidence suggests our extinct cousins criss-crossed the Mediterranean in boats from 100,000 years ago - though not everyone is convinced they weren't just good swimmers.
Neanderthals lived around the Mediterranean from 300,000 years ago. Their distinctive "Mousterian" stone tools are found on the Greek mainland and, intriguingly, have also been found on the Greek islands of Lefkada, Kefalonia and Zakynthos. That could be explained in two ways: either the islands weren't islands at the time, or our distant cousins crossed the water somehow.
Now, George Ferentinos of the University of Patras in Greece says we can rule out the former. The islands, he says, have been cut off from the mainland for as long as the tools have been on them.
Ferentinos compiled data that showed sea levels were 120 metres lower 100,000 years ago, because water was locked up in Earth's larger ice caps. But the seabed off Greece today drops down to around 300 metres, meaning that when Neanderthals were in the region, the sea would have been at least 180 metres deep (Journal of Archaeological Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.01.032).
Ferentinos thinks Neanderthals had a seafaring culture for tens of thousands of years. Modern humans are thought to have taken to the seas just 50,000 years ago, on crossing to Australia.
The journeys to the Greek islands from the mainland were quite short - 5 to 12 kilometres - but according to Thomas Strasser of Providence College in Rhode Island, the Neanderthals didn't stop there. In 2008 he found similar stone tools on Crete, which he says are at least 130,000 years old. Crete has been an island for some 5 million years and is 40 kilometres from its closest neighbour - suggesting far more ambitious journeys.
Strasser agrees Neanderthals were seafaring long before modern humans, in the Mediterranean at least. He thinks early hominins made much more use of the sea than anyone suspects, and may have used the seas as a highway, rather than seeing them as a barrier. But the details remain lost in history. Any craft were presumably made from wood, so rotted away long ago. The oldest known Mediterranean boat, a dugout canoe from Lake Bracciano in Italy, is just 7000 years old. Ferentinos speculates that Neanderthals may have made something similar.
There is a simpler explanation for how they reached the islands, says Paul Pettitt of the University of Sheffield, UK: maybe they just swam there. Pettitt also points out that the tools on the islands have not been chemically dated, so estimates of their age are based entirely on their design.
Even if Ferentinos is right, the Neanderthals were probably not the first hominin seafarers. One million-year-old stone tools have been found on the Indonesian island of Flores (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature 08844). Something, perhaps primitive Homo erectus, crossed the sea to Flores before Neanderthals even evolved. ["Evolved?"]
Were "European" Hunters the First Americans?
Article from The Independent
New evidence suggests Stone Age hunters from Europe discovered America
New evidence suggests Stone Age hunters from Europe discovered America
New archaeological evidence suggests that America was first discovered by
Stone Age people from Europe – 10,000 years before the Siberian-originating
ancestors of the American Indians set foot in the New World.
A remarkable series of several dozen European-style stone tools, dating back
between 19,000 and 26,000 years, have been discovered at six locations along the
US east coast. Three of the sites are on the Delmarva Peninsular in Maryland,
discovered by archaeologist Dr Darrin Lowery of the University of Delaware. One
is in Pennsylvania and another in Virginia. A sixth was discovered by
scallop-dredging fishermen on the seabed 60 miles from the Virginian coast on
what, in prehistoric times, would have been dry land.
The new discoveries are among the most important archaeological breakthroughs for several decades - and are set to add substantially to our understanding of humanity's spread around the globe.
The similarity between other later east coast US and European Stone Age stone tool technologies has been noted before. But all the US European-style tools, unearthed before the discovery or dating of the recently found or dated US east coast sites, were from around 15,000 years ago - long after Stone Age Europeans (the Solutrean cultures of France and Iberia) had ceased making such artefacts. Most archaeologists had therefore rejected any possibility of a connection. But the newly-discovered and recently-dated early Maryland and other US east coast Stone Age tools are from between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago - and are therefore contemporary with the virtually identical western European material.
What’s more, chemical analysis carried out last year on a European-style stone knife found in Virginia back in 1971 revealed that it was made of French-originating flint.
Professor Dennis Stanford, of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and Professor Bruce Bradley of the University of Exeter, the two leading archaeologists who have analysed all the evidence, are proposing that Stone Age people from Western Europe migrated to North America at the height of the Ice Age by travelling (over the ice surface and/or by boat) along the edge of the frozen northern part of the Atlantic. They are presenting their detailed evidence in a new book - Across Atlantic Ice – published this month.
At the peak of the Ice Age, around three million square miles of the North Atlantic was covered in thick ice for all or part of the year.
However, the seasonally shifting zone where the ice ended and the open ocean began would have been extremely rich in food resources – migrating seals, sea birds, fish and the now-extinct northern hemisphere penguin-like species, the great auk.
Stanford and Bradley have long argued that Stone Age humans were quite capable of making the 1500 mile journey across the Atlantic ice - but till now there was comparatively little evidence to support their thinking.
But the new Maryland, Virginia and other US east coast material, and the chemical tests on the Virginian flint knife, have begun to transform the situation. Now archaeologists are starting to investigate half a dozen new sites in Tennessee, Maryland and even Texas – and these locations are expected to produce more evidence.
Another key argument for Stanford and Bradley’s proposal is the complete absence of any human activity in north-east Siberia and Alaska prior to around 15,500 years ago. If the Maryland and other east coast people of 26,000 to 19,000 years ago had come from Asia, not Europe, early material, dating from before 19,000 years ago, should have turned up in those two northern areas, but none have been found.
Although Solutrean Europeans may well have been the first Americans, they had a major disadvantage compared to the Asian-originating Indians who entered the New World via the Bering Straits or along the Aleutian Islands chain after 15,500 years ago.
Whereas the Solutreans had only had a 4500 year long ‘Ice Age’ window to carry out their migratory activity, the Asian-originating Indians had some 15,000 years to do it. What’s more, the latter two-thirds of that 15 millennia long period was climatologically much more favourable and substantially larger numbers of Asians were therefore able to migrate.
As a result of these factors the Solutrean (European originating) Native Americans were either partly absorbed by the newcomers or were substantially obliterated by them either physically or through competition for resources.
Some genetic markers for Stone Age western Europeans simply don’t exist in north- east Asia – but they do in tiny quantities among some north American Indian groups. Scientific tests on ancient DNA extracted from 8000 year old skeletons from Florida have revealed a high level of a key probable European-originating genetic marker. There are also a tiny number of isolated Native American groups whose languages appear not to be related in any way to Asian-originating American Indian peoples.
But the greatest amount of evidence is likely to come from under the ocean – for most of the areas where the Solutreans would have stepped off the Ice onto dry land are now up to 100 miles out to sea.
The one underwater site that has been identified - thanks to the scallop dredgers – is set to be examined in greater detail this summer – either by extreme-depth divers or by remotely operated mini submarines equipped with cameras and grab arms.
The new discoveries are among the most important archaeological breakthroughs for several decades - and are set to add substantially to our understanding of humanity's spread around the globe.
The similarity between other later east coast US and European Stone Age stone tool technologies has been noted before. But all the US European-style tools, unearthed before the discovery or dating of the recently found or dated US east coast sites, were from around 15,000 years ago - long after Stone Age Europeans (the Solutrean cultures of France and Iberia) had ceased making such artefacts. Most archaeologists had therefore rejected any possibility of a connection. But the newly-discovered and recently-dated early Maryland and other US east coast Stone Age tools are from between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago - and are therefore contemporary with the virtually identical western European material.
What’s more, chemical analysis carried out last year on a European-style stone knife found in Virginia back in 1971 revealed that it was made of French-originating flint.
Professor Dennis Stanford, of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and Professor Bruce Bradley of the University of Exeter, the two leading archaeologists who have analysed all the evidence, are proposing that Stone Age people from Western Europe migrated to North America at the height of the Ice Age by travelling (over the ice surface and/or by boat) along the edge of the frozen northern part of the Atlantic. They are presenting their detailed evidence in a new book - Across Atlantic Ice – published this month.
At the peak of the Ice Age, around three million square miles of the North Atlantic was covered in thick ice for all or part of the year.
However, the seasonally shifting zone where the ice ended and the open ocean began would have been extremely rich in food resources – migrating seals, sea birds, fish and the now-extinct northern hemisphere penguin-like species, the great auk.
Stanford and Bradley have long argued that Stone Age humans were quite capable of making the 1500 mile journey across the Atlantic ice - but till now there was comparatively little evidence to support their thinking.
But the new Maryland, Virginia and other US east coast material, and the chemical tests on the Virginian flint knife, have begun to transform the situation. Now archaeologists are starting to investigate half a dozen new sites in Tennessee, Maryland and even Texas – and these locations are expected to produce more evidence.
Another key argument for Stanford and Bradley’s proposal is the complete absence of any human activity in north-east Siberia and Alaska prior to around 15,500 years ago. If the Maryland and other east coast people of 26,000 to 19,000 years ago had come from Asia, not Europe, early material, dating from before 19,000 years ago, should have turned up in those two northern areas, but none have been found.
Although Solutrean Europeans may well have been the first Americans, they had a major disadvantage compared to the Asian-originating Indians who entered the New World via the Bering Straits or along the Aleutian Islands chain after 15,500 years ago.
Whereas the Solutreans had only had a 4500 year long ‘Ice Age’ window to carry out their migratory activity, the Asian-originating Indians had some 15,000 years to do it. What’s more, the latter two-thirds of that 15 millennia long period was climatologically much more favourable and substantially larger numbers of Asians were therefore able to migrate.
As a result of these factors the Solutrean (European originating) Native Americans were either partly absorbed by the newcomers or were substantially obliterated by them either physically or through competition for resources.
Some genetic markers for Stone Age western Europeans simply don’t exist in north- east Asia – but they do in tiny quantities among some north American Indian groups. Scientific tests on ancient DNA extracted from 8000 year old skeletons from Florida have revealed a high level of a key probable European-originating genetic marker. There are also a tiny number of isolated Native American groups whose languages appear not to be related in any way to Asian-originating American Indian peoples.
But the greatest amount of evidence is likely to come from under the ocean – for most of the areas where the Solutreans would have stepped off the Ice onto dry land are now up to 100 miles out to sea.
The one underwater site that has been identified - thanks to the scallop dredgers – is set to be examined in greater detail this summer – either by extreme-depth divers or by remotely operated mini submarines equipped with cameras and grab arms.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Drake's Ships from Last Expedition Off the Coast of Panama?
Lost fleets; lost ships; lost treasure; the enduring mystery and challenge of the seas. We have so much left yet to discover on this beautiful planet of ours!
Story from The Telegraph (UK)
A team of treasure hunters led by an American former basketball team owner claims to have discovered two ships from Drake's fleet lying on the seabed off the coast of Panama. The 195-ton Elizabeth and 50-ton Delight were scuttled shortly after the naval hero's death from dysentery, aged about 55, in 1596. It is thought that Drake's final resting place may be nearby.
Pat Croce, a former president of the Philadelphia 76ers and self-professed "pirate aficionado", embarked on a search for the ships after researching a book on the latter part of Drake's career, as a privateer plundering Spanish ships in the New World. Mr Croce, 56, described the discovery as "pretty wild", saying that after several days of searching in murky waters, the team suddenly got lucky.
“It’s been truly miraculous,” Mr Croce told The Daily Telegraph. “You set yourself impossible goals in life but to find these two ships has been amazing. “We are 98 per cent sure of their veracity. The charred wood, the lead on board, the English pottery from that period. And we’re confident no crew in its right mind would have deliberately sailed there.
Mr Croce said that based on multiple records from the time, including the journal of Thomas Maynard, a member of Drake’s entourage who sailed on the Defiance, the coffin was believed to be one league – or just over three miles – away from the wrecks.
Mr Croce described Drake as his “favourite pirate of all time”. “Here’s a fellow in the 16th century who sailed around the world and single-handedly wreaked havoc in the New World when navigation was still primitive,” he said. “Even Queen Elizabeth described him as her pirate. The British members of our crew have been very excited.”
Drake fell ill a few weeks after failing to conquer the port of Las Palmas. He died while anchored off the coast of Portobelo and his two badly damaged ships were scuttled to avoid them, or their contents, falling into Spanish hands. Mr Croce's team, which includes experts and explorers from Britain, France, Australia, Panama and Colombia, used what diving experts have described as the most sophisticated equipment in the world to scan the ocean floor.
After locating the two ships, they now hope to find Drake's body, which has long been the target of treasure hunters and historians. "It's truly a needle in a haystack, but so were the ships. We found them within a week. We just haven't found him, yet," said Mr Croce, the founder of the St Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum. The Elizabeth and Delight were emptied and torched after Drake died, so no treasure has been recovered, Mr Croce said.
The ships will remain in the water because they are the property of Panama, he added.
Marine archaeologists were amazed at the find. "We've really, I feel, hit a home run here with what we found with Pat," said James Sinclair, a marine archaeologist. "Finding the Elizabeth and Delight near where Sir Francis Drake is buried is as exciting to me as helping discover the [Spanish treasure ship] Atocha and diving the RMS Titanic." He added: "Finding ship structures from that time period in this temperature water with the type of organisms that exist is a treasure in itself.
"We have an area that future students of underwater archaeology will be able to use for years to come."
Drake, one of the key figures of the Elizabethan court, is revered for his defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. One of Britain's greatest adventurers, he became only the second seafarer in history to circumnavigate the world between 1577 and 1580. [And yet records indicate the Chinese probably did this in 1430; they just don't get credit for it!]
Story from The Telegraph (UK)
Sir Francis Drake's final fleet 'discovered off the coast of Panama'
Treasure hunters claim they have discovered two ships from Sir Francis Drake’s fleet off the coast of Panama and believe his coffin could lie on the seabed nearby.
By Barney Henderson, and Jon Swaine in New York
10:00PM BST 24 Oct 2011
His burial at sea in full armour and in a lead casket was designed to ensure that no one – but especially the Spanish – would find his body. Now, more than 400 years after Sir Francis Drake's death in the Caribbean, the great seafarer's watery grave may be close to being discovered.
A team of treasure hunters led by an American former basketball team owner claims to have discovered two ships from Drake's fleet lying on the seabed off the coast of Panama. The 195-ton Elizabeth and 50-ton Delight were scuttled shortly after the naval hero's death from dysentery, aged about 55, in 1596. It is thought that Drake's final resting place may be nearby.
Pat Croce, a former president of the Philadelphia 76ers and self-professed "pirate aficionado", embarked on a search for the ships after researching a book on the latter part of Drake's career, as a privateer plundering Spanish ships in the New World. Mr Croce, 56, described the discovery as "pretty wild", saying that after several days of searching in murky waters, the team suddenly got lucky.
“It’s been truly miraculous,” Mr Croce told The Daily Telegraph. “You set yourself impossible goals in life but to find these two ships has been amazing. “We are 98 per cent sure of their veracity. The charred wood, the lead on board, the English pottery from that period. And we’re confident no crew in its right mind would have deliberately sailed there.
Mr Croce said that based on multiple records from the time, including the journal of Thomas Maynard, a member of Drake’s entourage who sailed on the Defiance, the coffin was believed to be one league – or just over three miles – away from the wrecks.
Mr Croce described Drake as his “favourite pirate of all time”. “Here’s a fellow in the 16th century who sailed around the world and single-handedly wreaked havoc in the New World when navigation was still primitive,” he said. “Even Queen Elizabeth described him as her pirate. The British members of our crew have been very excited.”
Drake fell ill a few weeks after failing to conquer the port of Las Palmas. He died while anchored off the coast of Portobelo and his two badly damaged ships were scuttled to avoid them, or their contents, falling into Spanish hands. Mr Croce's team, which includes experts and explorers from Britain, France, Australia, Panama and Colombia, used what diving experts have described as the most sophisticated equipment in the world to scan the ocean floor.
After locating the two ships, they now hope to find Drake's body, which has long been the target of treasure hunters and historians. "It's truly a needle in a haystack, but so were the ships. We found them within a week. We just haven't found him, yet," said Mr Croce, the founder of the St Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum. The Elizabeth and Delight were emptied and torched after Drake died, so no treasure has been recovered, Mr Croce said.
The ships will remain in the water because they are the property of Panama, he added.
Marine archaeologists were amazed at the find. "We've really, I feel, hit a home run here with what we found with Pat," said James Sinclair, a marine archaeologist. "Finding the Elizabeth and Delight near where Sir Francis Drake is buried is as exciting to me as helping discover the [Spanish treasure ship] Atocha and diving the RMS Titanic." He added: "Finding ship structures from that time period in this temperature water with the type of organisms that exist is a treasure in itself.
"We have an area that future students of underwater archaeology will be able to use for years to come."
Drake, one of the key figures of the Elizabethan court, is revered for his defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. One of Britain's greatest adventurers, he became only the second seafarer in history to circumnavigate the world between 1577 and 1580. [And yet records indicate the Chinese probably did this in 1430; they just don't get credit for it!]
Friday, February 4, 2011
Revisting DNA in Polynesia Leads to Surprising Discoveries
I keep thinking about the new knowledge we will have about the movement of people and languages and cultures 25 years from now, as our scientific tools -- and our applications of those tools to existing archaeological evidence -- are re-applied to that existing evidence (as long as it does not mysteriously disappear), and new forensic techniques utilizing knowledge of multiple cross-specialities that we can't even imagine in 2011 -- come to be and are also applied to that existing evidence. And that doesn't even begin to address what new evidence in archaeolgy, linguistics, paleo-botany, etc. etc. may come to light utilizing 21st century techniques of uncovering and analyzing ancient settlements, mathematical applications of computer algorithms to deciphering unknown languages and written symbols, etc. etc. Oh - and advances in DNA analysis, too! LOL! I'll be a little old bitchy lady with a cane (and knows how to use it), still spry 25 years from now. I don't intend to croak until I'm at least 100, and I envision a whole brave new world in 2051 and after, for my nieces and nephews and their descendants. Yep, it won't seem at all strange then, to acknowledge that ancestors of Native Americans (from east and west) roamed Canada, the USA, Central America and South America from 50,000 BCE and maybe even before then.
From Science Daily
Genetic Study Uncovers New Path to Polynesia
ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2011) — Surprising new evidence which overturns current theories of how humans colonised the Pacific has been discovered by scientists at the University of Leeds, UK
The islands of Polynesia were first inhabited around 3,000 years ago, but where these people came from has long been a hot topic of debate amongst scientists. The most commonly accepted view, based on archaeological and linguistic evidence as well as genetic studies, is that Pacific islanders were the latter part of a migration south and eastwards from Taiwan which began around 4,000 years ago.
But the Leeds research -- published February 3 in The American Journal of Human Genetics -- has found that the link to Taiwan does not stand up to scrutiny. In fact, the DNA of current Polynesians can be traced back to migrants from the Asian mainland who had already settled in islands close to New Guinea some 6-8,000 years ago.
The type of DNA extracted and analysed in this kind of study is that stored in the cell's mitochondria. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed down the maternal line, providing a record of inheritance which goes back thousands of years. The scientists look for genetic signatures which enable them to classify the DNA into different lineages and then use a 'molecular clock' to date when these lineages moved into different parts of the world.
Lead researcher, Professor Martin Richards, explains: "Most previous studies looked at a small piece of mtDNA, but for this research we studied 157 complete mitochondrial genomes in addition to smaller samples from over 4,750 people from across Southeast Asia and Polynesia. We also reworked our dating techniques to significantly reduce the margin of error. This means we can be confident that the Polynesian population -- at least on the female side -- came from people who arrived in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea thousands of years before the supposed migration from Taiwan took place."
Nevertheless, most linguists maintain that the Polynesian languages are part of the Austronesian language family which originates in Taiwan. And most archaeologists see evidence for a Southeast Asian influence on the appearance of the Lapita culture in the Bismarck Archipelago around 3,500 years ago. Characterised by distinctive dentate stamped ceramics and obsidian tools, Lapita is also a marker for the earliest settlers of Polynesia.
Professor Richards and co-researcher Dr Pedro Soares (now at the University of Porto), argue that the linguistic and cultural connections are due to smaller migratory movements from Taiwan that did not leave any substantial genetic impact on the pre-existing population.
"Although our results throw out the likelihood of any maternal ancestry in Taiwan for the Polynesians, they don't preclude the possibility of a Taiwanese linguistic or cultural influence on the Bismarck Archipelago at that time," explains Professor Richards. "In fact, some minor mitochondrial lineages back up this idea. It seems likely there was a 'voyaging corridor' between the islands of Southeast Asia and the Bismarck Archipelago carrying maritime traders who brought their language and artefacts and perhaps helped to create the impetus for the migration into the Pacific.
"Our study of the mtDNA evidence shows the interactions between the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific was far more complex than previous accounts tended to suggest and it paves the way for new theories of the spread of Austronesian languages."
The study, which involved researchers from the UK, Taiwan and Australia, was mainly funded by the British Academy, the Bradshaw Foundation and the European Union.
See full article for citations.
From Science Daily
Genetic Study Uncovers New Path to Polynesia
ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2011) — Surprising new evidence which overturns current theories of how humans colonised the Pacific has been discovered by scientists at the University of Leeds, UK
 |
| Map of Polynesia. Not from article. |
But the Leeds research -- published February 3 in The American Journal of Human Genetics -- has found that the link to Taiwan does not stand up to scrutiny. In fact, the DNA of current Polynesians can be traced back to migrants from the Asian mainland who had already settled in islands close to New Guinea some 6-8,000 years ago.
The type of DNA extracted and analysed in this kind of study is that stored in the cell's mitochondria. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed down the maternal line, providing a record of inheritance which goes back thousands of years. The scientists look for genetic signatures which enable them to classify the DNA into different lineages and then use a 'molecular clock' to date when these lineages moved into different parts of the world.
Lead researcher, Professor Martin Richards, explains: "Most previous studies looked at a small piece of mtDNA, but for this research we studied 157 complete mitochondrial genomes in addition to smaller samples from over 4,750 people from across Southeast Asia and Polynesia. We also reworked our dating techniques to significantly reduce the margin of error. This means we can be confident that the Polynesian population -- at least on the female side -- came from people who arrived in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea thousands of years before the supposed migration from Taiwan took place."
Nevertheless, most linguists maintain that the Polynesian languages are part of the Austronesian language family which originates in Taiwan. And most archaeologists see evidence for a Southeast Asian influence on the appearance of the Lapita culture in the Bismarck Archipelago around 3,500 years ago. Characterised by distinctive dentate stamped ceramics and obsidian tools, Lapita is also a marker for the earliest settlers of Polynesia.
Professor Richards and co-researcher Dr Pedro Soares (now at the University of Porto), argue that the linguistic and cultural connections are due to smaller migratory movements from Taiwan that did not leave any substantial genetic impact on the pre-existing population.
"Although our results throw out the likelihood of any maternal ancestry in Taiwan for the Polynesians, they don't preclude the possibility of a Taiwanese linguistic or cultural influence on the Bismarck Archipelago at that time," explains Professor Richards. "In fact, some minor mitochondrial lineages back up this idea. It seems likely there was a 'voyaging corridor' between the islands of Southeast Asia and the Bismarck Archipelago carrying maritime traders who brought their language and artefacts and perhaps helped to create the impetus for the migration into the Pacific.
"Our study of the mtDNA evidence shows the interactions between the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific was far more complex than previous accounts tended to suggest and it paves the way for new theories of the spread of Austronesian languages."
The study, which involved researchers from the UK, Taiwan and Australia, was mainly funded by the British Academy, the Bradshaw Foundation and the European Union.
See full article for citations.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Ancient Trade: Cretan Tools Point to 130,000 Year Old Sea Travel
You read that correctly - 130,000 year old sea travel in the Mediterranean. Story at the guardian.co.uk.
AP foreign, Monday January 3 2011
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Archaeologists on the island of Crete have discovered what may be evidence of one of the world's first sea voyages by human ancestors, the Greek Culture Ministry said Monday. [How can they be so sure this was a journey by "human ancestors?" How do they know they have their dating right? How do they know the accepted chronology of "evolution" is correct, for that matter - ah, but that's an argument for somewhere else. If memory serves me correctly, so-called "modern" man appeared on the scene about 100,000 years ago. But what if "modern" man is older than previously thought? What if the entire chronology is flawed because we have so much information missing? Just a thought --]
A ministry statement said experts from Greece and the U.S. have found rough axes and other tools thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years old close to shelters on the island's south coast.
Crete has been separated from the mainland for about five million years, so whoever made the tools must have traveled there by sea (a distance of at least 40 miles). That would upset the current view that human ancestors migrated to Europe from Africa by land alone.
"The results of the survey not only provide evidence of sea voyages in the Mediterranean tens of thousands of years earlier than we were aware of so far, but also change our understanding of early hominids' cognitive abilities," the ministry statement said.
The previous earliest evidence of open-sea travel in Greece dates back 11,000 years (worldwide, about 60,000 years — although considerably earlier dates have been proposed).
The tools were found during a survey of caves and rock shelters near the village of Plakias by archaeologists from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Culture Ministry.
Such rough stone implements are associated with Heidelberg Man and Homo Erectus, extinct precursors of the modern human race, which evolved from Africa about 200,000 years ago.
"Up to now we had no proof of Early Stone Age presence on Crete," said senior ministry archaeologist Maria Vlazaki, who was not involved in the survey. She said it was unclear where the hominids had sailed from, or whether the settlements were permanent.
"They may have come from Africa or from the east," she said. "Future study should help."
The team of archaeologists has applied for permission to conduct a more thorough excavation of the area, which Greek authorities are expected to approve later this year.
AP foreign, Monday January 3 2011
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Archaeologists on the island of Crete have discovered what may be evidence of one of the world's first sea voyages by human ancestors, the Greek Culture Ministry said Monday. [How can they be so sure this was a journey by "human ancestors?" How do they know they have their dating right? How do they know the accepted chronology of "evolution" is correct, for that matter - ah, but that's an argument for somewhere else. If memory serves me correctly, so-called "modern" man appeared on the scene about 100,000 years ago. But what if "modern" man is older than previously thought? What if the entire chronology is flawed because we have so much information missing? Just a thought --]
A ministry statement said experts from Greece and the U.S. have found rough axes and other tools thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years old close to shelters on the island's south coast.
Crete has been separated from the mainland for about five million years, so whoever made the tools must have traveled there by sea (a distance of at least 40 miles). That would upset the current view that human ancestors migrated to Europe from Africa by land alone.
"The results of the survey not only provide evidence of sea voyages in the Mediterranean tens of thousands of years earlier than we were aware of so far, but also change our understanding of early hominids' cognitive abilities," the ministry statement said.
The previous earliest evidence of open-sea travel in Greece dates back 11,000 years (worldwide, about 60,000 years — although considerably earlier dates have been proposed).
The tools were found during a survey of caves and rock shelters near the village of Plakias by archaeologists from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Culture Ministry.
Such rough stone implements are associated with Heidelberg Man and Homo Erectus, extinct precursors of the modern human race, which evolved from Africa about 200,000 years ago.
"Up to now we had no proof of Early Stone Age presence on Crete," said senior ministry archaeologist Maria Vlazaki, who was not involved in the survey. She said it was unclear where the hominids had sailed from, or whether the settlements were permanent.
"They may have come from Africa or from the east," she said. "Future study should help."
The team of archaeologists has applied for permission to conduct a more thorough excavation of the area, which Greek authorities are expected to approve later this year.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Replica of Phoencian Ship Successfully Completes Journey
From The Dorset Echo (online):
The history maker
8:24am Friday 31st December 2010
By Laura Kitching [Exerpted]
A DORSET expedition leader is celebrating a successful sailing year after recreating the first circumnavigation of Africa in a wooden boat.
Philip Beale battled the odds to complete his dream quest of re-enacting the 20,000 nautical mile historic voyage, believed to have been undertaken by Phoenicians more than 2,500 years ago, according to Greek historian Herodotus.
It took two years and two months and involved in-depth research into Phoenician history, ship construction, design and building of a 20m wooden replica Phoenician ship in Syria and teamwork by international sailors to safely navigate through the pirate-infested waters off Somalia.
Now Beale, of East Chaldon, near Lulworth, has made history but rather than rest on his laurels, his sights are set on bringing the vessel back to the United Kingdom – and to its home port of Weymouth – in 2012/13.
The history maker
8:24am Friday 31st December 2010
By Laura Kitching [Exerpted]
A DORSET expedition leader is celebrating a successful sailing year after recreating the first circumnavigation of Africa in a wooden boat.
Philip Beale battled the odds to complete his dream quest of re-enacting the 20,000 nautical mile historic voyage, believed to have been undertaken by Phoenicians more than 2,500 years ago, according to Greek historian Herodotus.
It took two years and two months and involved in-depth research into Phoenician history, ship construction, design and building of a 20m wooden replica Phoenician ship in Syria and teamwork by international sailors to safely navigate through the pirate-infested waters off Somalia.
Now Beale, of East Chaldon, near Lulworth, has made history but rather than rest on his laurels, his sights are set on bringing the vessel back to the United Kingdom – and to its home port of Weymouth – in 2012/13.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Two Shipwrecks Uncovered Half a World Apart
A fascinating find in Stockholm. Story from The Local (Sweden's news in English):
Mystery shipwreck found in central Stockholm
Published: 25 Nov 10 16:33 CET
The remains of a ship dating from the 1600s have been discovered outside the Grand Hotel in central Stockholm.
The vessel was built with an almost completely unknown technology, delighting archaeologists. The planks of the ship are not nailed down, but sewn together with rope.
The discovery was made by labourers close to the royal palace and in front of Stockholm's Grand Hotel during renovation works to a quay.
"The discovery of the wreck is extremely interesting given the place where it was made. There was a naval shipyard on this spot until the start of the 17th century," Maritime Museum director Hans-Lennarth Ohlsson said in a statement.
A couple of weeks ago, an excavator found something unusual in his bucket. Marine archaeologist Jim Hansson at the Maritime Museum was called to Strömkajen below the Grand Hotel, where he quickly realised the value of the sensational find.
"We were super-excited. It may sound a little strange when one finds little excavated pieces of parts of a ship, but I have never seen anything like it," he said.
With the exception of another ship found in 1896, all other shipwrecks uncovered in and around the Stockholm harbour have featured planks that were nailed together.
"We really know nothing about this technique other than that it was used in the east," added Hansson.
Hansson guesses that the ship is from east of the Baltics, possibly from Russia. The ship's position, well into the quay, reveals that it is from the 1600s or earlier. The wreck was not necessarily linked to the yard, however, and archaeologists have been unable to say how long before 1700 it might have sunk.
Marine archaeologists will send samples to Denmark's Copenhagen National Museum for analysis to be dated as precisely as possible, with results expected by January 2011. In addition, they will monitor the rest of the excavation.
"It is pretty damn nervewracking. It is rare that an archaeologist gets to take a part in something like this. One gets to leave the kids at home and stand in a pit of mud at Christmas," Hansson joked.
In 1961, the Vasa, a Swedish warship, was salvaged from just outside Stockholm harbour. The ship, which foundered on her maiden voyage in 1628, was largely intact and has since become one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions.
TT/AFP/The Local
It's fascinating that this technique of tying the timbers together survived into the 1600s! Wow, I thought that would have fallen out of favor with the invention of pegs and, later, metal nails.
And this story from China, in The People's Daily Online:
Archeologists unearth ancient sunken ship in E China's Shandong
18:56, November 23, 2010
Archeologists inspect a newly excavated sunken ship of ancient China's Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368) in Heze of east China's Shandong Province, Nov. 23, 2010. Archeologists in Shandong on Tuesday announced that they have discovered an ancient sunken ship of the Yuan Dynasty at a building site in Heze. The wooden ship, with 21 meters in length, 5 meters in width and 1.8 meters in height, contains 10 cabins. Some 110 precious antiques and porcelains have also been discovered in and around the ship. (Xinhua/Fan Changguo)
Mystery shipwreck found in central Stockholm
Published: 25 Nov 10 16:33 CET
The vessel was built with an almost completely unknown technology, delighting archaeologists. The planks of the ship are not nailed down, but sewn together with rope.
The discovery was made by labourers close to the royal palace and in front of Stockholm's Grand Hotel during renovation works to a quay.
"The discovery of the wreck is extremely interesting given the place where it was made. There was a naval shipyard on this spot until the start of the 17th century," Maritime Museum director Hans-Lennarth Ohlsson said in a statement.
A couple of weeks ago, an excavator found something unusual in his bucket. Marine archaeologist Jim Hansson at the Maritime Museum was called to Strömkajen below the Grand Hotel, where he quickly realised the value of the sensational find.
"We were super-excited. It may sound a little strange when one finds little excavated pieces of parts of a ship, but I have never seen anything like it," he said.
With the exception of another ship found in 1896, all other shipwrecks uncovered in and around the Stockholm harbour have featured planks that were nailed together.
"We really know nothing about this technique other than that it was used in the east," added Hansson.
Hansson guesses that the ship is from east of the Baltics, possibly from Russia. The ship's position, well into the quay, reveals that it is from the 1600s or earlier. The wreck was not necessarily linked to the yard, however, and archaeologists have been unable to say how long before 1700 it might have sunk.
Marine archaeologists will send samples to Denmark's Copenhagen National Museum for analysis to be dated as precisely as possible, with results expected by January 2011. In addition, they will monitor the rest of the excavation.
"It is pretty damn nervewracking. It is rare that an archaeologist gets to take a part in something like this. One gets to leave the kids at home and stand in a pit of mud at Christmas," Hansson joked.
In 1961, the Vasa, a Swedish warship, was salvaged from just outside Stockholm harbour. The ship, which foundered on her maiden voyage in 1628, was largely intact and has since become one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions.
TT/AFP/The Local
It's fascinating that this technique of tying the timbers together survived into the 1600s! Wow, I thought that would have fallen out of favor with the invention of pegs and, later, metal nails.
And this story from China, in The People's Daily Online:
Archeologists unearth ancient sunken ship in E China's Shandong
18:56, November 23, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Ancient Navigators: A Random Round-up of Recent News
Maritime and marine archaeology has been developing by leaps and bounds the past five-six years and is the new "it" specialty in archaeology. I find each new discovery fascinating, whether an under-water wreck or a new theory on how we got from Point A to Point B 50,000, 100,000 or 150,000 years ago! I still vividly remember reading Kontiki by Thor Heyerdahl in my early teenage years (I believe the report of the expedition was first popularly published in 1950, a year before I was born) - but I'd already been captured by the world of the unexplored and the world of never-ending questions before then.
When I was 11, I declared that I wanted to be a paleontologist and study ancient bones. That desire, which morphed into an interest in geology and a fabulous rock collection, then passed to anthropology, and archaeology, finally settled into a permanent love affair with ancient history. Although I chose a different career path, far away from archaeology, anthropology and ancient history, as you see here I am today, thanks to the internet. As I am now closer to retirement than the beginning of my career, I look forward to the day when I can march down to the Milwaukee Public Museum and enroll in their volunteer docent program.
New ways to chart our maritime past
By combining meteorology and archaeology, scientists may discover old sea routes and mooring sites, and boost our knowledge of ancient maritime culture
Public release date: 19-Aug-2010
University of Stavanger
Archaeologists dive deep for revealing Florida artifacts
Thursday, August 19, 2010
TBO.com Tampa Bay Online
By KEITH MORELLI
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - In the pitch-black depths of an isolated North Port spring sits a silt-covered ledge that is revealing secrets about a prehistoric nomadic people, secrets held in murky silence for 100 centuries. Now, with diving gear and artifact-collecting bags, archaeologists with the University of Miami and The Florida Aquarium are sweeping away the muck and uncovering that distant past. This stuff is from 10,000 years ago, when wandering tribes traversed Florida. Their travels included stopovers at what is now known as Little Salt Spring, 90 minutes south of Tampa.
Aug. 19, 2010, 7:01 a.m. EDT
Odyssey Marine Exploration Challenges Claims by Spain in Its "Black Swan" Appellate Reply
TAMPA, Fla., Aug 19, 2010 -- Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. today filed its Reply to Spain's Response in the "Black Swan" case, currently pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia. This is expected to be the last round of written pleadings at the appellate court level. Odyssey's filing is available for review.
Odyssey is appealing the district court's dismissal of the case based on the court's finding of lack of federal jurisdiction. Odyssey's Reply presents the following documented facts that debunk the misrepresentations made by Spain that contributed to the clear error in the district court's earlier ruling and that have been repeated in Spain's appellate Response --
You don't need to be an expert in legal language to get the gist of the arguments being placed for and against the American Company Odyssey Marine Exploration's claim for millions of dollars of gold recovered from shipwrecks discovered off the coast of Spain.
Diver says he found Westmoreland shipwreck
BY ALEX PIAZZA
August 19, 2010
(Traverse City, Michigan, USA)
Ross Richardson set out on yet another search in what had become a series of personal expeditions for one of the Great Lakes' noted shipwrecks. The Lake Ann real estate agent and avid diver traversed the water near the Sleeping Bear Dunes for years, but never tracked down the elusive Westmoreland — a vessel that foundered near South Manitou Island in a Lake Michigan winter storm on Dec. 7, 1854. But on July 7, 2010, that all changed... Check out Mysteries of Michigan for background and photos.
When I was 11, I declared that I wanted to be a paleontologist and study ancient bones. That desire, which morphed into an interest in geology and a fabulous rock collection, then passed to anthropology, and archaeology, finally settled into a permanent love affair with ancient history. Although I chose a different career path, far away from archaeology, anthropology and ancient history, as you see here I am today, thanks to the internet. As I am now closer to retirement than the beginning of my career, I look forward to the day when I can march down to the Milwaukee Public Museum and enroll in their volunteer docent program.
New ways to chart our maritime past
By combining meteorology and archaeology, scientists may discover old sea routes and mooring sites, and boost our knowledge of ancient maritime culture
Public release date: 19-Aug-2010
University of Stavanger
Archaeologists dive deep for revealing Florida artifacts
Thursday, August 19, 2010
TBO.com Tampa Bay Online
By KEITH MORELLI
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - In the pitch-black depths of an isolated North Port spring sits a silt-covered ledge that is revealing secrets about a prehistoric nomadic people, secrets held in murky silence for 100 centuries. Now, with diving gear and artifact-collecting bags, archaeologists with the University of Miami and The Florida Aquarium are sweeping away the muck and uncovering that distant past. This stuff is from 10,000 years ago, when wandering tribes traversed Florida. Their travels included stopovers at what is now known as Little Salt Spring, 90 minutes south of Tampa.
Aug. 19, 2010, 7:01 a.m. EDT
Odyssey Marine Exploration Challenges Claims by Spain in Its "Black Swan" Appellate Reply
TAMPA, Fla., Aug 19, 2010 -- Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. today filed its Reply to Spain's Response in the "Black Swan" case, currently pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia. This is expected to be the last round of written pleadings at the appellate court level. Odyssey's filing is available for review.
Odyssey is appealing the district court's dismissal of the case based on the court's finding of lack of federal jurisdiction. Odyssey's Reply presents the following documented facts that debunk the misrepresentations made by Spain that contributed to the clear error in the district court's earlier ruling and that have been repeated in Spain's appellate Response --
You don't need to be an expert in legal language to get the gist of the arguments being placed for and against the American Company Odyssey Marine Exploration's claim for millions of dollars of gold recovered from shipwrecks discovered off the coast of Spain.
Diver says he found Westmoreland shipwreck
BY ALEX PIAZZA
August 19, 2010
(Traverse City, Michigan, USA)
Ross Richardson set out on yet another search in what had become a series of personal expeditions for one of the Great Lakes' noted shipwrecks. The Lake Ann real estate agent and avid diver traversed the water near the Sleeping Bear Dunes for years, but never tracked down the elusive Westmoreland — a vessel that foundered near South Manitou Island in a Lake Michigan winter storm on Dec. 7, 1854. But on July 7, 2010, that all changed... Check out Mysteries of Michigan for background and photos.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
"First Contact" Painting Significant Find in Australia
The article's title is totally misleading since the 'painting' is not the oldest found in Australia - it dates only to the 17th century CE and the claim that it is Australia's oldest painting is therefore utterly ridiculous! But it is important because it demonstrates that contact between Australian natives and southeast Asian fishermen and sailors most likely happened long before acceted history says it did. Actually, I do not see any reason why this contact would not have been going on from the time people from southeast Asia first navigated their way to Australia what - some 50,000 years ago - and settled there. I mean, why not?
Australia's oldest painting prompts history rethink
Posted Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:23am AEST
Archaeologists say a rock painting in Arnhem Land is the nation's oldest dated picture showing Aboriginal people's first contact with the outside world.
The rock painting is a picture of a sailing boat and it is located at a remote shelter in north-west Arnhem Land.
Archaeologist Paul Tacon says there are telling signs it is a depiction of a Perahu - a boat popular in Indonesia and Malaysia around the 17th century.
"One of the distinctive features is a tripod mast, another is a rectangular sail. And those are quite clear in this image," he said.
He says beeswax pellets stuck to the painting have been dated back to the 1620s, making it the oldest dated picture of early contact in Australia.
He also says there is clear evidence Macassars from Indonesia were sailing to north Australia to fish for trepang in the 1700s.
The painting is forcing archaeologists to rethink when outsiders first arrived on Australian shores.
"This find is extremely significant because it is our oldest reliably dated contact rock art image," Mr Tacon said.
"It's also important because it hints that Aboriginal people of northern Australia were interacting with peoples from South-East Asia on a more frequent basis and over a longer period of the past than what we've realised."
Archaeologists are also finding rock art showing early Indigenous contact with other cultures, including boats, knives, cups and even a monkey.
Australia's oldest painting prompts history rethink
Posted Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:23am AEST
Archaeologists say a rock painting in Arnhem Land is the nation's oldest dated picture showing Aboriginal people's first contact with the outside world.
The rock painting is a picture of a sailing boat and it is located at a remote shelter in north-west Arnhem Land.
Archaeologist Paul Tacon says there are telling signs it is a depiction of a Perahu - a boat popular in Indonesia and Malaysia around the 17th century.
"One of the distinctive features is a tripod mast, another is a rectangular sail. And those are quite clear in this image," he said.
He says beeswax pellets stuck to the painting have been dated back to the 1620s, making it the oldest dated picture of early contact in Australia.
He also says there is clear evidence Macassars from Indonesia were sailing to north Australia to fish for trepang in the 1700s.
The painting is forcing archaeologists to rethink when outsiders first arrived on Australian shores.
"This find is extremely significant because it is our oldest reliably dated contact rock art image," Mr Tacon said.
"It's also important because it hints that Aboriginal people of northern Australia were interacting with peoples from South-East Asia on a more frequent basis and over a longer period of the past than what we've realised."
Archaeologists are also finding rock art showing early Indigenous contact with other cultures, including boats, knives, cups and even a monkey.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Evidence of Ancient Navigation?
From Thaindian News Online:
Boffins find mystery seafaring ancestor in the Philippines
June 4th, 2010 - 6:07 pm ICT by ANI -
London, June 04 (ANI): Anthropologists have discovered a foot bone during an excavation of Callao cave in Luzon, which has led to researchers’ claim that humans reached the islands off south-east Asia at least tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
Armand Mijares of the University of the Philippines Diliman, and his colleagues insist the bone is definitely human, and they are provisionally calling it a lightly built modern human.
Mijares pointed out that its shape was unusual, and its size fell within the ranges of Homo habilis and Homo floresiensis.
It suggests that humans arrived on Luzon, the largest and northernmost major island in the Philippines, at least 67,000 years ago.
“The arrival of people in Australia 50,000 to 60,000 years ago is a good comparison,” New Scientist quoted expedition member Florent Detroit of the National Museum for Natural History in Paris, France, as saying.
“It seems coherent for us to think that in; south-east Asia and Australia, humans had sea-faring capabilities by 60,000 to 70,000 years ago.” (ANI)
Boffins find mystery seafaring ancestor in the Philippines
June 4th, 2010 - 6:07 pm ICT by ANI -
London, June 04 (ANI): Anthropologists have discovered a foot bone during an excavation of Callao cave in Luzon, which has led to researchers’ claim that humans reached the islands off south-east Asia at least tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
Armand Mijares of the University of the Philippines Diliman, and his colleagues insist the bone is definitely human, and they are provisionally calling it a lightly built modern human.
Mijares pointed out that its shape was unusual, and its size fell within the ranges of Homo habilis and Homo floresiensis.
It suggests that humans arrived on Luzon, the largest and northernmost major island in the Philippines, at least 67,000 years ago.
“The arrival of people in Australia 50,000 to 60,000 years ago is a good comparison,” New Scientist quoted expedition member Florent Detroit of the National Museum for Natural History in Paris, France, as saying.
“It seems coherent for us to think that in; south-east Asia and Australia, humans had sea-faring capabilities by 60,000 to 70,000 years ago.” (ANI)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Ancient Trade: South Indians in Egypt
My initial response after reading this story was - well, of course - but why wouldn't the researchers have assumed that such was going on almost from the beginning of this cross-ocean contact/trade? People act like people, for Goddess' sake! We move around, we're always on to the next 'big adventure' - whatever that may be, we like to bond and usually will, after initial hesitations and cultural misunderstandings are got past -- in short, meeting and mixing is the herstory of humankind! It's human nature to act so.
So why should it be a surprise that sailors and traders from South India moved into ancient Egypt after travelling there and back who knows how many times and left evidence of their residency behind? Why wouldn't a researcher assume that the Egyptians and Romans hired or otherwise obtained the services of Indian navigators and sailors, who were experienced in the ways of navigating using the Monsoons?
Thank goodness it was bone dry Egypt where the trade and cross-cultural settlements took place because some evidence of the residency of the South Indian peoples and that trade survived there, else those same experts would probably be claiming that no such cross-cultural trade, visitations and settlement ever took place. Rather reminds me of how experts have pooh-poohed Gavin Menzies' theory that 15th century naval power China traveled around the world and left calling cards (people and settlements) years before the Europeans dreamed of doing so (and just where did the Europeans get those maps anyway???)
Volume 27 - Issue 08 :: Apr. 10-23, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
South Indians in Roman Egypt?
Monday, March 8, 2010
Ancient Navigators: Admiral Zheng He in Time Magazine
Searching for Zheng: China's Ming-Era Voyager
By Ishaan Tharoor Monday, Mar. 08, 2010
One of the more famous paintings of the medieval Ming dynasty, which ruled China for about three centuries, is that of a court attendant holding a rope around a giraffe. An inscription on the side says the animal dwelled near "the corners of the western sea, in the stagnant waters of a great morass." According to legend, the giraffe was found in Africa, along with zebras and ostriches, and brought back with the grand 15th century expeditions of Zheng He, China's greatest mariner.
More than half a millennium later, Zheng has become a potent symbol for modern China. In 2005, the country marked the 600th anniversary of the seven voyages from 1405 to 1433 undertaken by Zheng's vast "treasure fleets" with nationwide celebrations; the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing dramatized his explorations from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and the shores of Africa. On Feb. 26, China's Ministry of Commerce announced it was funding a three-year project with the assistance of the Kenyan government to search for Ming-era vessels that had supposedly foundered off the East African coast. "Historical records indicate Chinese merchant ships sank in the seas around Kenya," Zhang Wei, a curator for a state museum, told China's official Xinhua news agency. "We hope to find wrecks of the fleet of the legendary Zheng He."
There is more than historical curiosity behind these new efforts. For centuries after his expeditions, Zheng — a Muslim eunuch — slipped out of public awareness, obscured by the rise and fall of new dynasties. Talk of his exploits was revived briefly at the beginning of the 20th century as the fledgling Chinese republic sought to build a navy in the shadow of imperial Japan. But experts say his place as a patriotic national hero has been truly cemented only in the past two decades, parallel with China's geopolitical rise — and the growth of its significant economic presence in many African nations and countries around the Indian Ocean.
The legacy of Zheng's voyages — involving hundreds of ships, some exponentially larger than the three captained by Christopher Columbus decades later, in 1492 — is being invoked by the Chinese as historical proof of the difference between China's and the West's roles in the world. Though the unprecedented display of maritime power was meant to extend the Ming dynasty's reach over a network of tributary states, Zheng rarely resorted to the type of violent, coercive measures taken for centuries by European colonizers, especially in Africa. "Zheng's a nominal symbol of China's peaceful engagement with the world," says Geoffrey Wade, a historian at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore who has translated Ming records pertaining to the voyages. "With him, it's like the Chinese have an ambassador of friendship — a sign that they aren't going to hurt anybody."
In recent years, though, Beijing has come under criticism for an approach to Africa that is perhaps more bloodless than it is cuddly. China's support of autocratic regimes, from Zimbabwe to Sudan — where Beijing effectively built up an oil industry from scratch — has exposed the Asian giant to accusations of turning a blind eye to human-rights abuses as it goes about securing natural resources and political influence. China has pumped billions of dollars into infrastructure projects throughout the continent, tying up key contracts in resource-rich states like Angola and the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.
Yet as total annual trade between Africa and China has surpassed $100 billion, Beijing has won its fair share of admirers too, not least among them many Africans whose quality of life has been improved by an influx of cheap Chinese household goods. China has also established a network of "Confucius Institutes" in various African cities to disseminate Chinese culture, while more and more African exchange students are attending Chinese universities. A flotilla of Chinese warships is part of an international operation attempting to curb piracy off the shores of Somalia. "This discussion of Zheng He is being carried out in China at a higher and more expensive level not just to boost the glory of his personal story," says Barry Sautman, a specialist on China-Africa relations at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, "but as a particular cog in China's projection of itself into Africa."
Although the aura of Zheng's expeditions may somehow bolster China's budding soft power, it's unclear what lasting impact the visiting fleets had on medieval Africa. No durable trade ties were left in place. And while stories linger in Kenya's Lamu archipelago of a light-skinned community descended from shipwrecked Chinese sailors, the population there retains no trace of Chinese customs or language. "Not much endured beyond the legend," says Sautman. Indeed, scholars like Wade suggest the voyages themselves were something of an "aberration" in the wider context of Chinese foreign policy in that era, which for centuries was far more focused on staving off the threat of invasion along its fragile land borders.
Moreover, though Beijing plays up the voyages as a triumphant Chinese adventure, the journeys had a distinctly Muslim character. Zheng practiced Islam, as did Ma Huan, the main chronicler aboard the ships. It's likely they were guided to their many ports of call, such as Malacca, India's Malabar coast and Malindi in Kenya, by Muslim pilots of Arab, Indian or African extraction. "They were essentially following maritime routes that had been in use by people in the Indian Ocean for ages," says Wade. Many academics argue that the popular Arab-Persian tale of the Seven Voyages of Sinbad, littered also with snippets of Indian folklore, was derived from the real travels of Zheng He — making the mariner as much a pan-Asian protagonist as a Chinese one.
No matter the many layers of myth surrounding Zheng He, the Chinese are confident they'll uncover a Ming-era wreck near the Lamu archipelago, where bits of Ming ceramic ware have surfaced in the past, and that it will be their legacy that gets burnished when they find it. A team of Chinese archaeologists is expected to commence work in July. It won't be alone — last year, following a visit to Kenya by Chinese President Hu Jintao, a Chinese state petroleum company won concessions to explore more than 100,000 sq km of Kenyan waters for oil. That will be theirs too. Africa, after all, holds more for China these days than just exotic animals.
Not only that - in this 2005 interview (as part of an article at The New York Times discussing the 2005 Chnese celebration of the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyage(s)), he discusses maps that Kubla Khan's fleet created clearly depicting America and said that Zheng He had those maps. Holy Goddess! What's more, there was definitely a settlement left behind - a Chinese settlement. I'm doing a separate post on that.
So - just to stir things up a bit, and for fans of conspiracy theory, what would happen if the Chinese laid claim to a section of North America based on their record of earliest discovery? There are probably websites out there that obsess on this and other weighty questions...
By Ishaan Tharoor Monday, Mar. 08, 2010
One of the more famous paintings of the medieval Ming dynasty, which ruled China for about three centuries, is that of a court attendant holding a rope around a giraffe. An inscription on the side says the animal dwelled near "the corners of the western sea, in the stagnant waters of a great morass." According to legend, the giraffe was found in Africa, along with zebras and ostriches, and brought back with the grand 15th century expeditions of Zheng He, China's greatest mariner.
More than half a millennium later, Zheng has become a potent symbol for modern China. In 2005, the country marked the 600th anniversary of the seven voyages from 1405 to 1433 undertaken by Zheng's vast "treasure fleets" with nationwide celebrations; the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing dramatized his explorations from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and the shores of Africa. On Feb. 26, China's Ministry of Commerce announced it was funding a three-year project with the assistance of the Kenyan government to search for Ming-era vessels that had supposedly foundered off the East African coast. "Historical records indicate Chinese merchant ships sank in the seas around Kenya," Zhang Wei, a curator for a state museum, told China's official Xinhua news agency. "We hope to find wrecks of the fleet of the legendary Zheng He."
There is more than historical curiosity behind these new efforts. For centuries after his expeditions, Zheng — a Muslim eunuch — slipped out of public awareness, obscured by the rise and fall of new dynasties. Talk of his exploits was revived briefly at the beginning of the 20th century as the fledgling Chinese republic sought to build a navy in the shadow of imperial Japan. But experts say his place as a patriotic national hero has been truly cemented only in the past two decades, parallel with China's geopolitical rise — and the growth of its significant economic presence in many African nations and countries around the Indian Ocean.
The legacy of Zheng's voyages — involving hundreds of ships, some exponentially larger than the three captained by Christopher Columbus decades later, in 1492 — is being invoked by the Chinese as historical proof of the difference between China's and the West's roles in the world. Though the unprecedented display of maritime power was meant to extend the Ming dynasty's reach over a network of tributary states, Zheng rarely resorted to the type of violent, coercive measures taken for centuries by European colonizers, especially in Africa. "Zheng's a nominal symbol of China's peaceful engagement with the world," says Geoffrey Wade, a historian at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore who has translated Ming records pertaining to the voyages. "With him, it's like the Chinese have an ambassador of friendship — a sign that they aren't going to hurt anybody."
In recent years, though, Beijing has come under criticism for an approach to Africa that is perhaps more bloodless than it is cuddly. China's support of autocratic regimes, from Zimbabwe to Sudan — where Beijing effectively built up an oil industry from scratch — has exposed the Asian giant to accusations of turning a blind eye to human-rights abuses as it goes about securing natural resources and political influence. China has pumped billions of dollars into infrastructure projects throughout the continent, tying up key contracts in resource-rich states like Angola and the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.
Yet as total annual trade between Africa and China has surpassed $100 billion, Beijing has won its fair share of admirers too, not least among them many Africans whose quality of life has been improved by an influx of cheap Chinese household goods. China has also established a network of "Confucius Institutes" in various African cities to disseminate Chinese culture, while more and more African exchange students are attending Chinese universities. A flotilla of Chinese warships is part of an international operation attempting to curb piracy off the shores of Somalia. "This discussion of Zheng He is being carried out in China at a higher and more expensive level not just to boost the glory of his personal story," says Barry Sautman, a specialist on China-Africa relations at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, "but as a particular cog in China's projection of itself into Africa."
Although the aura of Zheng's expeditions may somehow bolster China's budding soft power, it's unclear what lasting impact the visiting fleets had on medieval Africa. No durable trade ties were left in place. And while stories linger in Kenya's Lamu archipelago of a light-skinned community descended from shipwrecked Chinese sailors, the population there retains no trace of Chinese customs or language. "Not much endured beyond the legend," says Sautman. Indeed, scholars like Wade suggest the voyages themselves were something of an "aberration" in the wider context of Chinese foreign policy in that era, which for centuries was far more focused on staving off the threat of invasion along its fragile land borders.
Moreover, though Beijing plays up the voyages as a triumphant Chinese adventure, the journeys had a distinctly Muslim character. Zheng practiced Islam, as did Ma Huan, the main chronicler aboard the ships. It's likely they were guided to their many ports of call, such as Malacca, India's Malabar coast and Malindi in Kenya, by Muslim pilots of Arab, Indian or African extraction. "They were essentially following maritime routes that had been in use by people in the Indian Ocean for ages," says Wade. Many academics argue that the popular Arab-Persian tale of the Seven Voyages of Sinbad, littered also with snippets of Indian folklore, was derived from the real travels of Zheng He — making the mariner as much a pan-Asian protagonist as a Chinese one.
No matter the many layers of myth surrounding Zheng He, the Chinese are confident they'll uncover a Ming-era wreck near the Lamu archipelago, where bits of Ming ceramic ware have surfaced in the past, and that it will be their legacy that gets burnished when they find it. A team of Chinese archaeologists is expected to commence work in July. It won't be alone — last year, following a visit to Kenya by Chinese President Hu Jintao, a Chinese state petroleum company won concessions to explore more than 100,000 sq km of Kenyan waters for oil. That will be theirs too. Africa, after all, holds more for China these days than just exotic animals.
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When Gavin Menzies' book was published in 2002, it caused an uproar when he said that during one of Zheng He's voyages his fleet reached the shores of North America. Menzie's website.Not only that - in this 2005 interview (as part of an article at The New York Times discussing the 2005 Chnese celebration of the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyage(s)), he discusses maps that Kubla Khan's fleet created clearly depicting America and said that Zheng He had those maps. Holy Goddess! What's more, there was definitely a settlement left behind - a Chinese settlement. I'm doing a separate post on that.
So - just to stir things up a bit, and for fans of conspiracy theory, what would happen if the Chinese laid claim to a section of North America based on their record of earliest discovery? There are probably websites out there that obsess on this and other weighty questions...
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Admiral Zheng He, Global Navigator, Back in the News
If you haven't read it, please read Gavin Menzies' book "1421: The Year china Discovered America." Lengthy but worthwhile!
From The Washington Post
China, Kenya to search for ancient Chinese wrecks
The Associated Press
Friday, February 26, 2010; 5:34 AM
BEIJING -- China and Kenya plan to search for ancient Chinese ships wrecked almost 600 years ago off Africa's east coast.
An agreement was signed for a three-year project funded by China's Commerce Ministry to explore waters near the popular tourist towns of Malindi and Lamu, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.
Exploration work will be conducted for up to three months each year, with the first group of Chinese archaeologists due to arrive as early as July, Xinhua said.
The sunken ships are believed to have been part of a massive fleet led by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He that reached Malindi in 1418. Kenyan lore has long told of shipwrecked Chinese sailors settling in the region and marrying local women.
Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He - whose name is also spelled Cheng Ho - led armadas with scores of junks and thousands of sailors on voyages to promote trade and recognition of the new dynasty, which had taken power in 1368.
Zheng's seven voyages marked a high point in Chinese power. But imperial rulers soon lost interest in the outside world and canceled further exploration more than a half century before Columbus reached the New World.
Zheng's story has been heavily promoted by China's government in recent years as evidence of China's tradition of nonaggression abroad, although historical records show the treasure fleets carried significant firepower and participated in at least three major military actions.
From The Washington Post
China, Kenya to search for ancient Chinese wrecks
The Associated Press
Friday, February 26, 2010; 5:34 AM
BEIJING -- China and Kenya plan to search for ancient Chinese ships wrecked almost 600 years ago off Africa's east coast.
An agreement was signed for a three-year project funded by China's Commerce Ministry to explore waters near the popular tourist towns of Malindi and Lamu, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.
Exploration work will be conducted for up to three months each year, with the first group of Chinese archaeologists due to arrive as early as July, Xinhua said.
The sunken ships are believed to have been part of a massive fleet led by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He that reached Malindi in 1418. Kenyan lore has long told of shipwrecked Chinese sailors settling in the region and marrying local women.
Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He - whose name is also spelled Cheng Ho - led armadas with scores of junks and thousands of sailors on voyages to promote trade and recognition of the new dynasty, which had taken power in 1368.
Zheng's seven voyages marked a high point in Chinese power. But imperial rulers soon lost interest in the outside world and canceled further exploration more than a half century before Columbus reached the New World.
Zheng's story has been heavily promoted by China's government in recent years as evidence of China's tradition of nonaggression abroad, although historical records show the treasure fleets carried significant firepower and participated in at least three major military actions.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Water Route Between Oceans in Nicaragua?
From newkerala.com
Explorer finds evidence of ancient waterway linking Atlantic to Pacific
London, Feb 13 : An explorer claims to have found evidence of an ancient water route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which existed hundreds of years before the Panama Canal was conceived.
Hailed by some as the eighth wonder of the world, the Panama Canal is a water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific.
Now, according to a report in The Times, Colonel John Blashford-Snell, an explorer, has claimed to have found evidence of another, more ancient, water route between the oceans — one that existed hundreds of years before the Panama Canal was conceived.
Several hundred miles to the north-west, in Nicaragua, the route — which involves rivers, a lake and flood plains — was discovered by Blashford-Snell, who was out on an expedition.
"With effort it is navigable. But it is going to need more investigation," said the veteran explorer.
He is now planning another expedition to discover whether it is really possible to take a boat from one coast to the other without touching land.
If so, it will prove something remarkable: that the ancient maps which show a passage between the two oceans — and which have long been dismissed as fanciful — had a greater claim to accuracy than was realised.
Colonel Blashford-Snell's expedition set out to find evidence that a canal once existed in Nicaragua.
No records of such a canal exist, although there were plans for a Nicaragua canal before the argument for Panama won the day.
Whether Colonel Blashford-Snell found evidence of ancient canals is arguable, but the case for a natural water passage is strong, according to the explorer.
Colonel Blashford-Snell, who spent two weeks in Nicaragua last month with a team of four, said he found places where the head waters of different river systems — one flowing east into the lake, another flowing west into the Pacific — were only a few hundred yards apart.
The seemingly unanswerable question, however, was how to get from one river to the other.
Then, by chance, he met a local fisherman who helped him to unlock the puzzle.
Mariano Hernandez told them he had made the journey from the centre of the isthmus between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific down to the lake to go fishing — a journey made possible during the rainy season when the land turns into a lake up to 2m deep.
--ANI
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Ancient Trade: Bronze Age Wreck Discovered Off Coast of Devon
Article from the telegraph.co.uk
Bronze Age shipwreck found off Devon coast
One of the world's oldest shipwrecks has been discovered off the coast of Devon after lying on the seabed for almost 3,000 years.
By Jasper Copping
Published: 9:00PM GMT 13 Feb 2010
The trading vessel was carrying an extremely valuable cargo of tin and hundreds of copper ingots from the Continent when it sank. Experts say the "incredibly exciting" discovery provides new evidence about the extent and sophistication of Britain's links with Europe in the Bronze Age as well as the remarkable seafaring abilities of the people during the period.
Archaeologists have described the vessel, which is thought to date back to around 900BC, as being a "bulk carrier" of its age. The copper and tin would have been used for making bronze – the primary product of the period which was used in the manufacture of not only weapons, but also tools, jewellery, ornaments and other items.
Archaeologists believe the copper – and possibly the tin – was being imported into Britain and originated in a number of different countries throughout Europe, rather than from a single source, demonstrating the existence of a complex network of trade routes across the Continent.
Academics at the University of Oxford are carrying out further analysis of the cargo in order to establish its exact origins. However, it is thought the copper would have come from the Iberian peninsular, Alpine Europe, especially modern day Switzerland, and possibly other locations in France, such as the Massif Central, and even as far as Austria.
It is first time tin ingots from this period have ever been found in Britain, a discovery which may support theories that the metal was being mined in the south west at this time.
If the tin was not produced in Britain, it is likely it would have also come from the Iberian peninsular or from eastern Germany.
The wreck has been found in just eight to ten metres of water in a bay near Salcombe, south Devon, by a team of amateur marine archaeologists from the South West Maritime Archaeological Group.
In total, 295 artefacts have so far been recovered, weighing a total of more than 84kg. The cargo recovered includes 259 copper ingots and 27 tin ingots. Also found was a bronze leaf sword, two stone artefacts that could have been sling shots, and three gold wrist torcs – or bracelets.
The team have yet to uncover any of the vessel's structure, which is likely to have eroded away. However, experts believe it would have been up to 40ft long and up to 6ft wide, and have been constructed of planks of timber, or a wooden frame with a hide hull. It would have had a crew of around 15 and been powered by paddles.
Archaeologists believe it would have been able to cross the Channel directly between Devon and France to link into European trade networks, rather than having to travel along the coast to the narrower crossing between modern day Dover and Calais.
Although the vessel's cargo came from as far afield as southern Europe, it is unlikely it would have been carried all the way in the same craft, but in a series of boats, undertaking short coastal journeys.
The wreck site is on part of the seabed called Wash Gully, which is around 300 yards from the shore. There is evidence of prehistoric field systems and Bronze Age roundhouses on the coast nearby and it is thought the vessel could have sunk while attempting to land, or could have been passing along the coast.
The coastline is notoriously treacherous and there is a reef close by which could have claimed the vessel.
The recovery work took place between February and November last year but the discovery was not announced until this month's International Shipwreck Conference, in Plymouth.
The finds have been reported to both English Heritage and the Receiver of Wreck, which administers all shipwrecks. The artefacts are due to be handed over to the British Museum next week. They will be independently valued and the museum will pay the team for the items.
Mick Palmer, chairman of the South West Maritime Archaeological Group, said: "For the British Isles, this is extremely important. This was a cargo trading vessel on a big scale. There is more down there and we will carry on searching for it. We anticipate a lot more will be found."
Dave Parham, senior lecturer in marine archaeology at Bournemouth University and a member of the team, said: "What we are seeing is trade in action. We are not stuck with trying to work out trade based on a few deposits across a broader landscape. We are looking at the stuff actually on the boat being moved.
"Everything that is in the ship sinks with it and is on the seabed somewhere. What you would call this today is a bulk carrier. It was carrying what was for the time a large consignment of raw materials."
Dr Peter Northover, a scientist at the University of Oxford who has been analysing the find, said: "These are the produce of a multitude of countries, scattered right around Europe, up and down the Atlantic coast and inland. It came from a combination of places. It is showing the diversity of the trade.
"Metal traders and workers would have traded parcels of metal with each other. The metal would have moved in steps, along networks of contacts exchanging metal as and when they need it."
Dr Stuart Needham, a Bronze Age archaeologist, said: "This is genuinely exciting. Everyone knows that man has been walking around on land since time immemorial, but I think people now will be surprised to know how much they were plying the seaways at this time, up and down the Atlantic seaboard and across the Channel.
"There's a complex lattice of interactions across Europe happening throughout this period. A lot of stuff may have moved across land, but it is eminently possible at this stage that there were quite sophisticated maritime networks with specialist mariners – people who know how to read the tides and the stars and who are not just casually going out on the sea to do some deep sea fishing.
"If you have got specialist mariners plying the Atlantic seaways, there is every possibility they could be picking up material in different locations and stockpiling it.
"The mainstay of this exchange network might have been a number of vessels undertaking short journeys. It doesn't mean there weren't occasional vessels and people going longer distances."
One other Bronze Age vessel has previously been found near Salcombe, where just 53 artefacts were recovered. Another eight Bronze Age items have also been found at a third nearby spot, indicating another possible wreck.
The only other Bronze Age wrecks found in the UK have been located on land, or on the foreshore, at Dover and North Ferriby, on the Humber. Ben Roberts, Bronze Age specialist at the British Museum, said: "It is an incredibly exciting find. What we have here is really, really good evidence of trade. We don't get many shipwreck sites.
"It is very rare to get a snapshot of this level of activity. It is very possible there were also animals and people going across the Channel too. We hardly ever get to see evidence of this cross Channel trade in action. It is a huge amount of cargo."
Bronze Age shipwreck found off Devon coast
One of the world's oldest shipwrecks has been discovered off the coast of Devon after lying on the seabed for almost 3,000 years.
By Jasper Copping
Published: 9:00PM GMT 13 Feb 2010
The trading vessel was carrying an extremely valuable cargo of tin and hundreds of copper ingots from the Continent when it sank. Experts say the "incredibly exciting" discovery provides new evidence about the extent and sophistication of Britain's links with Europe in the Bronze Age as well as the remarkable seafaring abilities of the people during the period.
Archaeologists have described the vessel, which is thought to date back to around 900BC, as being a "bulk carrier" of its age. The copper and tin would have been used for making bronze – the primary product of the period which was used in the manufacture of not only weapons, but also tools, jewellery, ornaments and other items.
Archaeologists believe the copper – and possibly the tin – was being imported into Britain and originated in a number of different countries throughout Europe, rather than from a single source, demonstrating the existence of a complex network of trade routes across the Continent.
Academics at the University of Oxford are carrying out further analysis of the cargo in order to establish its exact origins. However, it is thought the copper would have come from the Iberian peninsular, Alpine Europe, especially modern day Switzerland, and possibly other locations in France, such as the Massif Central, and even as far as Austria.
It is first time tin ingots from this period have ever been found in Britain, a discovery which may support theories that the metal was being mined in the south west at this time.
If the tin was not produced in Britain, it is likely it would have also come from the Iberian peninsular or from eastern Germany.
The wreck has been found in just eight to ten metres of water in a bay near Salcombe, south Devon, by a team of amateur marine archaeologists from the South West Maritime Archaeological Group.
In total, 295 artefacts have so far been recovered, weighing a total of more than 84kg. The cargo recovered includes 259 copper ingots and 27 tin ingots. Also found was a bronze leaf sword, two stone artefacts that could have been sling shots, and three gold wrist torcs – or bracelets.
The team have yet to uncover any of the vessel's structure, which is likely to have eroded away. However, experts believe it would have been up to 40ft long and up to 6ft wide, and have been constructed of planks of timber, or a wooden frame with a hide hull. It would have had a crew of around 15 and been powered by paddles.
Archaeologists believe it would have been able to cross the Channel directly between Devon and France to link into European trade networks, rather than having to travel along the coast to the narrower crossing between modern day Dover and Calais.
Although the vessel's cargo came from as far afield as southern Europe, it is unlikely it would have been carried all the way in the same craft, but in a series of boats, undertaking short coastal journeys.
The wreck site is on part of the seabed called Wash Gully, which is around 300 yards from the shore. There is evidence of prehistoric field systems and Bronze Age roundhouses on the coast nearby and it is thought the vessel could have sunk while attempting to land, or could have been passing along the coast.
The coastline is notoriously treacherous and there is a reef close by which could have claimed the vessel.
The recovery work took place between February and November last year but the discovery was not announced until this month's International Shipwreck Conference, in Plymouth.
The finds have been reported to both English Heritage and the Receiver of Wreck, which administers all shipwrecks. The artefacts are due to be handed over to the British Museum next week. They will be independently valued and the museum will pay the team for the items.
Mick Palmer, chairman of the South West Maritime Archaeological Group, said: "For the British Isles, this is extremely important. This was a cargo trading vessel on a big scale. There is more down there and we will carry on searching for it. We anticipate a lot more will be found."
Dave Parham, senior lecturer in marine archaeology at Bournemouth University and a member of the team, said: "What we are seeing is trade in action. We are not stuck with trying to work out trade based on a few deposits across a broader landscape. We are looking at the stuff actually on the boat being moved.
"Everything that is in the ship sinks with it and is on the seabed somewhere. What you would call this today is a bulk carrier. It was carrying what was for the time a large consignment of raw materials."
Dr Peter Northover, a scientist at the University of Oxford who has been analysing the find, said: "These are the produce of a multitude of countries, scattered right around Europe, up and down the Atlantic coast and inland. It came from a combination of places. It is showing the diversity of the trade.
"Metal traders and workers would have traded parcels of metal with each other. The metal would have moved in steps, along networks of contacts exchanging metal as and when they need it."
Dr Stuart Needham, a Bronze Age archaeologist, said: "This is genuinely exciting. Everyone knows that man has been walking around on land since time immemorial, but I think people now will be surprised to know how much they were plying the seaways at this time, up and down the Atlantic seaboard and across the Channel.
"There's a complex lattice of interactions across Europe happening throughout this period. A lot of stuff may have moved across land, but it is eminently possible at this stage that there were quite sophisticated maritime networks with specialist mariners – people who know how to read the tides and the stars and who are not just casually going out on the sea to do some deep sea fishing.
"If you have got specialist mariners plying the Atlantic seaways, there is every possibility they could be picking up material in different locations and stockpiling it.
"The mainstay of this exchange network might have been a number of vessels undertaking short journeys. It doesn't mean there weren't occasional vessels and people going longer distances."
One other Bronze Age vessel has previously been found near Salcombe, where just 53 artefacts were recovered. Another eight Bronze Age items have also been found at a third nearby spot, indicating another possible wreck.
The only other Bronze Age wrecks found in the UK have been located on land, or on the foreshore, at Dover and North Ferriby, on the Humber. Ben Roberts, Bronze Age specialist at the British Museum, said: "It is an incredibly exciting find. What we have here is really, really good evidence of trade. We don't get many shipwreck sites.
"It is very rare to get a snapshot of this level of activity. It is very possible there were also animals and people going across the Channel too. We hardly ever get to see evidence of this cross Channel trade in action. It is a huge amount of cargo."
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Recreated Tang Dynasty Ship to Set Sail
Another ancient sailing ship to set forth
by Nadim Kawach,Emirates Business/Sail-World 5:02 AM Tue 12 Jan 2010 GMT
When 15 Omani sailors set sail from the port of Muscat next month, it will mark the beginning of yet another attempt to recreate the journeys of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years ago.
In other examples of what seems to be becoming a world-wide trend, the Phoenicia, an ancient replica of an Egyptian sailing vessel, is currently circumnavigating Africa, and last year a Chinese vessel, the Princess Tai Ping was tragically split in two when just one day from completing a double trans-Pacific crossing when it was hit head-on by a cargo ship.
In the new effort, the ninth century wooden square-rigged sailing ship will be heading for Singapore. It has been modelled on the famous Tang Treasure ship that sank in the Indian Ocean while laden with gold and other precious items belonging to the old Chinese Tang dynasty.
The 18-metre long Jewel of Muscat, a reconstructed ninth century sewn-plank ship, has started sailing in the Sea of Oman on the first sea trials ahead of its formal voyage to Singapore towards the end of February.
The sailing vessel is scheduled to start its journey across the Indian Ocean with transit stops along the western coast of India and other south Asian countries. It will keep to ancient trade routes and stop in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia before arriving in Singapore five months later, where it will be given as a gift from Oman to the people of Singapore.
'Singapore is one of Oman's oldest trading partners. Jewel of Muscat will be displayed in Singapore to highlight the awareness of the old trade routes between the two countries,' Badr bin Hamoud Al Busaeedi, Director-General of the Omani Foreign Ministry, said at a launch ceremony this week.
He said Jewel of Muscat was modelled on the wreckage of the ninth-century Tang Treasure ship that was carrying more than 60,000 pieces of Chinese ceramics, silver and gold artefacts, spices and other commodities. 'The idea of this was inspired from the Tang Treasure that was discovered in 1998 in Indonesian waters… it took us about 12 months to construct this vessel, which represents an important Omani cultural and heritage initiative,' he said. To reconstruct the vessel, a 1,200-year-old method of sewing the hull planks together with handmade coconut-fibre rope was used to make the vessel extremely resilient. No nail or screw was used during the process of shaping the first plank for hoisting the palm-leaf sails that were woven in Qantab.
Captain Saleh Al Jabri, who will co-head the mission, will soon begin the sailing process by testing the two steering systems. He is a former instructor with Oman Sail and second in command of the training ship, Shabab Oman.
The first sea trial of the Jewel went well, but the captain admits there is still much work to be done to prepare her for her voyage.
'All our efforts have paid off; Jewel of Muscat is a magnificent initiative and an authentic symbol of Oman's heritage. She is now all set for her sea trial and as her captain I am really looking forward to steering her along the old trade routes from Muscat to Singapore via India and Malaysia, just as our forefathers did.' According to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the Tang Treasure shipwreck which was discovered in 1998 contained rare and well-preserved pieces of stoneware, and centuries-old gold and silver pieces including the largest Tang dynasty gold cup and an exquisitely decorated silver flask.
Later uncovered by professional salvage divers, the 22-metre long traditional vessel provides strong evidence to suggest that the early Chinese seafarers were trading in items that suited the global market more than 1,000 years ago. The treasure was purchased by the Sentosa Leisure Group in 2005 and is on loan to the STB.
The sailing ship, constructed on a beach in the Omani town of Qantab, is made from Afzelia african timber from Ghana. The planks are are sewn together with coconut fibre and must fit perfectly to ensure that the ship is watertight. The wood is protected by a layer of goat fat mixed with lime.
'The Tang Shipwreck Treasure is a priceless find that provides firm archaeological evidence of the existence of a maritime Silk Route between the East and the West via Southeast Asia centuries ago,' the Board said in a statement.
'Behind the artefacts is a story that needs to be told – one of how people lived and traded in the early days, how they interacted with people of other lands. It also has a special meaning for Singapore, which has a long and distinguished maritime history being strategically located at the cross-roads of maritime trade routes and home to the treasure.'
During the journey the crew will use 9th century navigation techniques, reaching Singapore by June 2010. The project is jointly funded by Singapore and Oman.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Ancient Maps: The Ricci Map
On rare map, China is the centre of the world
January 12 2010 at 01:17PM
(Image: detail of Ricci map showing Florida, Gulf Coast, Central America and Cuba)A rarely seen 400-year-old map that identified Florida as "the Land of Flowers" and put China at the centre of the world went on display on Tuesday at the Library of Congress.
The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas. Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was the first Westerner to visit what is now Beijing in the late 1500s. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.
The map includes pictures and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa was noted to have the world's highest mountain and longest river. The description of North America is brief with mentions of "humped oxen" or bison, wild horses and a region named "Ka-na-ta." [Canada?]
Several South American places are named, including "Wa-ti-ma-la" (Guatemala), "Yu-ho-t'ang" (Yucatan) and "Chih-Li" (Chile).
Ricci gave a brief description of the discovery of the Americas.
"In olden days, nobody had ever known that there were such places as North and South America or Magellanica. But a hundred years ago, Europeans came sailing in their ships to parts of the sea coast, and so discovered them."
The Ricci map gained the nickname the "Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography" because it was so hard to find.
This map - one of only two in good condition - was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust in October for $1 million, making it the second most expensive rare map ever sold. It had been held for years by a private collector in Japan and will eventually be housed at the Bell Library at the University of Minnesota.
"I don't want to take away from Ricci's other accomplishments, but we think this is pretty spectacular," said Ford W Bell, co-trustee of the fund started by his grandfather James Ford Bell, founder of General Mills.
Bell, who's also president of the American Association of Museums, said the map symbolises the first connection between Eastern and Western thinking and commerce.
The Bell Library's focus "is on the development of trade and how that drove civilisation - how that constant desire to find new markets to sell new products led to exchanges of knowledge, science, technology and really drove civilisation," Bell said. "So (the map) fits in beautifully."
The map was being shown publicly for the first time in North America. It measures 12 feet by 5 feet (3.6 meters by 1.5 meters), printed on six rolls of rice paper.
The Library of Congress rarely exhibits artifacts it does not own because its holdings are so vast, but curators made an exception for the Ricci map. It will be on view in Washington through April alongside another of the world's rarest maps, the Waldseemuller world map, which was the first to name "America." Later, it will be shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Associate Librarian Deanna Marcum said the Ricci was one of the most important maps ever produced. It's extraordinary, she said, "for us to now be able to look back and see what was going on in China at a time when different parts of the world really knew so little about each other."
The library also will create a digital image of the map to be posted online for researchers and students to study later this year. The map also was the first to incorporate both Eastern and Western maps.
In a statement, Ti Bin Zhang, first secretary for cultural affairs at the Chinese Embassy, said the map represents "the momentous first meeting of East and West" and was the "catalyst for commerce."
No examples of the map are known to exist in China, where Ricci was revered and buried. Only a few original copies are known to exist, held by the Vatican's libraries and collectors in France and Japan. - Sapa-AP
See also:
Rare map, with China at the Center, Goes on Display
Ancient Navigators: Report on Wadi Gawasis Ship
NOVA hosts a special on "Pharaoh's Ship" (about Wadi Gawasis) tonight on PBS - hopefully it will run again.
Sailing into antiquity
BU archeologist unearths clues about ancient Egypt’s sea trade
By Colin Nickerson
Globe Correspondent / January 11, 2010
The archeological digs at Egypt’s Wadi Gawasis have yielded neither mummies nor grand monuments.
But Boston University archeologist Kathryn Bard and her colleagues are uncovering the oldest remnants of seagoing ships and other relics linked to exotic trade with a mysterious Red Sea realm called Punt.
“They were the space launches of their time,’’ Bard said of the epic missions to procure wondrous wares.
Although Nile River craft are well-known, the ability of ancient Egyptian mariners to ply hundreds of miles of open seas in cargo craft was not so fully documented.
Then the team led by Bard and an Italian archeologist, Rodolfo Fattovich, started uncovering maritime storerooms in 2004, putting hard timber and rugged rigging to the notion of pharaonic deepwater prowess.
In the most recent discovery, on Dec. 29, they located the eighth in a series of lost chambers at Wadi Gawasis after shoveling through cubic meters of rock rubble and wind-blown sand.
Only a few days earlier, Bard had been grading term papers in chilly Boston; now, with flashlight and trowel, she was probing a musty manmade cavern, one that might date back more than 4,000 years.
“When the last layer of sand was removed, stale, fetid air rushed from a crack,’’ Bard said by mobile phone from the dig site, a dried-out water course beside the Red Sea.
The reconnaissance of the room and its relics will take time and caution. The chamber’s most likely contents include ship parts, jugs, trenchers, and workaday linens, as well as hieroglyphic records.
“It’s a storeroom, not a royal tomb,’’ Bard stressed.
However prosaic they seem, the finds at Wadi Gawasis - including the ancestor of the modern package label - really speak of the glitter, gold, and glory of a long-ago civilization that bewitches us still.
The remote desert site at the sea’s edge was established solely to satisfy the cravings of Egypt’s rulers for the luxury goods of faraway Punt: ebony, ivory, obsidian, frankincense, precious metals, slaves, and strange beasts, such as dog-faced baboons and giraffes.
Starting in the middle of the last decade, the Bard-Fattovich team grabbed the attention of nautical archeologists with the unearthing of ship timbers, limestone anchors, steering oars, and hanks of marine rope. The precisely beveled deck beams, hull planks, and copper fittings belong to the oldest deep sea vessels ever found, dating back at least 3,800 years.
The craft appear to have been up to 70 feet long, powered by rowers and sail and capable of navigating deep seas.
“This is exciting stuff, important,’’ said Shelley Wachsmann, a top authority on Bronze Age ships at Texas A&M University’s Institute of Nautical Archaeology. He is not directly involved with Bard’s research.
“She’s found the first fragments of an ancient Egyptian seagoing vessel - a ship that actually sailed in pharaonic times,’’ Wachsmann said.
Now the privately funded work at Wadi Gawasis - and at the nearby port ruins, known as Mersa - is winning wider attention.
This month, Cairo’s Egyptian Museum will open a special exhibition, “Mersa/Wadi Gawasis: A Pharaonic Harbor on the Red Sea,’’ featuring, among other things, cargo seals, voyage accounts, and a shipping crate marked in hieroglyphic text: “Wonderful Things of Punt.’’
Said Rosanna Pirelli, curator of the exhibition: “This is an important scientific event, since the [discoveries] show a more advanced maritime technology’’ in ancient Egypt.
Meanwhile, the PBS science series NOVA tomorrow will broadcast “Building Pharaoh’s Ship,’’ a documentary detailing the reconstruction of a Wadi Gawasis vessel by archeologist Cheryl Ward of Coastal Carolina University. The film airs in Boston on WGBH (Channel 2) at 8 p.m.
The journeys upon the “Great Green’’ - as one hieroglyph-inscribed tablet found at Wadi Gawasis refers to the sea - involved fantastical feats of organization, navigational skill, and daring. Overland trade between Egypt and Punt dates to the third millennium BC. But by 1950 BC, the rival Kingdom of Kush had cut off traditional desert routes, forcing Egypt to find a new passage.
Egypt’s eastern coast - then as now - was too parched to sustain a full-time port and shipbuilding center.
So, using timber hewn from the mountains of Lebanon, Egyptian shipwrights built big vessels on the banks of the Nile, near modern Qift, according to archaeology-based theory.
“These were then disassembled and transported, with all other supplies, over the desert by donkey, a journey of 10 days’’ to reach Wadi Gawasis, Bard said. The site adjoined a lagoon, in which a port was built. The ship parts were marked and rebuilt by number or color code.
The lagoon has long since been swallowed by sand, but satellite images hint at the remains of a slipway or dock.
Sea voyages to Punt would have been so costly and required such a massive logistical effort - probably involving thousands of workers, scribes, quartermasters, sailors, and pack animals - that they probably were launched only a few times per century.
Punt’s whereabouts remain a mystery. Scholars can’t even pin the realm to a continent. Bard places it on the Horn of Africa, in the region of present-day Eritrea and parts of Sudan and Somalia. Other researchers put it on the Red Sea’s Asian shore, in today’s Yemen.
Voyages from the port appear to have been suspended for two or three centuries because of political instability. There is evidence that Queen Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh, dispatched a last sea mission to Punt around 1480 BC, partly to obtain “mortuary incense.’’
Wadi Gawasis held its secrets for millennia.
Then, on Christmas Day 2004 - Bard’s second season of exploring the site - she thrust her hand into an odd hole in a cliff’s wall. She was thrilled to feel nothing: the indication of a larger space beyond.
Removal of rock rubble revealed a room containing a mud brick, some beads, and a grinding stone. Antiquities, sure, but Egypt’s sands are littered with such millennia-old shards and scraps.
Instinct, however, told the professor from Boston that the sun-scorched slopes concealed more than broken pots and earthenware adornments. “It just felt like we were on to something,’’ Bard said.
Within days, the team had uncovered another human-hewn cavern - this one connecting to a series of underground storage rooms. Here were ships’ timbers. Here were sea anchors. Here were bundles of intact nautical rope.
Here was a tantalizing tale of ancient seafaring.
“The rope was neatly stored, coiled, and knotted, exactly as some sailor left it,’’ Bard said. “It was a moment perfectly frozen in time for 3,800 years.’’
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
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