Accuracy of dating using science

[Guest guest]

Here is a piece from the BBC, which gives us food for thought, before we

decide to wholeheartedly accept contemporary scientists' dating for the

Azhwars and Acharyas.

 

adiyen

jaganath.

 

 

 

Scientists have found fossils and stone artefacts in Indonesia which

they think could have belonged to the earliest sea-faring humans.

 

The findings, published in the scientific journal, Nature, push back the

dates for human water-crossings by as much as 800,000 years.

 

The stone tools were discovered on the island of Flores in east

Indonesia by archaeologists from the University of New England.

 

They expected them to belong to our modern ancestors - early homo

sapiens.

 

Only intelligent humans could possibly have crossed the 25 kms of deep

water that separated the east coast of Bali and the island.

 

 

<Picture: [ image: Skull of homo erectus]>Skull of homo erectus. But

using sophisticated dating techniques, the scientists found that the

tools were at least 800,000 years old and must have belonged to our much

earlier ancestors, homo erectus.

 

The BBC science correspondent said although homo erectus was not

normally credited with much in the way of intelligence or technical

skills, the archaeologists think that these early humans must have been

resourceful enough to build sea-worthy craft, probably from bamboo, and

use them to make repeated crossings to and from the island.

 

Until this discovery it was thought that the first human seafarers were

homo sapiens - and the earliest sea crossings were thought to be the

colonisation of Australia from Indonesia only about 40,000 years ago.

 

The archaeologists think that scientists have severely underestimated

the capabilities, intelligence, and language of homo erectus, and that

it is now time to re-assess the facts, and possibly re-write the

textbooks.