"civilizations older than anything previously imagined"

[dasa]

Archaeologists announce discovery of underwater man-made wall

 

2002/11/26

The China Post staff

 

Underwater archaeologists yesterday announced the discovery of a man-made wall submerged under the waters of the Pescadores Islands that could be at least six and seven thousand years old.

 

Steve Shieh, head of the planning committee for the Taiwan Underwater Archaeology Institute, said that divers found several places along the wall where holes were apparently filled up with pebbles, possibly in an attempt to block winds.

 

The wall was located by a team of divers working in cooperation with the National Museum of History and the Department of Environmental Sciences at the National Sun Yat-sen University.

 

In August, researchers scanning waters in the area with sonar discovered what appeared to be the remnants of four to five man-made walls running along the bottom of the sea.

 

The proximity of the wall to a similar structure found in 1976 suggests that it may be further evidence of a pre-historical civilization.

 

A three meter high underwater wall was discovered by amateur divers in waters off the nearby Hu-ching (Tiger Well) Island.

 

British archaeologists examined the find and proclaimed that the wall was probably made between 7,000 and 12,000 years ago.

 

Six years ago, evidence of a sunken city in the area was found when amateur divers found the remains of what appear to be city walls taking the shape of a cross on the ocean floor.

 

Further examination suggested the ruins were made between seven and ten thousand years ago as well, although Japanese researchers put the walls construction at between 10,000 and 80,000 years ago.

 

Taken together, the discoveries have helped to overturn the established notion that Taiwan's earliest aboriginal inhabitants made their way here from mainland China some 6,000 years ago.

 

The underwater finds are part of a growing body of evidence suggesting the existence of civilizations older than anything previously imagined.

 

On this theory, entire cities ended up underwater after sea levels rose towards the end of the last Ice Age, a date cited by Plato as being some 9,600 years ago.

 

One of the most dramatic examples of evidence of civilizations found on ocean beds has been megalithic structures off the coast of Yonaguni-jima in Japan http://www.indiadivine.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB1&Number=15253&page=3&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1 that have been interpreted in some circles as being built for sacrificial rites. According to Shieh, a similar structure has been located off of the shores of Taiwan's Pingtung County.

 

Shieh said that he and his association have plans to explore that location as well as what appears to be a man-made path on the ocean floor off of Taitung County sometime next year.