Maybe We are not so Far Out on the Fringe

[Charlie Hatchett]

Allan Shumaker posted this over at Virginia's forum:

This website is the course outline with syllabus for an American Archeology course at Indiana.

http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix ... mod04.html

I notice a lot of things we have discussed here and found several others that may be worth investigating.

In particular note:

B. Cultural staging area in Asia:
1. What could have been the people like who originally might have come over?
a. Such a question involves consideration of when we hypothesize the first people came.
b. Northeast Asia can be perceived as a sort of "cultural filter" that "tests" potential migrants:
c. Through much of Pleistocene times northeast Asia was COLD.
d. Thus, merely to make it to such a gateway to the New World would have required cultural adaptations to cold climates.
2. The earliest human colonizers of cold areas were Homo erectus.
a. Thus, conceivably Homo erectus living in China at least some 300,000 years ago could have made it to the gateway. b. If they made it, what kinds of evidence would we expect?
(1) Physical evidence in the form of fragments of their bones.
(2) Technological evidence in the form of their tools, such as chopper bifaces.

[Minimalist]

A kindred spirit? Maybe send the prof a couple of pictures of some of your best stuff and tell him to "keep up the good work."

Who knows? You may get an answer.

[Charlie Hatchett]

A kindred spirit? Maybe send the prof a couple of pictures of some of your best stuff and tell him to "keep up the good work."

Who knows? You may get an answer.

I definitely plan on contacting him. His name is Lewis C. Messenger. I
Googled his name and came up with this:

http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/members.html

I'm liking what I'm seeing!!

[Cognito]

Charlie, let's do a two-step on him!

[Charlie Hatchett]

From: Charlie Hatchett
Date: 5/3/2007 11:30:07 AM
To: Lewis Messenger
Subject: Keep up the good work!!

Hi Lewis.

I was reading over a portion of your American Archeology course outline, and was pleasantly surprised to see being taught, at least, the plausibility of H. erectus being in N.A.


"...

B. Cultural staging area in Asia:
1. What could have been the people like who originally might have come over?
A. Such a question involves consideration of when we hypothesize the first people came.
B. Northeast Asia can be perceived as a sort of "cultural filter" that "tests" potential migrants:
C. Through much of Pleistocene times northeast Asia was COLD.
D. Thus, merely to make it to such a gateway to the New World would have required cultural adaptations to cold climates.
2. The earliest human colonizers of cold areas were Homo Erectus.
A. Thus, conceivably Homo Erectus living in China at least some 300,000 years ago could have made it to the gateway. B. If they made it, what kinds of evidence would we expect?
(1) Physical evidence in the form of fragments of their bones.
(2) Technological evidence in the form of their tools, such as chopper bifaces.

..."


I thought you might find interest in the following artifacts being recovered from Pleistocene terraces along a creek in central Texas:

http://cayman.globat.com/~bandstexas.co ... s%203.html


The USGS performed some initial U-Series dating on secondary carbonate deposited in the flake channels of one of the bifaces and came up with a very tentative date of ca. 147,500 B.P. At that point Warren Sharp, with Berkeley Geochronology Center, was enlisted to help out. He is in the process of analyzing 6 more specimens.

Once again, good work. It's good to see the students being taught to think outside the box, unconstrained by previous theories.

Cheers,

Charlie Hatchett
www.preclovis.com

[Charlie Hatchett]

Charlie, let's do a two-step on him!

You hold him down, and I'll smother him with kisses!!

[Minimalist]

This course will document the cultural trajectories of North American Indian cultures emphasizing times prior to European colonization. We will examine the 20,000-plus-year archaeological record for evidence of the original migrations to the New World.

He's definitely not a CLUB member in good standing!

[Digit]

Riiiight! So HE makes it to the Eastern most limits of Asia, or indeed to the Americas. Seems reasonable.
Noow! Am I now supposed to believe that having left colonies all the way from Africa to the Americas he finally died out to the very last individual?
Seems highly unreasonable to me.
What does the club say on that I wonder?

[Rokcet Scientist]

Riiiight! So HE makes it to the Eastern most limits of Asia, or indeed to the Americas. Seems reasonable.
Noow! Am I now supposed to believe that having left colonies all the way from Africa to the Americas he finally died out to the very last individual?
Seems highly unreasonable to me.
What does the club say on that I wonder?

Homo Neanderthalensis supposedly went extinct in the space of only 6,000 years. There are no reasonable explanations for how or why yet either. At all. We totally grope in the dark. And that was 'only' 29,000 years BC.
So I'm not holding out much hope of finding the clues to HE anytime soon...

OTOH . . . if they can isolate T.Rex' DNA . . .

[Charlie Hatchett]

OTOH . . . if they can isolate T.Rex' DNA . .

Good point.

[Charlie Hatchett]

You were right, Min, he did reply:

Thanks Charlie! Thinking outside of the box indeed is something I try to instill in my students - in all kinds of subjects. Your attached site was very interesting and I would be glad to hear more if it comes along.

Thanks!

Skip Messenger
Department of Anthropology
Hamline University

>>> "Charlie Hatchett" <charliehatchett@sbcglobal.net> 5/3/2007 11:30 AM >>>
Hi Lewis.

I was reading over a portion of your American Archeology course outline, and
was pleasantly surprised to see being taught, at least, the plausibility of
H. erectus being in N.A.


"...

B. Cultural staging area in Asia:
1. What could have been the people like who originally might have come over?

A. Such a question involves consideration of when we hypothesize the first
people came.
B. Northeast Asia can be perceived as a sort of "cultural filter" that
tests" potential migrants:
C. Through much of Pleistocene times northeast Asia was COLD.
D. Thus, merely to make it to such a gateway to the New World would have
required cultural adaptations to cold climates.
2. The earliest human colonizers of cold areas were Homo Erectus.
A. Thus, conceivably Homo Erectus living in China at least some 300,000
years ago could have made it to the gateway. B. If they made it, what kinds
of evidence would we expect?
(1) Physical evidence in the form of fragments of their bones.
(2) Technological evidence in the form of their tools, such as chopper
bifaces.

..."


I thought you might find interest in the following artifacts being recovered
from Pleistocene terraces along a creek in central Texas:

http://cayman.globat.com/~bandstexas.co ... s%203.html


The USGS performed some initial U-Series dating on secondary carbonate
deposited in the flake channels of one of the bifaces and came up with a
very tentative date of ca. 147,500 B.P. At that point Warren Sharp, with
Berkeley Geochronology Center, was enlisted to help out. He is in the
process of analyzing 6 more specimens.

Once again, good work. It's good to see the students being taught to think
outside the box, unconstrained by previous theories.

Cheers,

Charlie Hatchett
www.preclovis.com
charliehatchett@sbcglobal.net

[Minimalist]

I'm not surprised....the movement is still eagerly accepting converts!

[Charlie Hatchett]

I'm not surprised....the movement is still eagerly accepting converts!

Well, that's part of what we do, Min. Present evidence in an unbiased fashion, with no knowledge filter, and then allow minds to decide. It's cool to be involved with this major transistion in N.A., and even Worldwide anthropology, ey?

[Minimalist]

Well...I'm more of a cheerleader



than a member of the team....




but, yeah....it's cool.

[Digit]

Count me in!