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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 |
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Ancient Bones On Santa Rosa
Just off the coast of Southern California, lies Santa Rosa, one of the Channel Islands. There, recently, two female thigh bones have been dug out of a gully at Arlington Canyon. Radiocarbon-dated at 13,000 years, they are 1,400 years older than the benchmark Clovis sites. The significance of the Santa Rosa bones is explained in the following quotation.
"The new discovery is likely to be controversial in part because many scientists say that the old skeletons found in the past few years around the western United States do not resemble modern Native Americans. Detailed examinations of the skulls reveal slender faces, narrower brain cavities, high foreheads and slightly protruding chins that are more typical of Caucasoid peoples.
"Some of them bear striking resemblance to a very ancient race called the Ainu, a maritime people who were the forerunners of the Polynesians and long ago occupied Japan and China."
(Polakovic, Gary; "Channel Island Woman's Bones May Rewrite History," Los Angeles Times, April 11, 1999. Cr. E. Roy. Abbreviated version in the Houston Chronicle, April 12, 1999. Cr. D. Phelps.)
Comments. It should be noted that Santa Rosa is also known for ancient "fire areas" ("hearths"?) where dwarf mammoths were roasted over 13,000 years ago. (See Ancient Man for details.)
Stretching our theme a few thousand more miles, Jomon-style pottery has turned up on the coast of Ecuador.