2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
In the latest issue of Nature, a study was published that proposed new dates for the initial population of America. The authors of the article discovered in California the bones of a mammoth that lived 130 thousand years ago. Some of the bones were, according to scientists, broken by stone tools, which indicates that people moved to the continent much earlier than it was believed. The publication caused a mixed reaction in the scientific community. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the point of view of the anthropologist Stanislav Drobyshevsky, who did not see any discovery in the sensational study.
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Alleged weapons from Cerutti Mastodon
When was America settled? Until now, reliable figures fluctuated about 14 thousand years ago, more controversial - about 25-30, then the field of fantasy began. Of course, more than once or twice it was stated that evidence of the presence of people in America was found 50 thousand years ago, 300 thousand and even two or three million, but everyone looked at them askance, bowing their heads low. There were always too many problems with large dates: either an incomprehensible coal was dated, which did not have a clear connection with the tools, or the tools themselves were not obvious, or in general it was a question of a couple of scratches on the bones of some sloths.
But what can stop the desire to make your land the most ancient? Nothing! And here is a new sensation from this endless series: in sunny California, not far from the city of San Diego, at the location of Cerutti Mastodon, the bones of a mastodon were found (journalists even loudly announced the discovery of a skeleton, although in reality these are 2 tusks, 3 molars, 4 vertebrae, fragments 16 ribs, 2 phalanges, 2 sesamoids, heads and fragments of the diaphysis of the right and left femurs). Yes, not simple, but broken-down. Yes, not just gouged, but with attached huge cobblestones - andesite pebbles in the shape and size of the core of the times of Ivan the Terrible. The bones show traces of breaking, and the tools show traces of chiseling bones. Experiments on cleaving elephant words, carried out in Kenya and Colorado, confirmed the authors of the discovery that a cutting site was indeed found in Cerutti Mastodon, where people mined proboscis bone marrow. Moreover, one of the tusks was stuck vertically into the ground. And most importantly, the thorium-uranium method showed that the animal died 130 thousand years ago!
And 130 thousand years ago, the earliest Neanderthals walked across Europe, and our ancestors, in a rather wild guise, ran across the African savannas. Who lived at that time in Asia, from where the path to America could lie, is not entirely clear, but, of course, everyone immediately thought about the Denisovites. The climate 130 thousand years ago was warmer than modern, so in theory Siberia was quite passable. The only problem is that there is no reliable evidence of the presence of people north of Altai at that time. The finds in Deering-Yuryakh in Yakutia have been transmitted many times, thermoluminescence speaks of 260-366 thousand years ago, although there are doubts that they may be younger than 135, or 50, or even 10 thousand years. In general, a complete mess. And where did the first Americans go from that time until the moment when we find them already at the end of the Pleistocene?
Or maybe it wasn't like that at all? There is always … BUT!
First, the bones of the animal are specifically redeposited. Surely they belong to the same beast, but found in slow flow sediments. The remains of other animals found nearby - wolves, horses, camels, deer, sloths and mammoths - also lie scattered in layers, without articulation. A tusk stuck vertically - usually this position indicates the redeposition of fragments, it is not at all necessary that someone should have stuck it on purpose. Dinosaur bones also sometimes lie in the ground in an extremely exotic way, but no one, except inveterate freaks, says that someone poked them on purpose.
Secondly, the traces of damage on the bones are very vague. Not a single clear, beautiful incision, but only small chips and worn scratches (some of which are suspiciously similar to traces of rock cleaning by archaeologists during excavations). Beautiful schemes for obtaining conical fragments during impacts are not very convincing, since the presence of such fragments in Cerutti Mastodon is postulated, but not proven in any way. There are no photos of such fragments, no repairs.
Third, the tools. Huge stone balls and shapeless debris. No traces of the manufacture of tools, not a single meaningful artificial chip, just worn out traces of impacts on something.
One of the arguments for the artificial destruction of bones is that large bones are damaged more than small ones. But personal experience of excavations shows that this is not such an exception. Small bones are more compact and only because sometimes they are even better preserved than large ones.
What is the bottom line? Fragments of animal bones with indistinct damage. The stones are also indistinctly damaged. And that's all. Why shouldn't the stones in the stream bed hit the bones lying there? What have Denisovites got to do with it?
Obviously, Cerutti Mastodon will now be included in a rather long list of dubious American locations, giving hope for something like that. The search for the earliest Americans continues …
