Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [164]
Figure 4.7. Stratigraphy of the site at the base of Monte Redondo hill in Otta, Portugal, where G. Bellucci found the implement pictured in Figure 4.6: (1) sandstone; (2) Miocene sandstone conglomerate with flints; (3) surface deposit of eroded flints. The arrow marked “X” indicates the position of the implement (de Mortillet 1883, p. 101).
Choffat (1884b, pp. 92– 93) presented, in the form of answers to four questions, the conclusions of the commission members, who had not only examined the specimens Ribeiro exhibited at the Congress but also journeyed to Otta to conduct field investigations. The first two questions and answers dealt with the flints themselves: “(1) Are there bulbs of percussion on the flints on exhibition and on those found during the excursion? The commission declares unanimously that there are bulbs of percussion, and some pieces have several. (2) Are bulbs of percussion proof of intentional work? There are different opinions. They may be summarized as follows: de Mortillet considers that just one bulb of percussion is sufficient proof of intentional work, while Evans believes that even several bulbs on one piece do not give certitude of intentional chipping but only a great probability of such.” Here it may once more be noted that modern authorities such as Leland W. Patterson (1983) consider one or more bulbs of percussion to be very good indicators of intentional work.
The remaining two questions concerned the positions in which the flints were found: “(3) Are the worked flints found at Otta from the interior of the beds or the surface? There are diverse opinions. Mr. Cotteau believes all are from the surface, and that those found embedded within the strata came down through crevasses in the beds. Mr. Capellini, however, believes that pieces found on the surface were eroded from the interior of the beds. De Mortillet, Evans, and Cartailhac believe there are two time periods to which the flints may be referred, the first being the Tertiary, the other being the Old and New Stone Ages of the Quaternary. The flints of the two periods are easy to distinguish by their form and patina. (4) What is the age of the strata of the worked flints? After only a moment’s discussion the members declared they were in perfect accord with Ribeiro.” In other words, the strata were Miocene, although some members of the commission believed that the flints found lying on the surface had not weathered out of the Miocene rock but instead had been dropped there in fairly recent times.
In the discussion that followed the presentation of Choffat’s report, Capellini said: “I believe these flints to be the product of intentional work. If you do not admit that, then you must also doubt the flints of the later Stone Ages” (Choffat 1884b, pp. 97–98). According to Capellini, Ribeiro’s Miocene specimens were almost identical to undoubted Quaternary flint implements. Capellini’s remarks strike at one of the central issues in the treatment of scientific evidence—the application of a double standard in determining what evidence is to be accepted and what is to be rejected. If the standards used by the scientific establishment to reject finds such as Ribeiro’s were applied in the same manner to conventionally accepted finds, then the accepted finds would also have to be rejected. And this would deprive the theory of human evolution of a substantial portion of its evidential foundation.
The next speaker, Villanova, provided a good example of the double standard treatment. Villanova was very doubtful, even about the Bellucci find. He said that in order to remove all cause for suspicion one would have to discover an unmistakably genuine implement firmly embedded not in a Miocene conglomerate but in the middle of undifferentiated Miocene limestone and alongside characteristic fossils (Choffat 1884b, p. 99). A conglomerate is a mass of rock composed of rounded stones of various sizes cemented