Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [165]
Maybe it would have been better if the flint had been found in an undifferentiated stratum. The crucial point, however, is this: if Villanova’s criterion were to be applied in all cases, this would wipe out most of the paleoanthropological evidence now accepted. The number of human fossils found in undifferentiated strata directly alongside characteristic fossils is rather small. For example, as we shall see in Chapter 9, the initial Java Homo erectus discovery was made in strata that had undergone considerable mixing, and almost all of the later Java Homo erectus finds were made on or quite near the surface. Beijing Homo erectus was found in cave deposits. Another point that will emerge in our discussion is this: sometimes anomalous finds are made in undifferentiated strata alongside characteristic fossils, and then some other means will be found to discredit them. Indeed, as previously mentioned, in his report to the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology at Brussels in 1872, Ribeiro (1873a, p. 97) did tell of finding flint implements “deep inside” undifferentiated Miocene limestone beds.
Following Villanova, Cartailhac spoke. He said that if the question of the Miocene age of the implements were to be decided on the grounds of actual scientific evidence, the answer would have to be affirmative. Cartailhac believed that the coloration of many of the surface finds indicated they were eroded from Miocene beds, and he pointed out that some specimens had remnants of Miocene sediments adhering to them.
Cartailhac then asked the members to consider a particular specimen from Ribeiro’s collection, which he had previously studied at the anthropological exposition in Paris. He stated: “I have seen on it two bulbs of percussion, and possibly a third, and a point that seems to truly be the result of intentional work. It has on its surface not a coloration that could be removed by washing but rather a surface incrustation of Miocene sandstone tightly adhering to it. A chemist would not permit us to say that such a deposit could form and attach itself to a flint lying, for whatever amount of time, on a sandstone surface” (Choffat 1884b, p. 100). In other words, the flint must have been lying within the Miocene bed itself, when it was formed. Cartailhac admitted that natural action might in rare occasions produce a bulb of percussion, but to have two on the same piece would be an absolute miracle. He believed that the many very good specimens discovered on the Miocene surface, where there was absolutely no trace of any other deposit, were really Miocene implements that had weathered out of the rock.
One may certainly disagree with Cartailhac. But then we may here note that in more recent times, the famous Lucy australopithecine fossils were found by D. C. Johanson on the surface of Pliocene deposits in Ethiopia, from which they were presumed to have weathered out (Johanson and Edey 1981, pp. 16 –18). As we shall see in Chapter 9, the same is also true of many of the Java Homo erectus finds. Are these discoveries also to be doubted? Perhaps, but the real point is that the application of standards should be consistent. Unfortunately, as we shall see throughout this book, standards tend to be applied selectively, in conformity with the biases and expectations of the researcher.
After Cartailhac finished his remarks, Bellucci recounted his own noteworthy discovery of an implement (Figure 4.6, p. 221) in the Miocene conglomerate at Otta (Choffat 1884b, pp. 101–102). Before extracting it, he had shown it to many members of the commission, who saw that it was firmly integrated into the stratum (Figure 4.7, p. 222). It had been so firmly