Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [238]
Moir recalled that Baxter once gave him a small oval object that did not seem to warrant close inspection. Three years later, however, the round stone object ( Figure 5.3) was noticed by Henri Breuil: “While I was staying in Ipswich with my friend J. Reid Moir, we were examining together a drawer of objects from the base of the Red Crag at Bramford, when J. Reid Moir showed me a singular eggshaped object, which had been picked up on account of its unusual shape. Even at first sight it appeared to me to present artificial striations and facets, and I therefore examined it more closely with a mineralogist’s lens [ Figure 5.4 ]. This examination showed me that my first impression was fully justified, and that the object had been shaped by the hand of man. . . . The whole surface . . . has been scraped with a flint, in such a way that it is covered with a series of facets running fairly regularly from end to end. . . . The scraping described above covers the whole surface of the object, and penetrates into its irregularities. As it stands, the object is entirely artificial, and, although somewhat smaller, it recalls the steatite sling stones of New Caledonia” (Moir 1929, p. 63). According to Moir (1929, p. 64), several other archeologists had confirmed Breuil’s hypotheses. Moir, who believed the object had been shaped when soft, performed experiments with clay and flint, and he obtained results that were very much the same.
Figure 5.3. A sling stone from the detritus bed beneath the Red Crag at Bramford, England (Moir 1929, p. 64). At least Pliocene in age, the sling stone could be as old as the Eocene.
Figure 5.4. A drawing showing marks of intentional shaping on the sling stone from the detritus bed beneath the Red Crag at Bramford, England (Moir 1929, p. 65).
Moir (1929, p. 65) wrote: “it becomes clear that the presence of this object at such an horizon . . . points to the fact that man of the Pliocene period had already progressed some distance upon the evolutionary path, as it seems impossible to imagine any ape-like creature producing artifacts such as have now been found in the detritus bed.” Sling stones or bola stones represent a level of technological sophistication universally associated with modern Homo sapiens. It may be recalled that the detritus bed below the Red Crag contains fossils and sediments from habitable land surfaces ranging from Pliocene to Eocene in age. Therefore the Bramford sling stone could be anywhere from 2 to 55 million years old.
It is altogether remarkable that almost without exception scientists have ignored the Bramford sling stone. It was found by a trained excavator, reported by a reputable archeologist, and examined by many experts including the famous Professor Breuil of the Institute of Human Paleontology in France. Some might object that it was found by a hired digger and not immediately noticed. But many of the Java Homo erectus fossils reported by von Koenigswald, which now figure prominently in every textbook of general paleoanthropology, were uncovered by native collectors. This is also true of the Petralona skull, found by Greek peasants in a cave. These cases, and many others like them, will be discussed in coming chapters. If these finds are accepted, despite the questionable circumstances of their discovery, then the Bramford sling stone deserves equal treatment. Otherwise we have another good example of scientists applying a double standard in the treatment of anomalous evidence.
5.3.2 Bolas from Olduvai Gorge (Early Pleistocene)