Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [269]
Concerning the andesite, we have already noted that there occur in the same region andesite deposits of the same age as the prevolcanic gravels at Tuolumne Table Mountain. Furthermore, the fact that andesite artifacts were found in more than one mine shaft under Tuolumne Table Mountain strengthens the supposition that boulders of andesite may have been present in the rivers that deposited the prevolcanic gravels. Furthermore, andesite mortars, although heavy, may have been transported by boat or raft, or even by foot.
As far as the obsidian spearheads are concerned, it is well established that Neolithic cultures all over the world have traded such objects over extended areas. Thus even if no raw obsidian was locally available, that would pose no obstacle to the presence of finished obsidian blades in the lowermost prevolcanic gravels at Tuolumne Table Mountain, which are 33 –55 million years old.
In countering Neale’s direct testimony that he found stone tools in prevolcanic gravels at Tuolumne Table Mountain, Holmes and Sinclair could, in the end, raise only the vague suspicion that the objects had somehow been recently introduced into the Montezuma mine. Sinclair (1908, p. 120) stated: “There was every indication of a former Indian camp site in this vicinity. Half an hour’s search resulted in the discovery of a pestle and a flat stone muller, a few yards north of the mine buildings. Similar discoveries were reported by Holmes. South of the tunnel, a large permanent mortar was found. The material of this mortar is latite from the cliff above. It is quite possible that the implements mentioned by Mr. Neale came from this Indian camp.”
In similar fashion, Holmes (1899, pp. 451– 452) questioned: “Is it not more reasonable to suppose that some of the typical implements of the Indians living at the mouth of Montezuma mine should have been carried in for one purpose or another, embedded in the gravels, and afterwards dug up and carried out to the superintendent than that the implements of a Tertiary race should have been left in the bed of a Tertiary torrent to be brought out as good as new, after the lapse of vast periods of time, into the camp of a modern community using identical forms?” But the reasonableness of Holmes’s supposition is questionable. There is, in fact, ample reason to believe that the implements found by Neale were not carried into the Montezuma shaft but were deposited in Tertiary times. First of all, in the passage quoted above, Sinclair referred to a large, immovable, permanent mortar found near the mine entrance, but the mortars found by Neale in the mine were portable mortars. Also, mortars much like those found in the California mines have been discovered at various sites around the world, including Jarmo and Beidha in the Middle East. This shows that such stone mortars are likely to have been made by any people, living at any time or place.
Furthermore, it has been shown in Africa that modern tribes use the same kind of cobble implements found in the lower levels of Olduvai Gorge. The similarity of the Olduvai implements to modern ones in use in the same region did not prevent acceptance of their Early Pleistocene antiquity. Therefore, the similarity of implements found in the prevolcanic gravels at Tuolumne Table Mountain to those found on the surface in the same region should not be taken as sufficient cause to deny their great age.
About the obsidian spearheads found by Neale, Holmes (1899, p. 453) reported: “Desiring