[meteorite-list] Aboriginal oral traditions of impacts and falls, and AD

From: E.P. Grondine <epgrondine_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 17:41:11 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <822149.23941.qm_at_web36906.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi Jerry (and Paul) -

First off, I want to thank Paul for gathering these citations together and providing them to the meteorite list, through the archive of which they will be available to others via word searches.

Jerry, as the Cambridge Conference shifted focus several years ago, I was not aware of much of the recent ethnographic research from Australia, aside from Dr. Abbott's geological work.

It is interesting to note the number of Australian researchers working through these materials, and to compare that with the number working though ehtnographic materials in the Americas - Firestone's team; and myself, working alone without any knowledge of their parallel work.

It is also interesting to note that Firestone's team was working solely on one impact event, and well funded, whereas I recovered many more impacts from the ethnographic materials which still await follow-up work by geologists and archaeologists.

What accounts for this difference? Anyone care to speculate? A large part of it may be due to the different manner in which impacts are viewed by the archaeo-astronomers of Australia and those in the Americas, a part due to the way impact studies are done in Australia and the Americas, and another large part of it has to do with the lack of money for Native American studies.

Given these differences, it is little wonder why Gene Shoemaker was working in Australia at the time of his death.

One major impact that needs to be worked on in the Pacific region is the one which washed away the megalithic civilization on Pohnpe. But then that impact was recent and large, and NASA has stated and insists (using its considerable resources to do so) that recent and large impacts have not occurred, as their existence violates their impact estimates. Materials on this should be available at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, and it should show up in the Chinese and Southeast Asian records as well, and these may have already have been found, but we do not know it yet.

In closing, I want to remind list participants that personally signed copies of my landmark book "Man and Impact in the Americas"
(http://archaeologica.boardbot.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2414) are available to list members directly from me for $20 plus $5 shipping US or $15 overseas shipping. Contact me off list for details.

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas




      
Received on Mon 01 Mar 2010 08:41:11 PM PST


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