Two million year old find!

This was all over the news here in South Africa tonight - archeologists have found a cave in the Northern Cape (North of Cape Town which is in the western province) - they had footage of the cave which included paintings on the walls and tools etc - here is the breaking press release:

Johannesburg - A group of local and international archaeologists has discovered artefacts said to be two million years old inside a Northern Cape cave, the SABC reported.

The archaeologists from Canada, South Africa and Israel said it had taken more than 50 years to make the breakthrough inside the Wonderwerk cave outside Kuruman.

They have found 30 artefacts.

The team says the cave itself bears testimony to what has been described as the home to the origin of human culture.

- SAPA

www.news24.com...

(ex tags)

[edit on Sun Dec 21 2008 by Jbird]

ummm.....wow. just wow. we went from sumeria being the birthplace of civilization 6000 years old, to 2 million year old artifacts in a cave.

I'm thinking Homonoids, not Homosapiens. I don't think we ran around for almost 2 million years without thinking of building a city.

GREAT FIND!!!!

Wow, it doesn’t get much more exciting than this (IMO).
I can’t wait to see some photos and read up on more info!
Thanks for the post - great find!
S&F!

*P*E*A*C*E*

Can't seem to find any more info on it??

Would love for there to be something in this

Here is some more info on the caves;

www.southafrica.com...

www.places.co.za...

Details are a little sketchy on the latest finds - if I see anything in the newspapers ill scan them in.

reply to post by twodee


I mean on the actual find itself?

if it was all over the news, i would have thought other agencies/countries would have picked it up by now.

I appreciate the links so i get a good idea of roughly where it is... but is there any more info on these finds?
I would have thought more than one website would be carrying the story...

Originally posted by blupblup
reply to post by twodee

 

I mean on the actual find itself?

if it was all over the news, i would have thought other agencies/countries would have picked it up by now.

I appreciate the links so i get a good idea of roughly where it is... but is there any more info on these finds?
I would have thought more than one website would be carrying the story...

It was on SABC (South African Broadcasting Corp) and the article cites the SABC reports - Ill get the paper tomorrow and pop anything I find there up here.

reply to post by twodee


I'll keep checking back on news searches and alike.... nothing as yet though

Thanks though

I emailed the museum director - (bare in mind its Summer holidays here - so things have sloooowed down a bit).

reply to post by twodee


Take that evangelicals!

People have been excavating and classifying their findings from this cave for decades.

This recent announcement, if it holds up, really pushes the timeline back though. From what I've read, earlier finds there dated to at most a "mere" million years ago.

Here's a link to a PDF about this excellent site.

Obviously, the occupants were not Homo Sapiens, so I don't exactly understand the comment about Sumer.

In addition, no evidence of any civilization has been found in or around the cave, so, again, why is a poster comparing this with Mesopotamia?

Harte

Excellent find

The site runs horizontally for 193 m into the base of a low conical foothill on the eastern flank of the Kuruman Hills. It is a very ancient solution cavity, exposed at its northern end by hillside erosion, in in stratified dolomitic limestone belonging to the 2,3 billion year old Ghaap Plateau Dolomite Formation.

here.

I'm struggling to find any sources to verify this story, and the above quotation makes me a little skeptical.

The Dolomite rock which composes the surface land of the surrounding area and the cave itself is about 2,3 billion years old. Now if the rock cave was created through chemical erosion ('solution cavity'), surely it would have taken longer than a mere 3000 years to carve out the large cave system. Considering that it has taken this long to uncover these particular artifacts, I would assume they must have been hidden somewhere deep within the cave, an area which may be relatively new compared to the entrance of the cave (which would erode first). So I find it hard to believe that the cave could have been inhabited, let alone have existed, 2 million years ago.

Here are some pictures of the area

Kuruman, the city near the caves:


The entrance of the cave from here:


Inside the cave:



edit: Just realised that I confused my millions and billions from the above quote. Argument moot.

Oh, there are plenty of old artifacts around. Our little monkey ancestors could make a few tools. Some of them pretty good, too. But if you don't count Atlantis, we really didn't get around to building an actual civilization with stuff like language, laws and big towns until well after the end of the Younger Dryas. Too few of us too busy trying to scrape and survive the Ice Ages to settle down in towns and farms.

I am in no way an archiologist or anything remotely close, but I thought carbon dating could only go back like 100,00 years or something. If there is a limit on carbon dating, how is it that we have any idea how old these things are? If there were upright walking people here 2 million years ago (i have dr evils voice in my head when I say 2 million) then there were people here when dinosaurs walked. It would be stupid to assume that there were people, then they died, then we had to be created again by changing from tadpoles. This is the kind of thing that if it's real would be hushed up by the vatican. They don't want to have to back track on any of their teachings so might as well hide it.

Amazing if true. I look forward to more info on this.

They touch on things like that in this book: Earth's Forbidden Secrets which is found in this thread.

It may prove a little helpful.

reply to post by Dirk Gently


in the middle of reading that book which i also found in that thread.
if anyone is interested in this recent cave findings and the such i highly suggest you read the book linked. i have saved it to my HD and am only around 80 pages in, and i can tell you i am truly amazed. it also is similar to the recent thread about a ring found in a 400 year old tomb.

highly suggest the book!!!

Originally posted by network dude
I am in no way an archiologist or anything remotely close, but I thought carbon dating could only go back like 100,00 years or something. If there is a limit on carbon dating, how is it that we have any idea how old these things are?

It's a dicey prospect.

Objects found withing the detritus of the cave floor, buried along with the artifacts (I believe the PDF I linked mentioned six feet (or 6 meters) of dirt) are dated by the strata they lay in.

The upper strata can be dated with C14. But there are other methods for dating objects to the last time they were exposed to the sunlight like thermoluminescence dating.

Originally posted by network dudeIf there were upright walking people here 2 million years ago (i have dr evils voice in my head when I say 2 million) then there were people here when dinosaurs walked.

You really can't visualize the difference between 8 million and 60 million?

8 million years ago, there were primates that are the ancestors of humans and apes.

60 million years ago the last dinosaurs died out.

Originally posted by network dudeIt would be stupid to assume that there were people, then they died, then we had to be created again by changing from tadpoles. This is the kind of thing that if it's real would be hushed up by the vatican. They don't want to have to back track on any of their teachings so might as well hide it.

"Human" means any member of the species Homo. That includes Erectus, who was here for a very long time.

Google him up sometime and be astounded at how long Erectus was around.

Originally posted by network dude
I am in no way an archiologist or anything remotely close, but I thought carbon dating could only go back like 100,00 years or something. If there is a limit on carbon dating, how is it that we have any idea how old these things are?

The limit acts in the reverse way..

The half life of carbon is around 5700 years, so we can only date things from 5700 years ago and before that. Carbondating isn't good for more recent artifacts.

Originally posted by Sliick
ummm.....wow. just wow. we went from sumeria being the birthplace of civilization 6000 years old, to 2 million year old artifacts in a cave.

I'm thinking Homonoids, not Homosapiens. I don't think we ran around for almost 2 million years without thinking of building a city.

GREAT FIND!!!!

The pyramids in giza, are suposed to be two thousand years old and there bairly standing, what makes you think that a two million year old city would be still standing.

Humans were around two million years ago, there is 100percent proof of this, if you only open your eyes, and do some research..

2,000,000 years?

So I guess the Bible is wrong then?