Cave Art Caveat

The researchers dated 12 stencils of human hands and two images of large animals. Because they sampled the top layer of calcium carbonate, the uranium dating technique gave them a minimum age for each sample. They found that the oldest stencil was at least 39,900 years old—2,000 years older than the minimum age of the oldest European hand stencil. An image of a babirusa, or ‘pig-deer’, resembling an aubergine with stick-like legs jutting from each end, was estimated to be 35,400 years old—around the same age as the earliest large animal pictures in European caves.  [1]

One reason the Eurocentric view took hold was a chauvinistic belief that the first Europeans were more sophisticated than people elsewhere.[2].

I was told that the museum service was in a difficult situation, that the government was pressurising them to withhold the correct information. Censorship of guidebooks, museum displays, school textbooks, radio programmes, newspapers and films was a daily occurrence. Once a member of the Museum Board of Trustees threatened me with losing my job if I said publicly that blacks had built Zimbabwe. He said it was okay to say the yellow people had built it, but I wasn’t allowed to mention radio carbon date. [3]

When African nationalists were demanding independence in the 1960s, the (Ian) Smith regime actually sanctioned historians to write a fake history on the origins of Great Zimbabwe, denying its African origins.  This was not different from the accounts of the late 19^th century and early 20^th century antiquarians, which linked Great Zimbabwe with Phoenicia, with Saban Arabs, with the Egyptians and the rest of the near East. [4]

…on the basis of this phalanx that one can ascertain from the published photographs that the ‘horse’ of Surkotada, a Harappan period site in the little Rann of Kutch, … is likewise almost certainly a half-ass, albeit a large one.      

This was the saddest day for … my findings had to wait two decades for recognition, until a man from another continent came, examined the material and declared that “Sharma was right.” When will we imbibe intellectual courage not to look across borders for approval?

The most controversial feature at the site is a large, brick-lined enclosure that has been called a dockyard by the excavator of the site, S.R. Rao…K.T.M. Hedge has pointed out (1991, personal communication that this facility resulted from the removal of earth that was used to create the elevated portion of Lothal, on which the warehouse and other large structures of this district was built. … Thus the facility can be seen as an example of a South Asian tank something proposed by L.Leshnik and something with which I am in general agreement.[7]

Planktonic foraminifera thrive in open marine environment having at least moderate depth. Their rare presence on beaches has been attributed to high water which transport these specimens along with other material from the nearly off-shore zone, similarly it may be concluded that the presence of planktonic foraminifera in material from present study site indicate existence of high tidal range during Harappan times. [8]

The most distinctive feature of Lothal is the dockyard, which lies on the eastern edge of the site. This is a roughly trapezoid basin, enclosed by walls of burnt bricks. The eastern and western walls measured 212 m and 215 m respectively in length, while those on the north and south measured 37 m and 35 m. The dockyard had provisions for maintaining a regular level of water by means of a sluice gate and a spill channel. A mud-brick platform along the western embankment may have been the wharf where goods were loaded and unloaded. An alternative interpretation of this structure as a water reservoir is not convincing. [9]

The studies of surrounding archaeological sites indicate that the submerged structure may not be as old as suggested earlier. However, the date of these structures may be still a matter of debate. A stone block with Gujarati script, found from the area indicates a later date for the stone structures. Recent discoveries of stone anchors from all over the coasts of Indian Ocean suggest that Dwarka anchors may be related to Indo-Arab trade between 8th century and 15th century AD. However the date of stone anchors is subject to revision in the light of their association with some archaeological sites. [10]

The settlement on the southeastern side of the island was disturbed by wave action as can be seen from the cliff section facing the sea. Moreover a large quantity of pottery recovered from the intertidal zone supports the above inference. This evidence suggests that there was a rise in sea level, at least around Bet Dwaraka, but it is difficult to determine the causes of sea level rise at this stage. Later the site was deserted for a long period and again reoccupied in the 3rd-4th century BCE.[11] 

Nor can Indonesia claim to be the cradle of art. The paintings speak of a universal humanity—hand stencils and pictures of animals also dominate European art from around the same time. The origins of art surely lie in our ancestral home, Africa. In art, as in science, we are one people.

Truly speaking all that any one of us can claim, all that history entitles one to claim, is that one has the blood of all mankind in one’s veins. The fundamental unity of man from pole to pole is true, all else only relatively so. [12]