6,000-Year-Old Skull Comes From
Oldest Known Tsunami Victim -
Το κρανίο 6.000 ετών προέρχεται από το παλαιότερο γνωστό θύμα από τσουνάμι
Το κρανίο 6.000 ετών προέρχεται από το παλαιότερο γνωστό θύμα από τσουνάμι
A skull found in 1929 in Aitape,
northern Papua New Guinea, has been identified as coming from a tsunami victim,
the oldest example we know of.
When geologist Paul Hossfeld found
the Aitape skull, it aroused interest because it was at first thought to have
belonged to Homo erectus, but has since been identified as being from a modern
human who lived approximately 6,000 years ago. Palaeontologists have continued
to study it as one of the earliest examples of human remains from the region.
Dr Mark Golitko of the University of
Notre Dame considered the skull sufficiently important to lead a team to Aitape
to examine the place where it was found, seeking evidence of what killed its
unfortunate owner. "We don't know exactly where Hossfeld found the skull,
but I think we were within 100 meters of the original location based on his
description,” Golitko said in a statement.
Analysis technology has improved a
lot in 88 years, allowing Golitko and his collaborators to study the sand on
the beach and the shells deposited there. The sediments from which the skull
was extracted were rich in diatom shells – single-celled marine organisms whose
shells provide a wealth of information about the temperature and salinity of
where they grew. These shells have been broken in a way that can only happen in
very high energy water.
Along with the size of the sediment
grains and the local chemistry, all this pointed to a tsunami sweeping the
diatoms onto land and pulverizing them in the process. Papua New Guinea has
suffered several devastating tsunamis in recent decades, including one in
Aitape itself that killed 2,000 people in 1998, so this indicates the area was
similarly seismically volatile at the time.
Indeed the similarity between the
sediments in which the skull was found, and those deposited in 1998, increased
the team's confidence in their findings. In PLOS ONE they argue the skull
belonged to someone who was killed and buried in the tsunami, or had died
previously and been buried nearby, with the tsunami disturbing the grave site
so the skull became mixed with sediments.
The skull dates back to one of the
few periods in the last few million years when sea levels, at least locally,
were higher than they are today. Consequently, even though the skull was found
quite a way inland from the ocean, the tsunami occurred at a time when the
location would have been more vulnerable to threats from the seas.
The researchers made an effort to
communicate their research to the Aitape community. Mark Golitko
http://pirforosellin.blogspot.gr/
- Επιτρέπεται η αναδημοσίευση του περιεχομένου της ιστοσελίδας εφόσον αναφέρεται ευκρινώς η πηγή του και υπάρχει ενεργός σύνδεσμος(link ). Νόμος 2121/1993 και κανόνες Διεθνούς Δικαίου που ισχύουν στην Ελλάδα.
- Επιτρέπεται η αναδημοσίευση του περιεχομένου της ιστοσελίδας εφόσον αναφέρεται ευκρινώς η πηγή του και υπάρχει ενεργός σύνδεσμος(link ). Νόμος 2121/1993 και κανόνες Διεθνούς Δικαίου που ισχύουν στην Ελλάδα.
Επισήμανση
Ορισμένα αναρτώμενα από το διαδίκτυο κείμενα ή
εικόνες (με σχετική σημείωση της πηγής), θεωρούμε ότι είναι δημόσια. Αν υπάρχουν
δικαιώματα συγγραφέων, παρακαλούμε ενημερώστε μας για να τα αφαιρέσουμε. Επίσης
σημειώνεται ότι οι απόψεις του ιστολόγιου μπορεί να μην συμπίπτουν με τα
περιεχόμενα του άρθρου. Για τα άρθρα που δημοσιεύονται εδώ, ουδεμία ευθύνη εκ
του νόμου φέρουμε καθώς απηχούν αποκλειστικά τις απόψεις των συντακτών τους και
δεν δεσμεύουν καθ’ οιονδήποτε τρόπο το ιστολόγιο.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου