As those who have followed my postings know, there is ample evidence that a crustal shift occurred over 12,000 years ago ending the Ice Age. I have also made the conjecture that the event was managed by our ancestors.
Also in my manuscript ‘paradigms shift’ I argue that the likely cradle of the full array of modern primates and humanity in particular was likely based in what can be described as Sunda, now mostly submerged due to the rise in sea levels.
That suggests that the maximum diversity should be centered in Indonesia and surrounds. Recent evidence is bearing this out and we are still in the early stages.
My point though is that complex cultural evidence should appear between 60,000 BP to 13,000 BP. Since I also suspect that much of humanity made itself scarce before the Pleistocene nonconformity, it is reasonable that such evidence should show a disconnect between the present era and the previous era.
Accordingly, it becomes obvious that the locale with the best chance of providing conforming evidence is Australia, not least because the shift turned it into an arid desert for the most part.
This article argues that the Bradshaw art is consistent with a settled society. Such a society was never associated with aboriginal culture so that can be immediately discarded. This leaves us with a completely different possible source for which we have as yet no other evidence. This art appears to predate completely the Pleistocene nonconformity.
Add to that the apparent modern skeleton of Mungo man aged at 60,000 BP and the fact that DNA work has shown no linkage to modern man at all and you have every pet theory tossed in the ash can just as we deluded ourselves into believing the present paradigm.
What this shows is that once one accepts the possibility of my conjectures regarding both the real antiquity of man and the Pleistocene nonconformity, that evidence gathering in Australia is likely to be profitable. However, I can not say this more strongly. All such evidence will typically be buried deep and be orders of magnitude more difficult to locate. Any stone work will be long since buried if it is recognizable at all. We really need a convenient volcano and none are available in Australia.
There are plenty of other issues, not least been the attempt to describe a whole world and related culture on the basis of a data point. It is a great way to get exited if you are a prospector but a long ways from the operating mine. I am easy to satisfy. After all, my conjecture is very aggressive. However, all I really need is that one sample to show that the possibility is real.
Mungo Man certainly achieves that and the Bradshaws do the same. Other similar examples thus must exist. It does not prove my conjectures but they properly conform to my conjectures and eliminate the issue of a complete lack of evidence.
As an aside, my readers will see in my discussion some connectivity with biblical reports of an antediluvian civilization and a great flood affecting the world. Those reports may be viewed as a diminished allegorical description of a past history handed down through thousands of years to the present, but no more.
You will need to use the link to see the images.
The Lost World's of the Bradshaws
"The Bradshaw Paintings are incredibly sophisticated, yet they are not recent creations but originate from an unknown past period which some suggest could have been 50,000 years ago." Peter Robinson, Project Controller of the Bradshaw Foundation.
In northern Australia, a mysterious form of rock art could legitimately be referred to as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Known as the Bradshaws, the art is dispersed in around 100 000 sites spread over 50 000 sq. km of nothern Australia. Although the art's pigment can't be dated, a fossilised wasp nest covering one of the paintings has been dated at 17,000 + years old. This makes the art at least four times older than the pyramids of Egypt. It also makes the art a comparable age to the Grotte Chauvet paintings in France, which have been dated at 30,000-years-old. Although radio carbon dating was used to date the Grotte Chauvet pigments, the Bradshaw art can't be dated in the same way. Because the are so old, they have become part of the rock itself.
Aside from being extremely old, the Bradshaws are very significant to world history because instead of depicting animals, they depict highly decorated humans and relatively advanced technology. They show people with tassels, hair adornments, and possibly clothing. Such body adornments are usually only found in agricultural societies that have developed hierarchical systems of status. Another painting depicts a boat with 29 people on board. Another depicts a boat with four people on board, and a rudder.
The art is very different from that created by the hunter gatherers living in the area at the time of European colonisation. The hunter gatherer paintings are known as Wandjinas. Although the Wandjinas are like the Bradshaws in that they depict the human form, they are very different as the Wandijina's forms are simply replicated over and over, they lack fine detail in line construction, and they lack the use of hieroglyphic-style symbols.
The lack of variety or fine construction in the Wandjinas is best explained by their religious purpose. The arc around their heads represents lightning and the little short lines represent falling rain. In a nutshell, the Wandjinas are like deities based on the monsoonal wet season. Replicating them over and over perhaps served some similar kind of emotional desire that drives Buddhists to keep sculpting one buddha statue after another.
While the function of the Wanjinas is easy to explain, the diversity, refinement, and replication of symbols in the Bradshaw art seems reminiscent of a culture that wanted to use art for a purpose other than ceremony or religion. Like it is for iconographic writing, the little details matter in the Bradshaw art because variance is so common. The Bradshaw art seems reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphics that mixed depictions with symbolic elements. It was such a mixing that gave rise to a written language. If so, the art represents the earliest form of a written language known to humanity. At the very least, the pigment used seems reminiscent of the pine soot that became the medium of ancient Chinese calligraphy.
The main problem with seeing the Bradshaw art as iconography is that it would indicate that the artists were from a settled society, and the modern environment of Australia makes this seem impossible. Although the modern enviromment is not conducive to civilisation forming, the Australian environment 50,000 years ago was more like South America. A civilisation could have commenced and subsequently fallen into ruins.
Admittedly, aside from the Bradshaw art, there is no sign of civilisation developing in Australia. This is not unexpected as the civilisation would have to be around 40,000 years old and it would be unreasonable to expect anything to exist after this time. In Australia, small towns created by Europeans 100 years ago have almost been completly reclaimed by the bush. After 5,000 years, only something as large as a Pyramid could survive. After 20,000 years, even a pyramid would be difficult to differentiate from a pile of dirt. After 40,000 years, everything would be gone. (30,000-year-old grinding stones have been found in Cuddle Springs in western NSW. These grinding stones pre-date all others found around the world by 20,000 years.)
While it is not essential to understand the meaning of the symbols to appreciate the Bradshaw art, making judgements about the type of culture that created them is essential for trying to contemplate their meaning. If the Bradshaw art was created by hunter gatherers, the Bradshaw art would be ceremonial, religious or record unusual things that were seen. If it were created by a settled society, then it could have all the complex ideas that writing allows.
Aside from helping understand the art itself, making judgements about the type of culture that created them also has implications for human evolution. If the Bradshaw people were indeed a settled people, their story is one that has parrallels with the story of Atlantis. They may have been an advanced people that got too smart for their own good. They tried to gain too much mastery over nature by clearing land for agriculture. Their civilisation would have fallen into ruins as the rains failed and nature got mastery over them.
Current research
Even though the Bradshaws could be referred to as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, very few Australians know of them, let alone are in a position to speculate about their origins. The principle reason for this is that Australian archaeologists, the people entrusted to explore and raise awareness of the Bradshaws, have just ignored them. Perhaps archaeologists of previous generations ignored them because they are located in isolated and inhospitable country that most academics don't want to spend much time in. As for archaeologists of the present day, they probably ignore them because the most lucrative research involves native title claims. Consequently, Australian archaelogists are only interested in research that shows how an Aboriginal tribe has had continuous association with a patch of land since 1788. Understandably, such a research focus is not conducive to exploring ancient mysteries. It would be like archaeologists trying to unravel the mysteries of the ancient Egypt by showing how Egyptians of the present day have had continuous cultural associations with the pyramids since 1788. Not only would this approach fail to shed light on the pyramids' origins, it would also constrain anyone who wants to truly understand them. Worst of all, it would have a way of excluding the rest of the world from their relevance.
Much of the blame can be put on the 1992 Mabo versus Queensland judgement. Instead of simply saying possession justified a claim, the High Court ruled that there must be continous cultural associations. If the judgment were applied internationally, Egyptians would have no right to claim ownership over the pyramids even though they are in their country.
One man, the late Graham Walsh, had the courage to make some conclusions independent of the need to show how Aborigines of the present day have had continuous associations with the area since 1788. The combination of the pictures themselves and the oral history of the local tribes led Walsh to conclude that they were painted by an unknown Asiatic race before the last ice age. Walsh also concluded that there were a form of iconography. Walsh based his conclusions on the fact that the paintings showed no signs of development and simply appeared in their most advanced form. For Walsh, this was a sign that they learnt to paint somewhere else, or a surface other than rocks, and just came to the Kimberly to paint.
Even though Walsh was the undisputed expert on the paintings, his conclusions concerned the Australian Archaeological Association because it was still trying to work out how the present day Aborigines of the area had had an unbroken cultural association with them since 1788. Consequently, on the 18th December 1995 the Association issued a media statement declaring that Walsh's interpretations were "based on and encourage racist stereotypes." The media statement was signed by Australia's leading archaeologists of the time.
With the Australian Archaeological Association labelling him a racist, funding for Walsh's research dried up and other researchers became wary of making judgments on a politically sensitive subject matter. As a result, the paintings are largely ignored and misunderstood.
Description from the Bradshaw Foundation:
" Bradshaw Period
Tassel Bradshaw Group
600x130mm (23x5 ins) left figure
540x270mm (21x10 ins) right figure
This discrete panel involves a pair of Tassel Bradshaws, each with an upwards facing long-tailed marsupial aligned close above its headdress. The distinctive dashed line objects with a 'Y' upper section are occasionally shown in close association with Tassel Bradshaws, appearing to be surviving monochrome remnants of once bichrome artifacts. Accoutrements include Tasselled Cord Armpit decorations, and multiple round bangles. The awkward arm alignment shown on the left figure appears exclusive to Tassel Bradshaws.
Description from the Bradshaw Foundation:
Bradshaw Period
Sash Bradshaw Group
760mm tall (30ins)
A fine Sash Bradshaw displaying a wide range of the accoutrements found associated with this Group. The long headdress has a single feather mounted through its upper extremity, with double tiered tassel extremity. A Prong Variation of the Winged Headdress feature is mounted to the right side of the head. A neck-mounted dillybag is visible beneath the right armpit, and a cluster of four Chilli Armpit Decorations beneath the left. The unusual Barred Variation of the Three Point Sash can be clearly seen rear mounted above the Broad Cummerbund Waistband, while an additional Long Pubic Apron is mounted from the front underside. Double Boomerangs are held in each hand, with an additional Whisk in the right. Tuft Armbands and Multiple Broad Bangle forearms are characteristics of this Group.
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