ARCHEOLOGICAL REVIEW ON THE INDO-SRILANKAN LAND BRIDGE
 
 

 Based on the latest report from the Archeological Department of Srilanka


 
 

The land bridge named as Adam's Bridge is a narrow ridge of sand and rocks, mostly dry, which connects Mannar Island (Sri Lanka) with Pamban Island (India) about 18 ½ miles West-North-Westward. At high tide it is covered by c.4 ft (1.2 m) of water. The status of the bridge is still a mystery as the legends trace the bridge to have more than a million years of existence and related to the epic Ramayana. The Srilankan Archeology Department also confirms the possible duration of the bridge's existence to be around one to two million years. However the natural or man-made status of the bridge is unknown.
 
 

Links to digital images of the bridge taken by NASA

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/images/earth/STS51B/lowres/20031679.jpg

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/images/earth/STS059/lowres/20143034.jpg

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/images/earth/STS059/lowres/20143035.jpg

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/images/earth/STS059/lowres/20143278.jpg

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/images/earth/STS059/lowres/20143279.jpg



S. U. Deraniyagala, the Director-General of Archaeology, Sri Lanka and the author of Early Man and the Rise of Civilisation in Sri Lanka: the Archaeological Evidence (http://www.lankalibrary.com/geo/dera2.html) says that "the Himalayan foothills of the Indian sub-continent have yielded evidence humans having lived there around two million years ago. Although the earliest known dates for hominids in peninsular India are ca. 600,000 years before the present (BP), it is very likely that future research will indicate an age comparable to that of the Himalayan foothills, since there do not appear to have been any physical barriers to prevent humans from being present in southern India contemporaneously with their occurrence in the northern part of the sub-continent. Meanwhile, it is apparent that Sri Lanka was, more often than not, linked to southern India by a land bridge during this period. It is estimated that the sea level would have dropped sufficiently for creating such a connection on at least 17 occasions within the last 700,000 years. This phenomenon would have been caused by the rise and fall of the sea level due to cold/warm fluctuations in the global climate. The last separation from India would have occurred at about 7,000 BP. It is therefore possible that humans were present in Sri Lanka from at least as early as one million years ago. "
 
 


An insight into the legend of Ramayana and the Time phase theory of the Hindu Theology

According to the legend of Ramayana, the land bridge was constructed by large numbers of monkey like beings under the supervision of Rama, who according to Hindus is a personalized almighty incarnation. The purpose of the construction was to reach Srilanka (across the sea) from the Indian mainland to rescue Rama's wife from the demon king Ravana. Ramayana, according to the Hindu time calendar, is supposed to have taken place in Tredha Yuga (The ancient scriptures in Hinduism discuss about events in terms of Yugas (Time phases of evolution) numerically four namely Sathya (17,28,000 years), Tredha (12,96,000 years), Dwapara (8,64,000 years) and Kali (4,32,000 years)). The current phase according to the calendar is kali, out of which 5000 years are supposed to have passed by. This means that Ramayana, to have relevance with the bridge, should have taken place between 8,69,000 to 21,65,000 years back (between the time period 0.869 - 2.165 million years).
 
 

In the archeological report, the bridge is quoted to have been existing for atleast 1 million years to a possible 2 million years at the maximum (since the yielded evidence of humans in India is around two million years). This becomes a crucial clue from the Srilankan counterparts of Archeology about the age of the bridge and its archeological status and hence a detailed investigation is compelling over its structure (probably by seismic or shoal layer or coral reef testing methods) essentially with the help of the governmental organizations. The conventional analysis based on fossil studies (see next section for details) and stereotyped archeology seems to diverge away from the undiscovered truths. At least at this juncture it has to be realized that the paradox between legends and discoveries need to be resolved further for a genuine quest into the past.



Fossil based studies and their drawbacks

The current system of fossil studies is relatively inadequate and conditioned with presumptions by the fact that the dynamics of the geographical plate movements are not known precisely beyond a time domain (in order to trace the history). There is a huge shift in the interior layers of earth every time a pressure shoot in the core occurs and magma rises up to the crust. This could affect the whole quest into the possible remains of the past, especially connected to living species.

For instance if a civilization is destroyed by a natural calamity say about 100000 years back, the possibility of tracing it at the same geographical area is very difficult because of the layer shifts and stronger magma currents. Moreover archeologists do not have a precise methodology for large area transient geographical fossil tracking.

The archeologists claim only to the discovered ones within a few hundred meters depth. So with the discovery of a few hundred skeletons and predicting the possible age of human civilization and characterizing the finding and finally generalizing it will not be logical.

What happens to be the biggest loop-hole in the current system of prediction about the origin of the modern man is the non availability of complete information of fossil scatter area and crust changes. Just like the mismatch in the prediction and formation of tornadoes and hurricanes, which are chaotic, fossil studies are also in the same category.
 
 

For further details the reader can refer to the publication


Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race
By Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson

Excerpts from the publication


"In 1979, researchers at the Laetoli, Tanzania, site in East Africa discovered footprints in volcanic ash deposits over 3.6 million years old. Mary Leakey and others said the prints were indistinguishable from those of modern humans. To these scientists, this meant only that the human ancestors of 3.6 million years ago had remarkably modern feet. But according to other scientists, such as physical anthropologist R. H. Tuttle of the University of Chicago, fossil bones of the known australopithecines of 3.6 million years ago show they had feet that were distinctly apelike. Hence they were incompatible with the Laetoli prints. In an article in the March 1990 issue of Natural History, Tuttle confessed that "we are left with somewhat of a mystery." It seems permissible, therefore, to consider a possibility neither Tuttle nor Leakey mentioned--that creatures with anatomically modern human bodies to match their anatomically modern human feet existed some 3.6 million years ago in East Africa. Perhaps, as suggested in the illustration on the opposite page, they coexisted with more apelike creatures. As intriguing as this archeological possibility may be, current ideas about human evolution forbid it.

Knowledgeable persons will warn against positing the existence of anatomically modern humans millions of years ago on the slim basis of the Laetoli footprints. But there is further evidence. Over the past few decades, scientists in Africa have uncovered fossil bones that look remarkably human. In 1965, Bryan Patterson and W. W. Howells found a surprisingly modern humerus (upper arm bone) at Kanapoi, Kenya. Scientists judged the humerus to be over 4 million years old. Henry M. McHenry and Robert S. Corruccini of the University of California said the Kanapoi humerus was "barely distinguishable from modern Homo." Similarly, Richard Leakey said the ER 1481 femur (thighbone) from Lake Turkana, Kenya, found in 1972, was indistinguishable from that of modern humans. Scientists normally assign the ER 1481 femur, which is about 2 million years old, to prehuman Homo habilis. But since the ER 1481 femur was found by itself, one cannot rule out the possibility that the rest of the skeleton was also anatomically modern. Interestingly enough, in 1913 the German scientist Hans Reck found at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, a complete anatomically modern human skeleton in strata over 1 million years old, inspiring decades of controversy."
 
 
 


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