Ancient Africans were the first nerds as far as 70,000 years ago.

May be for the first time, the scientists of the West have accepted that modern human behaviour originated in Africa in contrast to their earlier claims that it was in Europe. A publication of the findings in Daily Mail is reproduced below. In this context I thought it is appropriate to reproduce the signs of man with considerable advancement even as early  as millions of years ago as documented in the book Forbidden Archaeology and reproduced in http://commonworldinheritage.blogspot.in/2008/06/forbidden-archealogy-by-richard.html  It is also reproduced below.

From Puranic inputs, Africa was well developed and had a Varna system in the past. The presence of Varna system means existence of division of labour in a self sustained and well knit society. The first migration about a lakh year ago from east Africa to the scattered islands on the Indian Ocean – as indicated by genetic studies of Stephen Oppenheimer – largely contained people who had already mastered stone cutting and building techniques. They were known by the name Mayan who survived the worst catastrophe of Toba eruption which we identify as Tarakasura vada by Lord Shiva. From various clues in Puranic and Ithihasic narration, I would say that the first developed occupation was not agriculture but stone cutting, cutting caves and modifying existing caves (the inhabitants of such caves under the ground were called as Nagas) – from which the art of architecture developed.

The epitome of Mayan's supreme skill of architecture was achieved in and around the volcanoes of Sundaland (Indonesia) where mankind had to live for considerable time during the early period after migration from Africa. They knew how to live in regions restricted by threatening volcanoes and beating the heat. The description on Nivata kavachas and Kalakanjas (the daitya – danavas ) in Mahabharata do indicate that they made a safe dwelling within the network of volcanoes which was possible by the skill of architecture of Mayans. This skill was not new and was present in the population when they moved out of Africa. The present research agrees to the view that Africans were quite skilful.

-Jayasree

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From

http://commonworldinheritage.blogspot.in/2008/06/forbidden-archealogy-by-richard.html

Age	Site	Description	Reference
2.8 billion years ago	Ottosdalin, South Africa	Grooved Metal Spheres. These were found by South African miners. They are housed in museum in Klerksdorp.	Weekly World News, July 27, 1982. 'Scientists baffled by space spheres' - S. Jimison
Age uncertain	Aixen Provence, France	Below 11 layers of limestone at a depth of 50 feet were found coins, handles of hammers and other wood tool fragments. This was in a quary where workers were cutting stones for a building a massive palace.	American Journal of Science 1820 (vol. 2, p 145-146)
Age Uncertain	12 miles North West of Philadelphia, PA, USA.	In 1830, letterlike shapes were discovered within a solid block of marble from a quarry. The block was found at a depth of 60-70 Ft under layers of gneiss, mica slate, hornblende, talcose slate, and primitive clay slate.	American Journal of Science 1831 (vol. 19, p 361)
505 - 590 million years ago	Utah	In 1968, Wiliam J. Meister, a draftsman and amateur trilobite collector, reported finding a shoe print in the Wheeler Shale near Antelope Spring, Utah. This Shoelike indentation and it's cast were revealed when Meister split open a block of shale. " The heel print was indented in the rock about an eighth of an inch more than the sole. The footprint was clearly that of the right foot because the sandal was well worn on the rht side of the heel in characteristic fashion."	Creation Research Quarterly, 5(3): 97-102 'Discovery of trilobite fossils in shod footprint of human in Trilobite Bed' - W.J. Meister 1968
360-408 million years ago	North Britain	10 inch nail was discovered embedded in a block of sandstone in Kingoodie (Mylnfield) quarry in 1844.	Dr. A.W. Medd, British Geological Survey
260-320 milion years ago	Webster City, Iowa	Article titled "Carved Stone Buried in a Mine" from Daily News of Omaha decribed an object that was found at the bottom of a coal mine 130 feet down where the miners were sure the earth had never been disturbed before. He object was a dark grey stone about 2 feet long, one foot wide and 4 inches thick. "Over the surface of the stone are lines drawn forming perfect diamonds. The center of each diamond is a fairly good face of an old man having a peculiar indentation in the forehead that appears in each of the pictures, all of them being remarkably alike. Of the faces, all but two are looking to the right."	The April 2, 1897 edition of the Daily News of Omaha
312 million years ago	Wilburton Mine, Oklahoma	On January 10, 1949, Robert Nordling sent a photograph of an iron cup to Frank L. Marsh of Andrews University, in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Nordling wrote: "I visited a friend's museum in southern Missouri. Among his curios, he had the iron cup pictured on the enclosed snapshot". At the private museum, the iron cup had been displayed along with the following affidavit, made by Frank J. Kenwood in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, on Nov 27, 1948: " While I was working in the Municipal Electric Plant in Thomas, Okla. in 1912, I came upon a solid chunk of coal which was too large to use. I broke it with a sledge hammer. This iron pot fell from the center, leaving the impression or mold of the pot in the piece of coal, and saw the pot fall out. I traced the source of the coal, and found that it came rom the Wilburton, Oklahoma, Mines". According to Robert O. Fay of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, the Wilburton mine coal is about 312 millon years old.	Creation Research Society Quarterly, 7: 201-202 'Human footprints in rocks' - W.H. Rusch, Sr. 1971
286 Million years ago	Heavener, Oklahoma	ANCIENT POLISHED STONE WALL FOUND IN COAL MINE W.W. McCormick of Abilene, Texas. Reported his grandfather's account of a stone block wall that was found deep within a coal mine: "In the year 1928, I, Atlas Almon Mathis, was working in coal mine No. 5, located 2 miles north of Heavener, Oklahoma. This was a shaft, and they told us it was 2 miles deep. The mine was so deep they let us down in an elevator....They pumped air down to us, it was so deep". One evening, Mathis was blasting coal lose by explosives in "room 24" of this mine. "The next moring, there were several concrete blocks laying in the room. These blocks were 12-inch cubes and were so smooth and polished on the outside that all six sides could serve as mirrors. Yet were full of gravel, because I chipped one of them open with my pick, and it was plain concrete inside. As I started to timber the room up, it caved in; and I barely escaped. When I came back after the cave-in, a solid wall of these polished blockes was left exposed. About 100 to 150 yards farther down our air core, another miner struck this same wall, or one very similar." The coal mine was probably Carboniferous, which would mean the wall was at least 286 million years old. According to Mathis, the mining company officers immediately pulled the men out of the mine and forbade them to speak about what they had seen. This mine was closed in the fall of 1928.	Worlds before our own - B. Steiger 1979, p.27
286 Million years ago	Hammondville, Ohio	James Parsons, and his two sons, exhumed a slate wall in a coal mine at Hammondville, Ohio, in 1868. It was a large, smooth wall, disclosed when a great mass of coal fell away from it, and on its surface, carved in bold relief, were several lines of hieroglyphics.	The Case for the UFO - M.K. Jessup 1973, p. 65
213 - 248 million years old	Nevada	On Oct 8, 1922, the American Weekly section of the New York Sunday American ran a prominent feature titled "Mystery of the Petrified 'Shoe Sole' 5,000,000 Years Old," by Dr. W.H. Ballou. Examined by Scientists and Shoe manufacturers, around the outline of the shoe print ran a well-defined sewn thread which had, it appeared , attached the welt to the sole. Further on was another line of sewing, and in the center was an indentation made by the bone of the heel rubbing upon and wearing down the sole material. Microphoto analysis showed details of thread twist and warp. Even to the naked eye threads can be seen distinctly as well as perforated stitches. The rock that the print was embedded in was found to be from the triassic period, 213-248 million years old.	The New York Sunday American, Oct 8, 1922.
65 million years ago	Saint-Jean de Livet, France	Y. Druet and H. Salfati announced in 1968 the discovery of semi-ovoid metallic tubes of identical shape but varying size in Cretaceous chalk. The chalk bed, exposed in a quary at Saint-Jean de Livet, France, is estimated to be at least 65 million years old.	Ancient Man: A Handbook of Puzzling Artifacts - W.R. Corliss 1978, pp. 652-653
2 million years ago	Nampa, Idaho	A small ( 2 in) clay human figurine coated with iron oxide was found from a well boring in 1889. The r ecord of the well shows that in reaching the stratum from which the figurine was brought up they had penetrated first about fifty feet of soil, then 15 feet of basalt, then alternate beds of clay and quicksand down to a depth of 300 feet, when the sand pump began bringing up clay balls densely coated with iron oxide (some were over 2 inches in diameter). In the lower portion of this stratum there were evidences of a buried land surface where vegetable mold was found. From this point the figurine was found. A few feet further down sandrock was reached.	Origin and Antiquity of Man - G.F. Wright (1912, pp. 266-267)
200,000 to 400,000 years old.	Lawn Ridge, Illinois	In 1870 J.W. Moffit found a Coin-like object with unrecognizable inscriptions, from a well boring found at a depth of 114 Ft. According to info supplied by the Illinoise State Geological Survey, the deposits containing the coin are between 200,000 and 400,000 years old. The strange "coin-medallion" was composed of an unidentified copper alloy, about the size and thickness of a U.S. quarter of that period. It was remarkably uniform in thickness, round, and the edges appeared to have been cut. Researcher William E. Dubois, who presented his investigation of the medallion to the American Philosophical Society, was convinced that the object had in fact passed through a rolling mill, the edges showed "further evidence of the machine shop." Both sides of the medallion were marked with artwork and hieroglyphs, but these had not been metal-engraved or stamped. Rather, the figures had somehow been etched in acid, to a remarkable degree of intricacy. One side showed the figure of a woman wearing a crown or headdress; her left arm is raised as if in benediction, and her right arm holds a small child, also crowned. The woman appears to be speaking. On the opposite side is another central figure, that looks like a crouching animal: it has long, pointed ears, large eyes and mouth, claw-like arms, and a long tail frayed at the very end. Below and to the left of it is another animal, which bears a strong resemblance to a horse. Around the outer edges of both sides of the coin are undecipherable glyphs - they are of very definite character, and show all the signs of a form of alphabetic writing. Note By Common World Blog: (1) Just how many variations of "AUM" can one see? Bottom Left to Right, Letter 2, 4, 8 and Top Left 11 and 12. Not to mention the wear and tear. Think this is just an weird co-incidence or one sees what one wants to see? (2) At 1 or 2'o Clock, there is a picture of Snake - which confirms that in the Ancient Times, the world worshiped Snakes - as also found all over in Middle East, mentioned by William Durant and also reported by Discovery in 2007	Proceedings of the American Philosphical Society, 12(86): 224-228, 'On a quasi coin reported found in a boring in Illinoise' - William E. Dubois of the Smithsonian Institution, 1871.

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From

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2243946/How-ancient-Africans-nerds-Birth-technology-traced-70-000-years-continents-southern-tip.html#ixzz2EKxdRwwg

How ancient Africans were the first nerds: Birth of technology traced back 70,000 years to the continent's southern tip 

• Technology found in southern Africa predates similar artefacts found in Europe by 30,000 years
• Archaeologist claims it decisively shows that Africa is the birthplace of modern human cognition
• Findings debunk widely held belief that modern human behaviour originated in Europe 40,000 years ago

By Damien Gayle

PUBLISHED: 12:46 GMT, 6 December 2012 |

UPDATED: 12:46 GMT, 6 December 2012

Modern human technology began more than 70,000 years ago in South Africa before spreading to communities elsewhere, a new study claims.

It was there that our ancestors made the first bone tools, the first abstract art, the first jewellery and probably the first stone tipped spears and arrows, research shows.

The claims, based on archaeological findings over the past decade, contradict the widely held belief that modern human behaviour originated in Europe about 40,000 years ago.

The first nerds? A reconstruction of a Homo sapiens hunting party from the BBC documentary Planet of the Apeman. New research traces the birth of technology 70,000 years to southern Africa

They chime with findings published just last month which suggested that the development of long-range weapons in Africa was the technological breakthrough which allowed humans to become the dominant species.

Renowned archaeologist Professor Christopher Henshilwood, of Wits University in South Africa, author of the new paper, says the most recent research decisively shows that Africa is the birthplace of modern human cognition.

'All of these innovations, plus many others we are just discovering, clearly show that Homo sapiens in southern Africa at that time were cognitively modern and behaving in many ways like ourselves,' he said.

'It is a good reason to be proud of our earliest, common ancestors who lived and evolved in South Africa and who later spread out into the rest of the world after about 60,000 years.'

The first gadgets: A) bone point from the Middle Stone Age levels at Peers Cave. B-g) bone tools from the Still Bay levels at Blombos Cave; b-e are bone awls; f-g are bone points. H-i) engraved lines on tools c and g. J) engraved bone fragment

Professor Henshilwood's paper is the first detailed summary of research into the Still Bay techno-traditions, dating back 75,000 years, and the Howiesons Poort techno-tradition, which dates back 65,000 years.

The paper, entitled Late Pleistocene Techno-traditions in Southern Africa: A Review of the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, c. 75 ka, published online today in the Journal of World Prehistory.

These were periods of many innovations including, for example, the first abstract art (engraved ochre and engraved ostrich eggshell); the first jewellery (shell beads); the first bone tools; and the earliest use of the pressure flaking technique, that was used in combination with heating to make stone spear points and the first probable use of stone tipped arrows.

Engraved ochres from the Still Bay M1 phase at Blombos Cave: A) Two groups of incisions, one on the centre and one close to the edge; in the centre two joining lines form a 'Y' that is crossed by a few perpendicular parallel lines; three incisions cross these lines. B) Two lines that cross perpendicularly on the top right margin; converging lines produced with a single lithic point. C) this piece retains only a small area of the original engraved pattern; three straight oblique lines incised on the top left with two sinuous lines that cross them. D) three distinct sets of lines engraved on a natural surface; piece was then knapped and a part of the engraving removed. E) a group of sinuous lines engraved on one face; the opposite face is highly scraped and engraved with a cross-hatched pattern. F) Cross-hatched pattern incised on one long edge

The research also addresses some of the nagging questions as to what drove our ancestors to develop these innovative technologies.

HOW TECHNOLOGY FROM AFRICA GAVE HUMANS THE 'KILLING EDGE'

The development of 'high tech' long range weapons 71,000 years ago in Africa gave humans the killing edge which helped make us the dominant species, research suggests.

Finds in South Africa suggest that by the time our ancestors began to spread across the planet they had developed advanced weapons that made them more than a match for Neanderthal rivals.

Research on stone tools and Neanderthal anatomy strongly suggests that our now-extinct sister species lacked true projectile weapons.

'When Africans left Africa and entered Neanderthal territory they had projectiles with greater killing reach, and these early moderns probably also had higher levels of pro-social (hyper-cooperative) behaviour,' said Curtis Marean, project director and Arizona State University professor in the Institute of Human Origins.

'These two traits were a knockout punch. Combine them, as modern humans did and still do, and no prey or competitor is safe.

'This probably laid the foundation for the expansion out of Africa of modern humans and the extinction of many prey as well as our sister species such as Neanderthals.'

According to Professor Henshilwood answers to these questions are, in part, found in demography and climate change, particularly changing sea levels, which were major drivers of innovation and variability in material culture.

This paper is just the latest to come from Professor Henshilwood and others' research on African archaeology that has debunked the idea that modern human behaviour originated in Europe after about 40,000 years ago.

There is increasing evidence for an African origin for behavioural and technological modernity more than 70,000 years ago and that the earliest origin of all Homo sapiens lies in Africa with a special focus in southern Africa.

Last month MailOnline reported a new study by U.S. researchers which suggested the development of 'high tech' long range weapons 71,000 years ago in the region gave humans the killing edge to help make us the dominant species.

The findings at Pinnacle Point, near Mossel Bay, included Stone Age technology that only took hold in other areas of Africa and in Eurasia about 50,000 years later.

Those researchers noted that the depth of archaeological research in Africa was minuscule compared to that which has taken place so far in Europe, and because of that it was likely that far more would be learned soon.

In the new paper, Professor Henshilwood writes: 'In just the past decade our knowledge of Homo sapiens behaviour in the Middle Stone Age, and in particular of the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, has expanded considerably.

'With the benefit of hindsight we may ironically conclude that the origins of "Neanthropic Man", the epitome of behavioural modernity in Europe, lay after all in Africa.'