Darwinists and mainstream evolutionary theory assert that anatomically modern humans emerged from archaic ancestors during the Middle Paleolithic, approximately 200,000 years ago. However, numerous archaeological finds, such as those from the California gold mines, present a significant challenge to this timeline.
Following the 1849 discovery of gold in the ancient riverbed gravels of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, waves of prospectors descended upon settlements like Brandy City, Last Chance, and Poker Flat. While excavating, miners occasionally unearthed stone artifacts and, more rarely, human fossils. These finds included hundreds of implements, such as mortars, pestles, platters, and grinders. Many of these specimens were acquired by C.D. Voy of the California Geological Survey and later transferred to the University of California.
The most significant artifacts were documented by Josiah Dwight Whitney, then the State Geologist of California. Whitney concluded that the geological evidence placed both the auriferous (gold-bearing) gravels and the sophisticated tools found within them as far back as the Pliocene epoch. Modern geological assessments suggest these deposits—often sealed beneath volcanic formations—may be even older. The majority of these gold-bearing gravels were deposited in stream channels during the Eocene and Early Oligocene. Throughout the Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene, volcanic activity covered these channels with layers of rhyolite, andesite, and latite.
» Over the past two centuries, archaeologists have found bones, footprints, and artifacts showing that people like ourselves have existed on earth for many millions of years. But many scientists have forgotten or ignored these remarkable facts. Why? «
Michael Cremo, September 25, 2014.
Artifacts recovered from deep mine shafts are considered more chronologically secure than those from surface deposits or hydraulic mining. At Table Mountain in Tuolumne County, Whitney reported that miners discovered stone tools and human remains embedded in gravels sealed beneath thick "caps" of volcanic latite. Based on current dating of the strata just above the bedrock, these finds are estimated to be between 33.2 and 55 million years old. The evidence from Table Mountain is substantial. Whitney personally examined the collection of Dr. Snell, which featured stone spoons, handles, spearheads, and a human jaw—all recovered from beneath the latite cap. Whitney noted a startling consistency: every human fossil uncovered in the region, including these specimens, was anatomically modern.
Perhaps the most controversial discovery was the Calaveras skull. In February 1866, Mr. Mattison, owner of a mine on Bald Hill, extracted a fossilized skull from a gravel layer 130 feet below the surface. The specimen sat near the bedrock, sheltered by several distinct volcanic strata. After examining the find, Whitney presented his report to the California Academy of Sciences on July 16, 1866, affirming its Pliocene origin. Under modern geological dating of the Table Mountain strata, the Calaveras skull appears to be over 9 million years old. As Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson documented in "Forbidden Archeology," such cases suggest that humans identical to ourselves may have inhabited the Earth for tens, or even hundreds, of millions of years.
Reference:
J.D. Whitney (1880): The Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California. Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology Memoir 6 (1).
