Important archaeological discovery in Russia

[Michael Witzel]

As of now, methinks, we can put an end to many fruitless discussions:

such as about Pt. Frawley's Vedic, Stone Age kingdom in the Gangetic basin
at 10,000 BCE --mother of all civilizations on the planet--,
or about Dr. Wells', by now genetically proven immigration of speakers of
Dravidian, also at 10,000 BCE.

Russian scientists  (or more correctly, their Turkish-speaking Bashkir
compatriots) have done us this great service!  However, the important news
item has unfortunately been overlooked by all avid internet citizens, so
active on this and other Indian lists. Thanks to god(s), my attention was
drawn to it a few days ago and I can share with you here.

The discovery  has been published  in the Russian newspaper of Soviet fame,
Pravda. Its name implies  (nyet, it has always implied)  "Truth":

http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/30/28149.html

In short:  natural scientists of the Bashkir State University have
discovered --in the Urals, remember: the home of the Aryans!--  a hoary
civilization that used ultra-modern technology, space  based
three-dimensional mapping,  and air transport and thus had no need for
roads --  120 million  ( 1200,00 000 ) years ago...

This scintillating discovery, supported by Chinese and American natural
scientists, should put to rest all those useless, never-ending discussions
by supremacist, Eurocentric etc. p.p. Indologists about an Aryan invasion,
or the truly patriotic Bha_rati_ya debate about a  lost and found
Sarasvati_ River, or the submersive Dravidianist seperatists'  idea of a
lost Southern Continent off  kanyakumArI (Lemuria), or even the
anthropologists'/geneticists'  new tale of recent, just 6 mill. to 150K
b.p.,  human origins in Africa...

Jiivatv  anusandhaanam!

A happy and fruitful 2003,

MW
============================================================
Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

ph. 1- 617-496 2990 (also messages)
home page:  http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm