LAURA LEE ARTICLES - OOPS: Out of Place Artifacts

• a stone mortar and pestle found in a california mine tunnel in 33 million year old rock.

• anatomically modern human bones and footprints , stone tools, cut wood, and carved stone , all found in geological strata dating back 55 million years.

what do they have in common? they are called "ooparts," by some (short for 'out of place artifacts') hoaxes by others, anomalies by all.

the surprise is that they are found in very old geological strata, where they're not supposed to be. after all, goes the standard view of human evolution, intelligent humans are only a million years old and the missing link between man and monkey is a 3 million year old fossil named lucy.

but there were more surprises when i talked with researcher michael cremo, who, inspired by ancient indian texts that talk of human civilization going back many millions of years, went back to the original field reports of such finds. ooparts are often presented as being objects without much documentation. but cremo says many ooparts were as meticulously documented as the accepted artifacts.

and i'd always assumed anomalies were in short supply, the odd thing or two. so what i was again surprised by their quantity. according to cremo, in terms of artifacts and remains relating to human antiquity, the number of accepted pieces about equals the number considered anomalous. (curious math, that. like calling women, who comprise 52% of the population, a "minority.")

yet you won't find ooparts displayed in museums or mentioned in textbooks, because to study them would challenge the accepted scenario. so they are 'reburied' so as not to disturb consensual harmony.

cremo says it isn't always harmonious - that science projects this image of uniform consensus, but there is tremendous dissention behind the scenes. he points to the paleontologists who question the human-like attributes of lucy, saying she was a small ape and no missing link.

science used to be more boisterous, before the turn of the century, before today's theories were 'written in stone.' back then, ooparts were reported regularly in the major science journals, closely examined by leading authorities, hotly debated.

contrast that to today. "the pressure to conform to the standard view has resulted in a 'knowledge filter' that screens out anomalies. today they are ignored and suppressed," says cremo. "the logic goes: 'evidence that doesn't fit the accepted model must be hoaxed or accidentally got into older strata' and is therefore discounted. but that amounts to circular reasoning, not logic, not open and fair science."
cremo's two books co-authored with richard thompson, forbidden archeology and the hidden history of the human race , are currently creating a stir in archeology/anthropology circles.

cremo and thompson spent ten years examining hundreds of anomalous artifacts deserving of inclusion. what new picture, then, emerges from the fossil record? cremo's interpretation: "homo sapiens and various apes co-existing on the planet millions of years ago, as they do today."

the ancient texts from which cremo gets his inspiration also portray human history as a roller coaster ride alternating simple and advanced civilizations, offering a context for ooparts such as these:

• metallic tube found in france, in a 65 million year old chalk bed.
• gold chain found in a 260 million year old chunk of coal.

the mere presence of anomalies are either disquieting or exhilirating, depending on your frame of refernce and sense of adventure. engimas tweaking the comfort zone of conventional view,s they serve an important role. as outermost 'signposts' marking new territory for expanding paradigms, anomalies point the way to the big picture.

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