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THE EXCAVATIONS OF CARLOS RIBEIRO THE EXCAVATIONS CARLOS RIBEIRO In the 1860s, Portuguese geologist Carlos Ribeiro found worked flints in Miocene strata which suggest a much earlier date for the emergence of modern humans than that accepted by mainstream scientists today. y theoretical approach to archaeology is informed by the Puranas, the histor- ical writings of ancient India, which posit a human presence extending much further back in time than most archaeologists today are prepared to accept (Cremo, 1999). Therefore I was intrigued when I learned of some anom- alously old stone tools discovered by Carlos Ribeiro, a Portuguese geologist of the 19th century. While I was going through the writings of the American geologist J. D. Whitney (1880) who reported evidence for Tertiary human beings in California,' I encountered a sentence or two about Ribeiro having found flint implements in Miocene formations near Lisbon. The Tertiary comprises a group of geological periods—the Pliocene, Miocene, Oligocene, Eocene and Palaeocene—extending from 2 million to 65 million years ago. The Miocene extends from 5 million to 25 million years ago. According to current accounts, the oldest anatomically modern humans came into existence about 100,000 to 150,000 years ago, and the oldest hominids, human ancestors, go back about 4 million years. Later I saw Ribeiro's name again, this time in the 1957 edition of Fossil Men by Boule and Vallois, who rather curtly dismissed his work. I was led, however, by Boule and Vallois to the 1883 edition of Le Préhistorique by Gabriel de Mortillet, who gave a favourable report of Ribeiro's discoveries. From de Mortillet's bibliographic references, I went to Ribeiro's original reports. Using all of this material, I wrote about Ribeiro's dis- coveries and their reception in Forbidden Archeology (Cremo and Thompson, 1993). When I learned last year that the European Association of Archaeologists annual meet- ing for the year 2000 was going to be held in Lisbon, I proposed a paper on Ribeiro's work for the section on the history of archaeology. Previously I had relied only on pub- lished records. But for my new research, I visited the Museu Geoldgico in Lisbon, where I studied a collection of Ribeiro's artifacts. The artifacts were stored out of sight, below the display cases featuring more conventionally acceptable artifacts from the Portuguese Stone Ages.’ After spending a week examining and photographing the artifacts, I went to the library of the Institute of Geology and Mines at Alfragide to study Ribeiro's personal papers,’ and later I went to visit some of the sites where Ribeiro collected his specimens.‘ At the archaeology conference in Lisbon, I presented Ribeiro's discoveries as a case study, showing how contemporary archaeology treats facts that no longer conform to accepted views. Keep in mind that for most current students of archaeology, Ribeiro and his discoveries simply do not exist. You have to go back to textbooks printed over 40 years ago to find even a mention of him. Did Ribeiro's work really deserve to be so thor- oughly forgotten? I think not. A SUMMARISED HISTORY OF RIBEIRO'S DISCOVERIES In 1857, Ribeiro was named to head the Geological Commission of Portugal, and he would also be elected to the Portuguese Academy of Sciences. In 1860, Ribeiro learned that flints bearing signs of human work had been found in Tertiary beds between Carregado and Alemquer, two small towns in the basin of the Tagus River, about 35 to 40 kilometres northeast of Lisbon. Ribeiro began his own investigations, and in many locali- ties found "flakes of worked flint and quartzite in the interior of the beds". Ribeiro found himself in a dilemma. The geology of the region indicated the limestone beds were of Tertiary age, but Ribeiro (1873a:97) felt he must submit to the then prevalent idea that humans were not older than the Quaternary. (The Quaternary is the most recent geological age, comprising the Pleistocene and Holocene. It extends from two million by Michael A. Cremo © 2000 Research Associate in History and Philosophy of Science Bhaktivedanta Institute 9701 Venice Boulevard #5 Los Angeles, CA 90034, USA Website: www.mcremo.com Research Associate in History and Philosophy of Science Bhaktivedanta Institute 9701 Venice Boulevard #5 Los Angeles, CA 90034, USA Website: www.mcremo.com NEXUS +57 A CONTROVERSIAL EPISODE IN 19TH-CENTURY ARCHAEOLOGY DECEMBER 2000 — JANUARY 2001