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APRIL – MAY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 679,500-YEAR-OLD SUNKEN CITY FOUND OFF INDIAN COAST An interview with Michael A. Cremo by Linda Moulton Howe © 2002 February 16, 2002, Surat, India – Amonth ago in mid-January, marinescientists in India announced they had sonar images of square and rectangularshapes about 130 feet down, off the north-western coast of India in the Gulf ofKhambhât (Cambay). The Indian Minister of Science and Technology ordered that the site bedredged. What was found has surprisedarchaeologists around the world and wasthe subject of a private meeting two weeksago, attended by the Indian Minister incharge of investigating the underwater siteabout 30 miles off the coast from Surat. An American who travelled to that pri- vate meeting is Michael Cremo, researcherin the history of archaeology for theBhaktivedanta Institute and author of thebook, Forbidden Archeology . I talked with him today in India about the dredging oper-ation, what the ocean engineers found andthe implications of the first carbon-datingof artifacts at more than 9,000 years. Michael Cremo (MC): Within the past few months, the engineers began somedredging operations there and they pulled up human fossil bones, fossil wood, stonetools, pieces of pottery and many otherthings that indicated that it indeed was ahuman habitation site that they had. Andthey were able to do more intensive sonarwork there and were able to identify morestructures. These appear to have been laidout on the bank of a river that had beenflowing from theIndian subconti-nent out into thatarea. Linda Moulton Howe (LMH):According to thenews releases,they have done aradiocarbon test-ing on a piece ofwood from theunderwater sitethat is now yield-ing an age of9,500 years, whichwould place itnear the end of thelast ice age. MC:Yes, those are the indicationsthat are coming.There were actually two radiocarbon dates: one about 7,500 years old, and anotherabout 9,500 years old. The 9,500-year-oldone seems to be the stronger one. That's theone they are going with. This wasannounced by Minister Joshi [MurliManohar Joshi is India's Minister for OceanTechnology] at this meeting I attended inHyderabad, India. He said there is going to The underwater archaeological site, which could be more than 9,000 years old, is about 30 miles west of Surat in the Gulf of Khambhât(Cambay) in northwestern India.