In 1944, an Australian soldier found five copper coins in the Northern Territory's coast. In order to find them again, he marked the spot with a cross on a map.
Years later, in 1979 he went back for them and found them again. He put them in a tin and sent them for examination to the local museum, where they were identified as 1000 year old coins from Africa.
An Australian anthropologist, Prof. Ian McIntosh, of the Indiana University, is going to go to Australia this year to explore how those coins made it to the north coast.
Australia was not even known until the year 1700, when Thomas Cook first set foot on it. But he had not been the first, not even by a long shot.
The five coins were believed to be from Tanzania, and belong to the Kilwas sultanate, a vibrant port city off of Tanzania that is now little more than a World Heritage ruin.
Additional coins were found dating back to 1690, that might have originated with Dutch East India Company traders.
In the same area where the coins were found are caves that are considered legendary by Australian Aboriginal people. Many other artifacts are believed to be strewn along the coast, including weaponry and other coins.
Source : UPI 5.20.13
No comments:
Post a Comment