Re: [PLUG] PLUG W follow-up

["Eric H. Johnson" <ejohnson@camalytics.com>]

Hi all,

A couple of more things to add to they way off topic portion of JPs
comprehensive summary.

1> Clovis people and European origin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture

Long article, so here are the relevant parts.

Solutrean hypothesis

"The controversial Solutrean hypothesis proposed in 1999 by Smithsonian
archaeologist Dennis Stanford and colleague Bruce Bradley (Stanford and
Bradley 2002), suggests that the Clovis people could have inherited
technology from the Solutrean people who lived in southern Europe
21,000-15,000 years ago, and who created the first Stone Age artwork in
present-day southern France.[52] The link is suggested by the similarity in
technology between the projectile points of the Solutreans and those of the
Clovis people. The model envisions these people making the crossing in small
watercraft via the edge of the pack ice in the North Atlantic Ocean that
then extended to the Atlantic coast of France, using skills similar to those
of the modern Inuit people."


Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

"A recent hypothesis suggests that one or more extraterrestrial bodies
caused the mass extinction and triggered a period of climatic cooling.[13]
This is known as the Clovis Comet or the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis and
proposes that an extraterrestrial object such as a comet exploded in Earth's
atmosphere above North America's Great Lakes region about 12,900 years
ago,[14] and significantly impacted the human Clovis culture. Research
published in January 2009 argues that there was no extraterrestrial impact
but fails to explain the high levels of metal and magnetic spherules found
deep inside the tusks and skulls of mammoths.[15] Additional possible
evidence of comet impact is the widespread occurrence of microdiamonds and
black mats in a layer of sedimentary rocks of that era,[16] but is not
reflected in the extinction record."


2> Milk as the cause for delaying contact between Europe and the Americas by
500 years
http://www.editors-wastebasket.org/nexx/pro/vinland.html

This article actually refutes the hypothesis, but refers to the same
incident.

"On the subject of war with the skraelings, there exists the hypothesis that
lactose intolerance was responsible for the skraelings' hostility towards
the Norse (i.e. the Norse gave them milk, they grew sick because of it, and
assumed they were poisoned). While this is an attractive hypothesis, as it
explains the violence [sic] between the two groups without need for malice
on either side, it does not stand up to textual analysis. Chapter 7 of the
Greenlander's Saga states that the skraelings came for trade on two
occasions, separated by some months, and both times were absolutely mad for
milk. Had they been interested the first time and then attacked, the idea
would have been more viable; their return for trade, and subsequent
acceptance of milk as a valid trade good, makes this hypothesis very weak,
though not an impossibility. What drove the two groups apart was a killing.
Some of the Norse men killed a skraeling who was attempting to steal
weapons, which Thorfinn had forbidden as trade items."

Regards,
Eric




Thanks to Bruce for his interesting talk on PostgreSQL Replication. 
(Boy, MySQL is a heck of a lot easier to spell and type! :)
<snip>


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