From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Sat Jan 19 2002 - 02:02:42 MST
I recall reading (no reference I'm afraid) that one of the reasons that the
early hominid fossil record in the Rift Valley is so rich is because of the
proclivity early man had for riverine environments. This increased the
probabilty of remains becoming fossilised in muddy sediments.
Mankind seems to have always found it convenient to live near water, whether
fresh or salt, for obvious reasons.
I suspect that there are other "sunken cities" that await discovery.
At least one, Port Royal in Jamaica, was submerged in relatively recent
times:
"On 7th June 1692 a violent earthquake shook eastern Jamaica. The location
of the earthquake and the fault on which it occurred are not well known. It
was however sufficient to liquefy the sand in the lower part of the sandspit
and cause it to flow out across Kingston harbour. The upper part of the
sandspit, and the town built upon it, subsided bodily by up to several
metres. Archaeological excavations have revealed many intact foundations,
flagstone floors and roadways, indicating that the sandspit did not
completely disintegrate. Nevertheless, about two-thirds of the area of the
town was permanently submerged. Furthermore, the earthquake and the
submarine sediment flows (possibly also including submarine landslides on
the steep slopes outside Kingston harbour) generated a series of tsunami
waves - at least three waves were recorded - which swept over the sandspit,
carrying ships into the town where their remains have subsequently been
excavated by archaeologists. Over two thousand people, or one in three of
the population, were killed immediately by the earthquake and tsunami. Many
more died subsequently from their injuries and from disease. Accounts vary
but between 1000 and 3000 more people may have died in the aftermath of the
earthquake, raising the proportional death toll to between 50% and 80% of
the pre-earthquake population."
The supernatural aspects to this disaster were not lost on the inhabitants:
(Larry Gragg (History Today) describes the earthquake that shattered Jamaica
in 1692, and reviews the complex lessons that preachers drew from it)
.
"ON JUNE 7TH, 1692, Dr Emmanuel Heath, the Anglican rector for Port Royal,
Jamaica, finished his morning prayer service at St Paul's Church and walked
to a nearby tavern frequented by many of the town's leading merchants. There
he joined John White, president of the island's Council. Although he had a
luncheon date with another man, Heath lingered because White was a `great
Friend' who wished to share a `Glass of wormwood Wine with him as a whet
before Dinner.' White thoroughly enjoyed the clergyman's company and when he
lit `a Pipe of Tobacco', Heath felt courtesy prevented him from departing
`before it was out'. As the two Englishmen chatted amiably, the floor
suddenly began `rowling and moving'. A startled Heath asked White, `Lord,
Sir, what's this?' White, composed, calmly replied, `It is an Earthquake, be
not afraid, it will soon be over'. To the contrary, the shaking rapidly
worsened. When they `heard the Church and Tower fall,' the two men fled the
tavern.
Both Heath and White survived what became a devastating quake, but over
2,000 others did not. The staggering death toll and the massive property
losses in what had become the most prosperous town in English America
prompted commentators on both sides of the Atlantic to proclaim that the
cataclysm was evidence of God delivering a just punishment to a sinful
people.
Their analysis was part of a long and continuing tradition of explaining
earthquakes as supernatural intrusions into everyday life, as God's
chastisement for sin, or as a portent of a greater punishment to come. In
1580, for example, an earthquake that shook London and the surrounding
counties caused many to argue that it was a divine warning. As Thomas Twynne
in his Discourse of the Earthquake observed, through the quake God was
summoning each man to `call himself to an accompt, and look narrowly into
his own life'. Nearly five decades later, when an earthquake struck New
England, Plymouth colony governor William Bradford saw the event as God
displaying `the signes of his displeasure' for a wayward people. In 1706,
the Boston Puritan Increase Mather, reflecting on an earthquake from the
previous year, wrote, `There never happens an earthquake, but God speaks to
men on Earth.' For observers in 1692, God had never spoken more clearly than
in His destruction of the fabled Port Royal."
Regards
Blunderov
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