The songlines are fascinating part legend, part roadmap, part psychogeography and a whole lot more besides. This is perfectly demonstrated in the news that some of the events and locations mentioned in the Dreamiing stories might have lead scientists to make new discoveries of unknown impact craters:
An Australian Aboriginal 'Dreaming' story has helped experts uncover a meteorite impact crater in the outback of the Northern Territory.
Duane Hamacher, an astrophysicist studying Aboriginal astronomy at Sydney's Macquarie University, used Google Maps to search for the signs of impact craters in areas related to Aboriginal stories of stars or stones falling from the sky.
One story, from the folklore of the Arrernte people, is about a star falling to Earth at a site called Puka. This led to a search on Google Maps of Palm Valley, about 130 km southwest of Alice Springs. Here Hamacher discovered what looked like a crater, which he confirmed with surveys in the field in September 2009.
It gets interesting because the Aborigines couldn't possibly have seen this form:
Despite the link to the Dreaming story, weathering and the absence of meteorite fragments suggest that the crater is millions of years old and humans could not possibly have witnessed the event, Hamacher said.
Another crater at Gosse's Bluff, 170 km west of Alice Springs, is 140 million years old, and is also the subject of an Arrernte Dreaming story about a "cosmic baby" which fell to Earth.
Instead, Hamacher thinks Arrernte Aborigines may have learned to recognise craters from more recent impacts and then deduced the origin of the Palm Valley and Gosse's Bluff craters. One more recent example of craters created by an impact are the Henbury craters, 70 km from Palm Valley and just 4,000 years old.
Here it is:
Could it all be coincidence?
Hamacher's comparison of known craters and Aboriginal stories about cosmic impacts have not yet uncovered conclusive evidence that meteorite impacts have been witnessed and incorporated into oral tradition.<br /><br />But he has found documented evidence of the Henbury craters being referred to as "chindu china waru chingi yabu" by Aboriginal elders, which he said roughly translates as "Sun walk fire devil rock".</p></blockquote>
<p>There are some great comments, worth nosing through including:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hamacher's comment that the Arrernte people "may have learned to recognise craters .... and then deduce the origin" is another example of patronising whitefeller thinking. Why would Elders do that when they have an unbroken oral connection back through deep time to the Dawn of Creation? The Githabul Ngarakbul people - formerly and fraudulently known as Bandjalung - trace their lineage back "to the intelligent water which fell from the tail of the great Serpent" (a comet). Evidence that life was spawned from cometary debris is now verified by NASA and forms the basis of the Githabul claim of suveranty over their lands, reluctantly acknowledged now by government.<br /><br />...<br /><br />Let's keep alive our sense of wonder and excitement as science and mythology combine to unravel the great mysteries of who we are and whence we came.<br />An Adnyamthanha Elder, who adopted me as his niece, told me stories from his Grandfathers of "walking with the flesh-eating lizards". The Adnymathanha have a name for that crittur, who is as alive now in their stories as he was in their lands.</p></blockquote>
<p>Of course, that may raise more questions than it answers too.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3225/aboriginal-dreaming-story-leads-meteorite-crater" target="_blank" title="Open in new window">Source</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.anomalist.com/" target="_blank" title="Open in new window">Hat tip</a></p>
<p>It might only be the start of this type of investigation:</p>
<blockquote><p>Mr Hamacher said the discovery of a connection between dreamtime stories and reality was an exciting one.<br /><br />"Lots of Aboriginal dreamtime stories are associated with craters, meteorites and cosmic impacts and although some craters are millions of years old and people would not have been able to witness the impact, it seems as if traditional dreaming stories know about the crater's origin."<br /><br />One of the stories - the one that local Arrernte people tell about a star that fell into a waterhole called Puka in the valley, where Kulaia, the serpent, lived - had led to the discovery of the ancient crater, which the team proposed to name Puka, but there were "many, many more", Mr Hamacher said.<br /><br />"We found stories with descriptions of cosmic impacts and meteorite falls related to places in Arnhem Land - we assume there are more meteorite craters out there and science doesn't even know about their existence yet."</p></blockquote>
<p>So this isn't the end of the story and we'll track further developments as they happen.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/google-earth-confirms-dreamtime-meteor-legend/story-e6frf7jx-1225814665715" target="_blank" title="Open in new window">Source</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailygrail.com/News-Briefs/2010/1/News-Briefs-03-01-2010" target="_blank" title="Open in new window">Hat tip</a></p></body>
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