Australopithecus robustus 2.2 to 1.6 million years ago

http://www.onelife.com/evolve/manev.html

Did he build this bridge ?
http://www.indolink.com/Religion/r091702-130924.php
http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/imag...s/20003372.jpg

wow...

Not that I'm a geologist or anything, but in the interest of scepticism ill say it looks like a perfictly natural atol to me... what with it being a chain of tiny islands and all. How do you supposed ostrolopithicus moved that much landfill?

This site also mentions "the primitive age" which i was not aware was a recognized historical period, nor did i know that ramayana had a specific time setting, nor that it was that long ago...

But who knows maybe in a few years on the history channel ill see a show called "Pile drivers of the past: India's secret ancent naval engeneering projects"

Definately man-made IMO. You can see where land has built up against it due to tidal action. Theres heaps of legends and theories involved with ancient india and the ramayana. Some pretty incredible stuff...

http://www.morien-institute.org/uwnews2002.html

Can't remember any other links, but there's a few threads on sciforums somewhere about it...

How does that look man-made? You people look too much into simple things. It's a simple chain of coral islands.

The earliest tool use among hominids or even hominoids, was primitive lithics. At least this is what has survived the test of time. It is wholely possible that A. robustus was able to use tools, but stone tools first appeared with Homo habilis, which, according to your link, was a contemporary of A. robustus.

In looking at some of the mounds of Mississippi, some experimental archaeology was conducted to see what type of man-power would be required to move enough matrix to build a small mound. I don't remember the numbers at the top of my head, but it was significant.

Needless to say, if A. robustus was to move that much matrix, he would have to have better tool use ability than existed at the time. The archaeological record of the period doesn't bear this out.

In addition, there are many examples of natural atolls of this kind in geology. In fact, this geologic feature corresponds with the plate tectonics of the region (India's plate departed Africa and "slammed" into Asia).

It doesn't seem very likely that the features were hominid-made. The technology and man-power just didn't exist.

Got any photos?

According to the indian legends of ramayana they were a very civilized people, quite capable of bridge building, even of that magnitude.

Here's links to some info on the legends of Rama...

http://www.etcontact.net/newsite/Top...?Topic=Vimanas[/url]

http://216.10.26.55/Vimanas/Vimanas.htm

http://www.askasia.org/frclasrm/lessplan/l000054.htm

First, let me correct myself: atoll was the wrong terminology. The landform that we see in the Palk Straits is known as a tombolo. They are similar, but a tombolo is a depositional landform and, in this case, formed by the alluvial deposition of one or more major African rivers (NASA, 1993).

The basement structure of the Palk Straits is a result of rifting of a fault with transcurrent movements (Nityananda & Jayakumar, 1981). This undoubtedly creates a convenient place for the sediment to collect and create the tombolos and associated islands.

It was also believed that the chain of tombolos and islands was once completely above water and stretched from Southern India to Sri Lanka, but was broken during a major storm at around 1480. Since that time, efforts have been made to cut passable channels at points in the shoal.

The oldest evidence of the Ramayana in the region is 400 BC for physical evidence across five different strata (layers of the earth); literary evidence goes back to about 1500 BC. Neither is close to the nearly 2 million years suggested.

Here are some photos of other tombolos and shoals:

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/imag...s/20009243.jpg
http://spazioinwind.libero.it/gpscie...a/azione89.jpg
http://www.dauphinisland.net/news/images/diusgs.jpg
http://www.geosci.unc.edu/faculty/gl.../CoreBanks.jpg
http://www.mctrout.com/images/Bahamas/long%20island.gif

http://mindy.eas.gatech.edu/images/Pemtb/atoll.jpg

Cheers for the photos Skinwalker

Having seen them I'd have to agree that it was probably originally naturally occuring.
Latest evidence suggests the Rama empire existed around 10,000 BC. I'll post links when I find em.
I propose that the Ramas converted the already existing landform into a bridge at around that time.

Exerpt from New York Uni Lecturer notes on Ramayana..