Word: archaeologists
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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James Moriarty, a University of San Diego marine archaeologist, identifies it as a so-called messenger stone, probably of ancient Chinese origin. Such a stone could be sent sliding down an anchor chain, via the hole, to strip away accumulations of seaweed. Another stony relic, discov ered five years ago off Los Angeles by two sports divers, Wayne Baldwin and Robert Miestrell, also hints at an early Chinese presence. To Moriarty and his assistant, Archaeologist Larry Pierson, it looks very much like the type of mill stone known to have been used by Chinese sailors as anchors...
Other scholars are not so sure. USGS Mineralogist Ching Chang Woo, who was born in Canton, tried to date the messenger stone from its mineral crust, but could not do so because the sea deposits such materials at varying rates. Former U.C.L.A. Archaeologist William Clewlow allows that the stones are "enticing bits of evidence," but "just aren't conclusive...