Mystery of "Redwood Ship": Who first landed in Australia?

According to Australian history textbooks, it was the Portuguese who first discovered Australia, and Captain Cook of Britain was the first person to lead European immigrants to land on the Australian mainland. In recent years, many people in China have discovered the Australian continent before Europeans. It is recorded that in 1879, the stone carving of the birthday girl was excavated in Darwin, the capital of northern Australia, which was probably brought by early navigators in China. Two years ago, Kevin Menzies, a British amateur historian and retired submarine officer, also put forward the view that China people first discovered Australia. In his book 142 1: China Discovered the World, he said that15th century Zheng He, the eunuch of the Ming Dynasty in China, went to Australia on 1422, at least 350 years earlier than Captain Cook.

The discovery and determination of the origin of the "redwood boat" may redefine the discoverer of the Australian mainland. But it is not easy to find this ship after many years. Experts said that with the early European immigrants entering the Australian mainland, some small animals, such as rabbits, foxes and some rodents, propagated, which destroyed the stability of coastal sand dunes. These animals dug holes everywhere, which not only destroyed many roads and grasslands, but also led to the loose flow of coastal sand dunes, which may be an important reason why the wreckage of "Redwood Ship" was buried by quicksand. Previously, people only knew that the "Sequoia Ship" should still be buried under a sand dune on the 23 km coast between Fairy Harbor and Warnabur. The Victorian government even offered a reward of A $250,000 to find the wreckage of the ship and built a trail along this coast to attract tourists to explore and visit.

It is reported that the redwood fragments excavated in June+10 in 5438 have been sent to China. Archaeologists in Beijing were asked to use the "carbon 14" dating method to date these sequoia fragments.

The "carbon isotope" dating method is a scientific method widely used in international archaeology, which is used to accurately date substances. Its working principle is as follows: carbon is a common chemical element, which is rich in animals and plants. It has two isotopes-carbon 12 and carbon 14. In carbon 12, each atom contains 6 protons and 6 neutrons; In carbon 14, each atom contains 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Carbon 12 is not radioactive, but carbon 14 is a radioactive element, and its nucleus is constantly fission and finally converted into carbon 12. When animals and plants are alive, their bodies are constantly undergoing metabolic activities, and the carbon in their bodies is constantly exchanged with the atmosphere, so the ratio of carbon 12 and carbon 14 in their bodies is the same as that in the atmosphere. However, when animals and plants die, their metabolic activities stop, and carbon 14 is still splitting into carbon 12, so the ratio of carbon 14 decreases year by year, while the content of carbon 12 increases continuously. It has been scientifically proved that the splitting speed of carbon 14 is constant, decreasing by 50% every 5730-40 years. In this way, by measuring the content of carbon 14 in ancient animals and plants, we can accurately calculate its death age. That is to say, by measuring the ratio of carbon 12 and carbon 14 in sequoia fragments, we can know when these sequoias used for shipbuilding were cut down, and then we can calculate the "age" of the "Sequoia Ship".

Zheng He made his first voyage to the Western Ocean in 1405. If the carbon isotope dating method finally proves that the age of those mahogany fragments is more than 500 years, then this "mahogany ship" is very likely to belong to Zheng He's fleet, and the statement that "China people first discovered the Australian continent" is even more sufficient ~