Australian scientist plans to reveal, rewrite history behind ancient coins discovery

An Australian scientist is planning an expedition to the Wessel islands in July and will revisit the location where five coins and an old map might reveal findings recreating Australia's history.

Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University in US Ian McIntosh plans to open up possibilities that the 1000-year-old coins may prove that explorers from distant countries might have landed in Australian shores much earlier than James Cook declared it 'terra nullius' and claimed it for the British throne in, The Age reports.

McIntosh and his team of Australian and American historians, archaeologists, geomorphologists and Aboriginal rangers say that the five African coins date back to the 900s to 1300s and are from the former Kilwa sultanate, now a World Heritage ruin on an island off Tanzania.

Australian soldier Maurie Isenberg had discovered a handful of coins in the sand during his stay at one of the islands and in 1979 he rediscovered his 'treasure' and found out from a museum that the coins proved to be 1000 years old. He marked an old map with an 'X' to remember where he had found them.

According to the report, Isenberg too found four coins originating from the Dutch East India Company with one dating back to 1690, when some early Dutch seafarers stepped on Australian shores much before Cook.

McIntosh also plans to look for a secret cave that is talked among Aboriginal legends and is supposed to be close to the beach where Isenberg once found the coins and is said to be filled with doubloons and weaponry of an ancient era as the find might reveal relics that could rewrite Australian history, the report added.