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('Old-world' - 'New world' contact)
There is a clear weight of evidence to demonstrate
that the America's were populated for a long time before Columbus
arrival in 1497.
The focus of debate today is centred
on suggestions that the Americas were colonised by people from
what is generically termed the 'old-world', in reference to the
Eurasian and African Land-masses. In this respect, the questions are
concerned more with where colonisers originated, How many times.?,
When.?, by Whom.? And in what context.?
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'Old-World' - 'New World' contact before Columbus:
The following examples are some of the major evidences put forward to
substantiate the proposal of old-world/new-world contact prior to
Columbus.
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Old World narratives of the Americas.
The 'Atl'-as
Mountains
- The Andes in South America were called the 'Atl-Andes' by
locals when they were first discovered. In America, the word 'Atl'
comes from the Nahuatl tongue, and means 'Water', and we know that
a city of Atlan, 'Near the Water', still existed on the Atlantic
side of the Isthmus of Panama at the time of conquest. (2) The mountains
that run through Morocco on the other side of the Atlantic ocean were also
called the 'Atlas' mountains, a tradition can be traced back at least as
far as the Greeks. (In Greek mythology Atlas supported the world on his
shoulder).
-
Diodorus says 'Over
against Africa lies a very great island in the vast ocean, many days sail
from Libya westward' (Book V, Chap ii). The Phonecians, he
said, having built Gades, sailed along the Atlantic coast of Africa when a
ship was 'On a sudden, driven by a furious storm far into the main
ocean; and that after they had lain under this tempest for many days, they
at length arrived at this island'. (2)
-
Aelian, in his 'Varia
Historia' (Book iii, Chap.xviii), tells us that Theopompus related the
particulars of an interview between Midas, King of Phrygia, and Silenus,
in which Silenus reported the existence of a great continent beyond the
Atlantic 'larger than Asia, Europe, and Libya together'. He stated
that a race of men, called Meropes were persuaded that their country was a
continent. Out of curiosity, some of them crossed the ocean and visited
the Hyperboreans. (2)
-
It is now a historical fact
that the
Norse, sailing from Iceland, not only discovered America in the
tenth century, but also established colonies on the coast of New England,
and they preserved communication with these colonies for over two
centuries. (2)
-
The Abbe de Boubourg says
in his introduction to the Popol-Vuh, 'It has been known to scholars
nearly a century that the Chinese were aqcquainted with the
American continent in the fifth century of our era. Their ships visited
it. They called it Fu-Sang, and said it was situates at the disatance of
20,000 li from Ta-Han'. M.Leon de Rosny has ascertained that Fusang
is the topic of 'a curious notice in the Wa-kan-san-tan-dzon-ye
(which is the name of the great Japanese encyclopedia). In that work
Fusang is said to be situated east of Japan, beyond the ocean, at the
distance of about 20,000
li (7,000 miles or more) from Ta-nan-kouek. (2)
-
Baldwin in 1869 cites a
note from the Abbe Brasseur's translation of the 'Popol-Vuh' in which he
said 'There is an abundance off legends and traditions concerning the
passage of the Irish into America, and their habitual communication with
that continent many centuries before the time of Columbus...An Irish
saint, named Vigile, who lived in the eighth century, was accused to Pope
Zachary of having taught heresies on the subject of the antipodes. At
first he wrote to the pope in reply to the charges, but afterwards he went
to Rome in person to justify himself, and there he proved to the pope that
the Irish had been in communication with a trans-Atlantic world'. This
fact seems to have been preserved in the records of the Vatican. (2)
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The Basques, being
adventurous fishermen, and extensively engaged in the whale fishery, were
accustomed to visit the northeast coast of America long before the time of
Columbus, and probably "from time immemorial". (See Michael's "Le Pays
Basques," and De Bourbourgs introduction). (2)
-
The Welsh annals
tell us that the prince
Madog, about the year 1170 AD, 'sailed away westward, going south
of Ireland', to find refuge from the civil war among his countrymen.
We are told that he found the land he sought. Having made preparations for
a settlement, he returned to Wales, secured a large company that 'filled
ten ships', and then sailed away again, and 'never returned'.
In 1660, the Rev. Morgan Jones, a Welsh clergymen, seeking to go by land
from South Carolina to Roanoke, was captured by the Tuscarora Indians. He
declared that his life was spared because he spoke Welsh, which some of
the Indians understood; that he was able to converse with them in Welsh,
though with some difficulty; and that he remained with them four months'
(2).
(Return to the Top)
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Old-World scripts in the
Americas.
Barry Fell, in his book 'America
BC', presents us with numerous examples of ancient 'scripts' found
across the Americas. They include Iberian 'Punic', Libyan, Basque,
Norse, Egyptian, Phoenician and Ogam, all of which are traditionally found
in the context with the 'Old World'. Convincingly, many of these scripts
were dated, according to their dialects, to within the range of years
800BC - 300BC (1).
Any resistance to the
idea that America was colonised before Columbus, is countered by the
weight of physical evidence provided by Fell. The picture he builds
suggests that about 3,000 years ago bands of mariners crossed the North
Atlantic and colonised North America. They built temples and circles and buried their dead in marked graves.
They were still there in the time of Julius Caesar, as is attested by an
inscribed monolith on which the date of celebration of the great Celtic
festival of Beltane (Mayday) is given in Roman numerals appropriate to the
reformed Julian calendar introduced in 46 BC. In the wake of these
'Celtic' pioneers came Phoenician traders from Cadiz, Egyptian miners, Basques
Libyans and Norse. Each leaving a few engraved stones to mark their
visits. (1)
The 'Fuenta Magna'.
This 'libation' bowl, with cuneiform hieroglyphs on
it was discovered in the 1950's near
Tiahuanaco.
The authenticity of the bowl is
challenged by sceptics who claim it to be fabricated by
archaeologists. It now resides in the Museo
De Oro, La Paz.
(More
about the Fuente Magna)
(Return to the Top)
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An African presence in Pre-Columbian America...
There have been several previous attempts to prove
the 'fusion' of African and native Pre-Columbian American races. Evidence
ranging from linguistics, plant geography, skeletons, terracotta figures and even
North African 'Tifinag' inscriptions on the Virgin Islands (3) have been
put forward. However,
nowhere is the evidence for this argument stronger than at La-Venta, where
several large stone heads and have been discovered that clearly display Negroid features.
The huge proportions of the heads demonstrates that
they were influential people, and their association with the Olmec culture at
around (800-600 B.C.) places them long before the Maya, Inca or Columbus's
arrival in America. Ivan Van Sertima concluded that these people originated from
Egypt and the middle-east.
The first rumours of large stone-heads in Tres Zapotes
came from as early as 1858, but it was in 1938 that Dr. Stirling uncovered
the first head, which was made from a single piece of basalt rock resting
on a prepared foundation of un-worked slabs of stone. He said of it that it
was:
'...unique amongst aboriginal American
sculptures, it is remarkable for its realistic treatment. The features are
bold and it is amazingly negroid in character'. (3)
The head was found 10 miles from the
source of the stone and a long slab of stone which was found at the same
site yielded a precise date of Nov 4th. 291 BC. As digging increased in
south America other larger heads and earlier heads were found at sites
such as La Venta, which began to reveal a chapter of history in the
pre-Columbian Gulf of Mexico that was almost lost to us. The La Venta
heads showed several similarities to the Tres Zapotes heads, and it
emerged that they dominated the ceremonial plaza, a feature which suggests
that they were in some way 'revered'. Four heads were found at La Venta,
all of them faced the Atlantic, and the largest at 9ft high had its domed
top flattened so that it could function as an altar. A speaking tube was
found going in at the ear and out at the mouth; a possible oracle or
talking god. Radio carbon dates from the site were published in 1957 and
they give an average reading of 814 BC +/- 134 yrs. These figures
were among the oldest at the La Venta site.
La Venta was not alone in its depiction
of Negroid faces in stone. Apart from the four found there, two were
excavated in Tres Zapotes and a further five at San Lorenzo in Vera Cruz,
one of which, the largest known, is nine feet, four inches high, and is
estimated to weigh around 40 tons. (3)the
theory forwarded by Van Sertima (3) reinforcing the theory that the 'Olmec'
sites of La Venta and Tres Zapotes were
governed by Negroid Africans and Middle-eastern Caucasians between 800-600 BC,
In 1972, craniologist Andrzej Wiercinski reported
that 13.5% of the 76 fragmentary crania from Tlatilco, a site
associated with the Olmec civilization, showed " a clear prevalence of
the total Negroid pattern" (Jordan 1992). Wiercinski measured the
skulls for 48 morphological traits, but focused on the traits he
considered best for discriminating between the "three great races of
man" (Van Rossum 2004). The remains were dated to the Pre-Classic
Period
(1,500 BCE-300 CE), well before the arrival of Columbus. (6)
(More about La
Venta and the African Stone-heads)
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The Pyramid Builders.
In 1964, aerial photography identified nearly 1,000
pyramid sites in
Peru alone. (4)
The existence of pyramids
in the Americas has often been suggested as a significant proof of
contact between people from the 'Old' and 'New' worlds. However, this
claim has been reasonably contended with the argument that the similarity
in shape proves no such thing, and that such claims can only be validated
by providing through substantiating proof, such as cultural, botanical and
more recently, genetic research.
Whether through accident or design, it
is a fact that the 'Pyramid of the Sun' at
Teotihuacan
has the same base dimensions and is half the height of the 'Great' pyramid
at Ghiza.
The layout of the two great pyramid
complexes have also been compared.
(More about pyramid geometry)
Pyramids and the Feathered
Serpent.
The step pyramid of
Kukulcan (Quetalcoatl),
at
Chitchen Itza (Note the snakes on the left side)
The Great stairwell at Hatshepsut's Mortuary temple
includes a huge feathered serpent running down each side of the stairwell.
The feathered serpent is
a very specific and fundamentally important symbol of both South American
and Egyptian cultures. In Egypt during the Middle kingdom, the symbol can
be generally interpreted as representing a united Egypt (both upper and
lower). In South America, the symbol was used to represented the god
Quetalcoatl.
(More about Feathered Serpent's)
Further similarities
become apparent when we look at the similarities of 'function' between
pyramids from the two cultures. We know for example that there was an
astronomical association in both cultures. Van Sertima notes that 'When
pyramids appear in America in the Olmec culture they are orientated
astronomically' (3). Of course, the fact that the Babylonian ziggurats
and Egyptian pyramid were also built by 'Solar' worshippers is just one of
the many other cross-cultural similarities that can be seen.
Palenque.
The Mayan pyramid of
Palenque, within which the
tomb of King Pakal was
discovered in 1952.
We know without question
that the Egyptian pyramids came first, and by a few thousands years, so
there is no suggestion of contact between the pyramid builders themselves. However, it is undeniable that the theme of
pyramid building was a global phenomena which occurred around the world, and not just in Egypt. In
fact, it is also seen in the middle east, the far east, on the Pacific
Isles, in the Americas, and even in Europe.
(More about Pyramids)
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'Monarchic' similarities between
the 'Old' world and the 'New' cultures.
There have been several
attempts to connect the old and new world through apparently unrelated
similarities. The following are a selection of rituals involved religion
or monarchy, which have counterparts in both the old-world cultures and
the 'new-world'.
The following list also comes from Van Sertima (3).
It illustrates several specific similarities between these two
apparently unrelated cultures. Although the evolutionists often
quote the 'isolationist' theory to explain these similarities, there
are also similarities in mythology, dialogue, religion, etc to warrant
further examination
-
The four Bacabs that hold up the sky (3)
-
The opening of the mouth ceremony (3)
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The Double Crown (3)
-
The Royal Flail (3)
-
The Sacred Boat (3
-
Purple as a royal colour (3)
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The use of Artificial Beards for priests and Royalty (3). Young men
and even women had to wear false beards in Egypt if they were to
participate in royal or priestly duties.
-
A Feathered Fan with specific colours (3)
-
Ceremonial Umbrellas (3)
-
Human headed bird figures emerging from
tombs (3). The theme of 'human-headed' bird figures is repeated in
several middle-eastern cultures, not least, the Egyptians, Mesopotamians and before them,
the 'Metsamorian' culture from Turkey, the roots of which have been shown
to trace back to 9,500 BC.
(For a fuller list see
Jairazbhoy).
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An Australian presence in Pre-Columbian America.
A Genetic link has
been determined between the Aborigines of Australia and the 'Fuegian's'
from 'Tierra-Del-Fuego' in Southern-most America. This
suggests a connection at least 30,000 years old.
Article:
BBC. Science News.
(August, 1999)
'The first
Americans were descended from Australian aborigines, according to evidence in
a new BBC documentary. The programme, Ancient Voices, shows that the
dimensions of prehistoric skulls found in Brazil match those of the aboriginal
peoples of Australia and Melanesia. Other evidence suggests that these first
Americans were later massacred by invaders from Asia'.
(Link to full
article)
There is a physical similarity between the 'La-Jollans'
of Southern California, who also used the spear thrower, had
initiation ceremonies for boys, women excluded, warned away by the
twirling of a 'Bull-roarer', and with ground paintings involved. La
Jollan artefacts are virtually indistinguishable from those of the
Kartan culture of Australia. (3)
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The Mystery of the
Cocaine Mummies.
The 21st dynasty Pharaohs were
mummified, and the body of Queen Henut Taui lay placed in the depths
of a desert tomb in the belief it would give her immortality. Her
mummified body waited throughout recorded history - the Greeks and
Romans, the Dark and Middle ages, the Renaissance and Napoleon, until
in the early 19th century, her tomb was plundered.
The king of Bavaria bought the
ornate sarcophagus with the mummy inside. He gave it to a museum in
Munich, where for another century, Henut Taui lay undisturbed. Then
four years ago a German scientist, Dr Svetla Balabanova, made a
discovery which was to baffle Egyptologists, and call into question
whole areas of science and archeology to chemistry and botany.
She discovered that the body of
Henut Taui contained large quantities of cocaine and nicotine. The
surprise was not just that the ancient Egyptians had taken drugs, but
that these drugs come from tobacco and coca, plants completly unknown
outside the Americas, unheard of until Sir Walter Raleigh introduced
smoking from the New World, or until cocaine was imported in the
Victorian era.
(Click
here for full transcript of video)
Following this discovery,
other experts began testing Mummies and discovered
Tobacco for example the substance was found in Mummies from the
British Musuem by their keeper Dr.Rosalie David. There was even some
found on the bandages of the great Rameses II himself by Dr.Michele
Lescaux!
Article from
the official Ancient Egyptian Bibliography (AEB) published by the
University of Leiden.
NERLICH, Andreas G., Franz
PARSCHE, Irmgard WIEST, Peter SCHRAMEL and Udo LĂ–HRS, Extensive
pulmonary haemorrhage in an Egyptian mummy, Virchows Archiv. An
International Journal of Pathology, Berlin - Heidelberg 427 (1995),
423-429. (ill.).
Report on the morphological and trace element findings of several
internal organs from an Egyptian mummy approximately dating from the
year 950 B.C. according to C-14-analysis. By use of a multidisciplinary
approach the authors succeeded in discovering evidence for severe and
presumably recurrent pulmonary bleeding during life. This was suggested
by the finding of massive haemosiderin deposits in the lung and a
selectively and markedly elevated level of iron in trace element
analysis of the lung tissue. Furthermore, an enhanced deposition of
birefringent particles in the lung tissue, without significant fibrosis,
was observed. The histological analysis of liver, stomach and intestine
confirmed the macroscopic organ diagnoses without evidence of any major
pathological processes. In addition, analysis for various drugs revealed
a significant deposition of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), nicotine and
cocaine in several organs of the mummy. The concentration profiles
additionally provide evidence for a preferential inhalation of THC,
while nicotine and cocaine containing drugs seem to have been consumed
orally.
The
following two photos (below left and right), from
Denderra,
Egypt, are perhaps what Van Sertima (3) is alluding to... although,
and I daresay its all in the eye of the beholder .. but it looks
as though the contents of these 'incense burners'
are being inhaled.
 
'Burnt Offering's' at
Denderra, Egypt.
More 'burnt offering' from
Abydoss.
(Other examples of
Drug use in Prehistory)
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'Model Aircraft'.
It is perhaps just another one of life's
curious coincidences that these small aerodynamically sound 'models' have
been found in both South America and Egypt. Whatever the kismet, they
provide good food for thought.
Egyptian 'model'
(left), S. American 'models'
(centre, right).
T his
particular 'model' is on display in the Smithsonian Institute in
Washington DC. Its explanation states: “gold artefact, a stylised insect,
from the Quimbaya culture, Antioquia province, Columbia, ca. 1000-1500
AD.”
(Click
here for more on this subject)
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The Piri-reis map - The
first map of the American continent.
The significance of this map is
sometimes overshadowed by the various myths and claims surrounding it.
Regardless of the debatable claim that the map shows the outline of the
Antarctic continent, there are certain demonstrable facts which make
this map potentially one of America's most valuable historical relics.
The Piri-reis map (c. 1513), is
a fragment of a larger composite map of the world, with its epicentre in
Egypt. It was created with a working understanding of longitude and
latitude and a system of geometry which allowed the cartographer to
accurately draw the outlines of Africa and America relative to each
other.
The legend on the map dates it to 'Muharran' in the Muslim year 919 (1513 AD), only 20
years after the official discovery of the Americas by Columbus in
1492. The legend itself however, gave claims an origin far
older than 20 years, revealing that it was a section of a world map
composed from more than twenty source maps, some drawn in the time
of Alexander the great, and that 'some were based on
mathematics'
(7).
 The
map has pre-Columbian provenance.
The map shows the eastern coastline of America.
The map shows accurate use of Longitude
and Latitude.
The map-builders used 'Spherical
geometry'.
The centre of the map is at the junction
of the 23.5˚
parallel and the longitude of Alexandria.
The cartographers of the Piri-reis map used a system
called the 12-wind system, which was used extensively in the middle
ages and has its roots in the Babylonian sciences.
(More about
the Piri-reis map) |
(More about
Pre-Columbian America)
(Other examples of Cross-culturality) |
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