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suspected Pre-Columbian Old World contacts in America |
ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS
SUGGESTS PREHISTORIC OLD WORLD CONTACTS
(Contacts) Please CLICK on underlined categories and photos for more detail: Archeologists and anthropologists have long suspected
that peoples of the Old World had made contact with the Americas many
centuries before Columbus (Hristov & Genoves 1999). The human figures sculptured in stone and
pottery, found at archeological sites spanning great distances in America,
reveal Some archeologists have gone the extreme to
explain away the African influence in particular.
For example, Coe & Diehl (1980), referring The Olmec is one of the earliest known American
civilizations that began in Southern Mexico around 2,000 B.C. The name in Aztec Nahuatl means "People of the Land of
Rubber." Ethnically and
culturally they exhibited African and Asian influences
(Example
#1, #2). These
people were concerned about their identity to the extent that they devoted
considerable resources to document their presence through the construction of
gigantic monuments, the quality of which demanded A close examination of the sculptures and other
artwork after ca. 950 B.C. shows continuing, but diminishing Olmec influence,
which was accompanied by periodic massive destruction of their
monuments. Many of the largest
sculptures sustained mutilation on a massive scale, in an effort that must
have almost equaled that of their creation.
It has been implied that this may have been a ritual at the death of
an old ruler, or caused by outside invaders.
Beginning around 200 B.C., there appears to have been a long period of
integration with the Eurasian peoples moving in from the north and
elsewhere. Around this time the
quality of the human rendition in ceramics became especially advanced,
sometimes equaling anything being produced today (e.g., Figs. et27, 54, 55, 63 & 66). The
legend of the “god” Quetzalcoatl suggests that he possessed possible African
ancestry (Fig. 182),
and he left the area sometime after 500 AD.
Could there have been a return of some of the Olmec back to Africa
back then? Certainly, the Olmec
culture diminished its influence in the humid lowlands of southern Mexico after
the 1st Century AD. Speculations on
the reason for this have included a widespread outbreak of malaria (origins
in Africa) and aggressive invaders from the north. However, the African presence is maintained in Mesoamerica
through Aztec times in the 15th Century, implying repeated contacts,
accidental or otherwise, with the African continent. Another argument against the Pre-Columbian
colonization of America by people from the Old World implies the independent
development of "identical" European, African and Asian ethnic types
in both hemispheres, which is not easy to imagine. Anthropologists continue to revise estimates when true humans, Homo sapiens, first began to leave
Africa. Larick & Ciochon (1996) judged this to be around 80,000 B.C. More recent estimates point to between
100,000 and 125,000 BC. But, their
existence on the African continent extends much further back in time (see 700,000 BP, and Diamond). They
had evolved independently with a close relative, Homo erectus, which left central Africa around l.5 million
B.C., and spread to all parts of the world with the possible exception of
America (Leakey 1995). However, the
Calico site in California has already been suspected as a possible Homo erectus site (see Early Humans), and a recent discovery in Kansas of a
footprint with an opposed big toe points to the possibility of even earlier
species (see Kansas).
Analyses of the DNA in mitochondria and the Y chromosome support the
theory that Homo sapiens left
Africa in two small groups through present day Yemen and spread to other parts
of the world after 80,000 B.C.
Various races of humans developed in the different geographic regions
of the world from wherever Homo sapiens
settled down. It took a long time for
this to occur to the degree that our major races differ today. A conservative estimate for the
differences between some Asian, African and European ethnic groups would be
at least 20,000 years. As Africa was
the point of origin of Homo sapiens,
it would make ethnic groups in Africa the most ancient, with a period of
development probably exceeding 200,000 years (Please see James
Shreeve for detailed account). In
America, the accepted dates for the earliest presence of humans range from
15,000 B.C to 40,000 B.C., although earlier dates are suspected and
eventually could be found (see Savannah). There is increasing evidence that initial migrations to America were
along coastal ice sheets that joined America with the Old World prior to
15,000 B.C. For example, the technology for producing Clovis projectiles
developed in southwestern Europe.
Land bridge migrations of Homo
sapiens to America began between Siberia and Alaska around 15,000
B.C., and much later migration routes from Europe, Africa and Asia varied. Some ideas hold that humans sailed west,
across the Atlantic, in boats, beginning probably after 4,000 B.C. Certainly, the islands of Hawaii were
first colonized from the north (e.g., Alaska & Siberia) [see Hawaii History].
Another suggestion is that they arrived first on the Pacific coast to
the State of Guerrero, Mexico.
Indeed, the Polynesian chicken existed in South America prior to the arrival
of Europeans in the 16th Century
(see Chickens), most likely transported
there by Polynesians who then brought back home sweet potatoes and the bottle
gourd. Huyghe (1992) pointed out that some Africans, for example, utilized
large vessels capable of carrying many tons, in their trading activities
around the Indian Ocean. There was
also extensive sailing activity by the Phoenicians and Romans up and down the
coasts of Europe and Africa; and at least one ancient wreck has been
discovered off the coast of Brazil (Fig. 76, Marx 1992).
It is imaginable that occasionally some of the vessels, with variable
ethnic groups on board, may have gotten off their course during storms, and
landed in America. Bailey (1994)
advanced the possibility of early quests for raw materials, such as tin and
copper, in America by seafaring European people during the Bronze Age
(6,000-1,190 B.C.) [Also see Bronze].
The possibility that Egypt might have had intense contact with North
America is supported by the discovery in 1950 of large boats adjacent to
Khufu’s great pyramid. They were
buried between 2589 and 2566 B.C. One
has been restored and it shows considerable wear as if it had been on long
journeys. Its length is 43.63 meters,
width 5.66 meters (see Egyptian Boat). The absence of bronze tools among the
artifacts found in America has not been explained and this argues against
contacts with the Old World during the Bronze Age (Please see Bronze
Age Tools). There
is historical evidence for a large seafaring trade in reindeer hides by
people from the Mediterranean area (see Sea Peoples).
Edo Nyland has reviewed the information available and concluded that
Pre-Columbian voyages, especially from the Mediterranean Region, were almost
a certainty (see Human
Migrations). Extraordinary finds of ancient Asiatic
and Middle Eastern writing and sculpture are being found in the Lake Titicaca
region of western South America by Bernardo Biados and a team of
archeologists (see Biados). The European and Asian faces in sculpture and artifacts appearing
intermittently after 2,000 B.C. show a trend for the former to be more
numerous in colder and drier areas, and the latter in the humid tropical
lowlands. The possibility of contact
by people from southern and central Asia in Pre-Columbian America has been
advanced (Carter 1964, 1976; Ekholm 1946, 1953, 1964, Estrada et al. 1962, Heine-Geldern 1954, 1959;
Jairazbhoy 1976, Phillips 1966, Shao 1976, Smith 1915). In the History
of the Liang Dynasty, published in China ca. 629 AD, there is
mention of a voyage around 499 AD to a country that was very likely America
(Shao 1976). The actual place was
described as "The Country of the Extreme East." Shao (1976) also showed many photographs
of statues and temple art of Mesoamerica that bear a very close resemblance
to similar early art of China and India.
In particular, the depiction of elephants on some of the early Mayan
temples has always been a mystery (Figs. 128, 131 & 133).
Although people in Southern Mexico had hunted mammoths in 8,000 B.C.
(Coe 1994), they were extinct long before development of the Maya
civilization. The art styles found in
Honduras especially resemble those of early India and southern China. Many of these associations were already
noted by Vining (1885). People have attributed the finding of Japanese type
pottery in coastal Ecuador from ca. 3,000 B.C. to early contact there
possibly from Japan sailing down with the coastal currents in small boats
(Jairazbhoy 1976, Meggers 1992, Meggers & Evans 1966). Coe (1994) noted a similarity between the
architecture at El Tajín, Mexico and Bronze and Iron Age cultures of China. The apparent discovery of the
American drugs cocaine and tobacco in Egyptian mummies has been discussed at
length by S. A. Wells (see Mummy). There has been an
especially interesting probable Norse connection in North America by 1,700
B.C., as revealed in pictographs and petroglyphs (Figs. 11, 15, & 19) (Fell 1982). Some
Norse settlements even appear to have developed to the level of herding
bighorn sheep (Fig. 20) (see Attachment
#1). An
advanced form of weaving may also have been brought to America by these
explorers who were in search of copper (Bronze Figs. 158, 159, 161). Legends are widespread in Polynesia of
contacts with white people (see Polynesia).
Other unanswered questions include why are there so many Japanese
words and phrases in the Zuni language of New Mexico and Arizona, and why
does the native Purepecha language in the State of Michoacán, Mexico bear
little resemblance to Nahuatl, the primary indigenous language root in
Mesoamerica? Furthermore, the
existence of a widespread universal language in pre-Christian times, the West African Language, provides clues to Pre-Columbian voyages
throughout the world. Linguistics Archeology
that studies the
relationships of modern languages to the ancient West African Language is
giving us greater insight into people’s migrations. Some more recent sailings to America by Europeans after 700
A.D. seem to have occurred (see Great Ireland and West
Virginia Petroglyph). The presence of cultivated plants also sometimes
suggests pre-Columbian contact with Asia and Africa, although caution is
advised before making definite comparisons (see <Plants>). For example, Spanish friars reported that the Maya in Yucatan
were growing both yams and sweet potatoes at the time of the Spanish conquest
(Landa 1556). However, the genus of
yams, Dioscorea, occurs as
separate species in America, Asia and Africa. The botanist, Galletty Wilson
maintained that tobacco, a native American plant, was in
use across Africa long before the arrival of Portuguese traders; and the
American sweet potato was thought to be cultivated in Uganda before the time
of Columbus (Bailey 1994). Bernal
(1973) remarked that the American peanut was probably cultivated in China by
3,000 B.C. Pompeian murals have been
reported to contain accurate portrayals of two tropical American plants, the
pineapple and the sour sop, Annona
squamosa (Neugebauer 1962). American cultivated
cottons are tetraploid, with one set of genes resembling
the genes of American wild cottons, and the other set that of all Asiatic
cottons (Bailey 1994, Brücher 1989).
Human intervention would be essential to explain this
relationship. Tetraploid cotton was
being used in Peru in 4,000 B.C.! The American sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, is
especially interesting, because many varieties of it were being grown in
Polynesia long before European contact there (Brücher). Its name in Polynesia and in America is
close to "kumar" or
"camote," which comes from the Sanskrit word "kumari"
(Bailey 1994). The coconut, believed
to be from Southeast Asia, is thought by some to have been present in America
when the Spaniards arrived. Coconuts
cannot remain viable after floating for a long time in seawater. The bottle gourd, Lagenaria
siceraria, is a container plant of African origin. Its earliest occurrence in America was in
the Ayacucho Basin of Peru ca. 11,000 B.C. (Lathrop 1977). It was grown throughout America as long
ago as 7,000 B.C. Although it was
believed spread by ocean currents, its seeds cannot remain viable for the
length of time that floating to America would take. Brücher (1989) puzzled at how this plant crossed to the Pacific
side of America at such an early date.
The Arabs may have brought American maize into
Spain in the 13th Century (Bailey 1994).
Bailey (1994) suggests other interesting plant examples. Some of the more
readily available Pre-Columbian sculptures and figures found in the Americas
are shown in the following links.
These are arranged chronologically as Preclassic (1800 B.C. - 150 AD), Classic (150 AD - 900 AD), and Post-Classic (900 AD - 1521 AD). They show the multiethnic characteristics that at various times
have exerted an influence in America, and some of the marvelous artwork
associated with the various cultures.
They are represented as closely as possible to the original works, and
their dates are derived primarily from the respective cited references, which
should be consulted for detail. Von Wuthenau (1969) emphasized that the
individual and ethnic characteristics of the human face are something that no
one could invent by accident.
Moreover, with the most elementary logic and to all artistic
experience an Amerindian could not depict in a masterly way the head of an
African, Asian or European without missing a single characteristic, unless he
had actually seen such a person. The wide scale
destruction of historical documents in America by the Aztecs, who strove to
rewrite history in their own image, and by European invaders after the
Conquest, has contributed to our present limited knowledge of Pre-Columbian
history in America. Foreign diseases,
such as smallpox, measles and whooping cough, decimated the native
populations in Mexico alone by an estimated 86% by 1700 AD (Coe 1994). Certainly, such high mortality contributed
to a great reduction of ethnic diversity in America. Continuing to ignore the many authors
cited herein who have painstakingly strived to record remnants of this
history is unconscionable in view of the fact that their evidence for
Pre-Columbian contact is strong.
Recovered artifacts are scattered in museums and private collections
around the world where they are not always generally accessible. The chronological assemblage herein of
some of the evidence for Pre-Columbian contacts in America should stimulate
additional searches and a broader discussion of the subject. This in turn may lead to new perspectives
in our knowledge of ethno-historical events and human population migrations.
[Also see Album] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attachment #1 (FURTHER DETAIL) As of January
2009 there have been few implements found in the Americas that date from the
Bronze Age. (Please see Discussion) Nevertheless, Fell (1982) noted that several outstanding
facts become increasingly apparent from various epigraphic expeditions. He stated, "One is that we have
greatly underrated the achievements of the Bronze Age peoples of northern
Europe. We have long known, from
their conspicuous carvings that constitute the rock art of the Bronze Age,
that the North Sea and the Baltic were the home waters of fleets of
ships. What we have failed to realize
is that those same ships and characteristic Bronze Age style, are also
depicted on the rocks and cliffs of the maritime regions of eastern North
America. And now it is also apparent
that these same matching petroglyphs, on both sides of the Atlantic, are also
accompanied by readable texts cut in ancient scripts that are likewise found
on either side of the Atlantic," (Also see Colonization). The voyages occurred just as the Iron Age was beginning,
so that the explorers might have brought with them implements of iron instead
of bronze (see Picture), and most would have probably rusted away. What this means,
of course, is that the ancient shipwrights made sound vessels, whose skippers
and crews sailed them across the ocean, thereby fulfilling their builders'
dreams. Flotillas of ancient Norse, Baltic,
and Nordic (often erroneously referred to as Celtic—see Celts) ships each summer set their prows to the northwest, to
cross the Atlantic, to return later in the season with cargoes of raw
materials furnished by the Algonquians with whom they traded. To make these crossings they depended in
part upon the sea roads that had been opened up by the amelioration of the
climate at the peak of the Bronze Age. [See Climate] As oceanographers
have inferred, the polar ice melted then, and the favorable westward-flowing
air and water currents generated by the permanent polar high now became
available to aid in the westward passage.
The return voyage, as always, could be made on the west wind drift, in
the latitude of around 40-deg. North Latitude, as Columbus rediscovered. While these Norse traders opened up the
northern parts of North America, other sailors from the Mediterranean lands
were doing similar things... but their outward voyage lay along the path that
Columbus employed, utilizing the westward-blowing trade winds, found at
latitudes below 30-deg. N. Both sets
of navigation, though employing different outward routes, were obliged to use
the same homeward track, that of the west wind drift in middle
latitudes. Along this common sea road
the sailors of the two different regions would occasionally meet, thus
prompting intercultural exchanges between the Baltic lands and North Africa,
as Fell (1982) had inferred previously.
At least twice since the close of the Stone Age, conditions have
favored such events. The first
occurred during the warm period of the middle Bronze Age. Then the world's climates cooled again,
and the northern route to America became too ice-bound and too dangerous to
attract adventurers in that direction any longer [see Climate]. It remained thus
until about AD 700, when once more the earth's climate ameliorated. Once again the northern icecap melted and
the polar seas could support navigation that made use of the polar high. Once more mariners came to northeastern
America, this time under a name by which they are known in history--The
Vikings. Yet, as the inscriptions
show, these Vikings were not just Norsemen, they included as before men from
the Baltic lands, Lithuanians and Latvians, as well as peoples from Ireland
and probably also Wales. After AD
1,200 the earth grew colder again, the thousand vineyards of William the
Conqueror's England died out, and Normans turned their attention to the south
of Europe to bring in their Malmsey wines, no longer fermented in England,
where no vineyards now survived. The
old routes to America were deserted, and that western land lay ignored by
Europe until the voyage of Columbus once more awakened the cupidity of
monarchs who, by this time, now controlled large populations of Europe. This time the full force of European
exploitation fell upon the Amerindians, and the age of American isolation had
ended. Another noteworthy
fact is that the ancient Europeans were not barbarians. They not only spoke in the chief dialects
of the Indo-European tongues, but already by late Neolithic times, the
Europeans could write. The languages they wrote now prove to have
been comprehensible to us as representing the principal tongues of modern
Europe: Teutonic, Baltic, Celtic, and
Basque. Yet, another surprising
discovery is due to Professor Linus Brunner, who announced in 1981 the
occurrence of Semitic vocabulary in the newly identified Rhaetic language of ancient Switzerland. The heretofore
mysterious people, to whom the archeologists have attached such names as
'Beaker Folk,' 'Bell-beaker People,' and so on, now prove to be Europeans of
presently existing stocks. They spoke
in early variant forms of languages that we can see as related closely to the
classical Teutonic, Norse, and other tongues of Europe at the time of the Romans. The inscriptions found on their artifacts
prove this. That it was not
understood before is simply because archeologists have mistaken the writing
for decorative engraving. When a loom
weight has inscribed upon it the word warp,
it is obvious that this is a purely practical identification label for a
weaver. Decorative it may be, but let
us not overlook the fact that such a label tells us immediately the
linguistic stock of the person who engraved it. Moreover, of course, it certifies that the engraver belonged to
a literate society. The Pre-Christian
languages that were spoken were apparently all very closely related to a most
ancient form, West African (see Migrations for a more extensive treatment of this subject). The Basque Language apparently survives as
a close approximation of ancient West African. When we examine the rock and cliff
inscriptions of Scandinavia, we discover that the 'meaningless' decorations
beside their ship carvings are none other than a readable comment in Baltic
speech. They are appropriate to the
scene depicted, and we know at once that the designer was familiar with the
language spoken by the ancestors of the people who still live along the
Baltic coasts today. They were known
as Balts. Let us recognize this simple fact, and
call them by their proper names. In
addition, when we find very similar, and similarly lettered, engravings on
North American rocks, it is our obligation to recognize their European origins,
and to call them by their proper names too. ----------------------- Please
see Bibliography for citations noted in
this section |
