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Considerations on Recent Discoveries

Of Pre-Columbian Contacts in America

There is indeed much to examine if one has an open mind and the realization that first impressions may or may not be correct in the interpretation of what one sees.

Ever since it recently became obvious that the CLOVIS points did not have their origins in Siberia but rather in Southwestern Europe (France, Portugal, Spain), there must have been contacts from that part of the world well before the Christian Era.  When glaciations extended across the North Atlantic it would have been perfectly feasible for people in the Eskimo style to follow the glaciers over to America.  Descendants of them could have logically done the Indiana site showing extinct animals and obvious humans.  Then when the asteroid hit northeastern Canada, which was glaciated at the time, it created havoc with the weather for some years, causing mass extinction.  This could have eliminated those European settlements if the residents had not moved further west before the asteroid hit.  Some colonies may have survived the terrible event and repopulated the Northeast because it was obvious to Post-Columbus settlers there that the natives had many European features.

Similarly, we know that people from the southern islands of Japan reached Ecuador about 2,000 BCE, judging from the pottery they left there.  During the years following 2,000 BCE that pottery skill spread all over the Americas.  On their way south the Japanese certainly got into the American Southwest, as there are many Japanese words in the Zuni language.  One intriguing mystery lingers concerning the language of a group of Amerindians living in the Mexican state of Michoacán.  Unlike the Nahuatl-type of languages that are widespread among Amerindians in America, some of the Michoacán indigenous groups have an unrelated and unique language.  Before Edo Nyland passed away he uncovered the fact that many of the Amerindian geographic place names were derived from a very ancient language that he called "Saharan."  Later Catherine Acholonu of the Igbo group in Nigeria pointed out that "Saharan" was actually an ancient form of the Igbo language.  In the Basque area of Europe as well as a few tiny enclaves in the Alps, "Saharan" is still spoken, albeit in a modified way.  Because the Basques created a detailed dictionary of their language hundreds of years ago it has been possible to translate some of the ancient writings that have been found in the Americas (e.g., the Horsecreek Petroglyph of West Virginia).

Also possibly the Igbo and their relatives of West Africa may have made it to the East Coast of Southern Mexico well before the Christian Era, where they established agriculture resembling what existed in West Africa.  Satellite photos show the similarity, and the many carvings of humans they made in southern Mexico show definite African features.  The main group, the Olmec as they began to be called, are responsible for the development of many of the basic food crops in Mexico (maize, cacao, beans, etc.).  There has been sensitivity among Amerindians to admit to the African influence, so to this day this information is depressed.  Archeologists refrain from pursuing it further to avoid jeopardizing their financial support.