File: <ethnic1.htm> [For teaching purposes only; do not
review, quote or abstract] Index <American Archeology>
<List of Illustrations> Credits
ETHNIC
DIVERSITY IN AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS
SUGGESTS
PREHISTORIC OLD WORLD CONTACTS
(Contacts) 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 generally agree that true humans, Homo sapiens, first began to leave Africa around 80,000 B.C.
(Larick & Ciochon 1996). But,
their existence on that continent extends much further back in time (see 700,000 BP, Britain 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 Saharan
Language, provides clues to Pre-Columbian voyages throughout the
world. Linguistics
Archeology that studies the relationships of modern languages to the
ancient Saharan 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, Saharan (see Migrations for a more
extensive treatment of this subject).
The Basque Language apparently survives as a close approximation of
ancient Saharan. 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 |
