The Spanish investigators have discovered archaeological evidences below the sea, near the coasts of Gibraltar, that could belong to the Atlantic civilization described by Plato with the name of Atlantis and that exactly located the Greek philosopher in front of the columns of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar), Next to the region of Gadeira (Cadiz, Andalusia) and of the atlas (Morocco).
The first results were done in the summer of the 2003. A report with the preliminary results was done, consulted to the great experts of the reputation the international as under George F. and Cemal Pulak and the report were sent to the authorities and the competent organisms of Spain and UNESCO.
It has spent a year, and still no scientific institution has demonstrated interest to study the solid evidences discovered by the team of the explorers of collaboration of the investigator and the escriptólogo Georgeos Diaz-Montexano, intellectual author of the theories that support these discoveries in the identification of the kingdom of the Atlantis with the Atlantic cities of the coasts of Iberia and Morocco.
It is the first time in all the history that is discovered architectonic devices of the rest and of the metal underneath the sea in a location that agrees upon a 100% with the descriptions offered by Plato in the geographic place where it was the island and the Acropolis of the Atlantis.
Some investigators protest to have Atlantis found in other places of the world like Jim Allen, of which the places in a place so moved away of Gibraltar as mountains of Bolivia, whereas Roberto Samarst is conceited now to have discovered the Atlantis near the coasts of Cyprus, but Sarmast have still not discovered nor a single archaeological evidence, the only thing that does since it initiated to his expeditions is to demonstrate the pretty drawings of the virtual maps reconstructed by the computers of knoll and the natural geologic formation that it interprets like the rest of Atlantis buried by the marine bottom.
Spanish investigator Georgeos Diaz-Montexano, German Ulf Ritcher and the Dutch Jonas Berghman is the only investigators who defend with scientific rigor and the adjustment to texts and many other authors of Plato of the antiquity the only possible location of Atlantis: the one that describes Plato, that is to say, near the columns of Hercules (Gibraltar), Gadeira (Cadiz, Andalusie, Spain) and the atlas (Morocco).
The equipment of Georgeos Diaz-Montexano of the collaborator is the unique one who has demonstrated that the submarine archaeological evidences of the world that have been analyzed by the experts and they have still not been possible to recognize or to classify. These evidences are to the depths that correspond with the old level of the sea of several thousands of years before the times of Solón and Plato.
He is paradoxical which the team of Spanish investigators has still not demanded the discovery of Atlantis, in spite of being those that evidences scientists have more and who nevertheless, Roberto Sarmarst does not concern him to affirm to the world that has discovered Atlantis already when the only thing that it has at the moment is not more than some natural hills and formation - until it on the contrary demonstrates and to some maps and virtual reconstructions where it is reconstructed what Sarmast thinks that they must have, but that not still exists.
Roberto Sarmast not still has demonstrated to the world nor a single archaeological evidence that is solid and worthy to consider, whereas Georgeos Diaz-Montexano has demonstrated to not one but to several deposits with the archaeological evidences “sui generis” that they would have to be object of the study between the scientists. Roberto Sarmast has directed fundamental by the speculations of the book pseudo-monk of Urantia, whereas Jonas Berghman, Ulf Ritcher, and in special, Georgeos Diaz-Montexano, prefer to go by the scientific and philological study of the Plato well-known the oldest manuscripts, and of the scientific evidences contributed by geology, oceanography, paleogeography, sismology and archaeology.
Nevertheless, and against all the logic, Roberto Sarmast who it is receiving, probably the greater aid of publicity in the level the international that never has received a finder of Atlantis.
Kamis, 30 Agustus 2007
Minggu, 26 Agustus 2007
Atlantis from Plato Sight
History - The Lost City of Atlantis
Plato started all the hoopla about the lost city of Atlantis.
Plato
Around 350 BC, Plato wrote about a beautiful island in the Atlantic Ocean that went under the ocean waves in one day and one night. It took two books to describe the history and details of this almost magical island. For years people have been looking for this mysterious lost city, Atlantis. Plato described Atlantis as a island nation existing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It was said to be populated by a great a powerful race and was a center for trace and commerce during that era. The sheer scale of everything he said about Atlantis, from the grandeur of its buildings tot he enormous timescale involved, have provided a controversial debate that has extended for over 10,000 years. Plato claimed to have gotten his information from his family. The fact that Plato would never perpetrate a fraud involving deceased members of his revered family, and the common knowledge that Plato was never known for wholesale fabrication, indicates that Plato indeed told the story as a truthful account of this mysterious civilization.
Living In Atlantis
Plato describes the Atlantians as great engineers and architects. There were palaces, harbors, temples and docks. The capital city was built on a hill and surrounded by rings of water, which were joined by tunnels large enough for a ship to sail through. A huge canal connected the outer rings of water to the ocean. On the outskirts of the capital city there were huge fields where farmers grew the city's food. Past the field there were mountains where wealthy villagers lived. Plato goes great detail about the amazing buildings - complete with hot and cold fountains, shared dining halls and stone walls covered with precious metals. Atlantis was described as being remarkably modern for its day. It was said to have many man-made canals used for navigation and water supply. The people there were very wealthy and had considerable natural resources such as abundant plants and wildlife. Some believe that the inhabitants of Atlantis were even more 'advanced' than our modern civilization (and possibly wiser) contradicting the prevailing view of a slow, steady, linear ascent of human civilization from primitive beginnings to our modern technological society. In fact, some believe that that not all Atlanteans died in their cataclysmic event but rather survived and are the ancestors of all of our modern day 'intelligent' people. Given this belief, all of our modern day technology is simply a rediscovering of the knowledge and information possessed by the Atlantean culture.
Surrealistic tales of Atlantean intelligence propose that they had developed such technologically advanced mechanisms such as time machines, machinery to transport themselves into some sort of altered dimension, futuristic weaponry, and advanced communication devices. Some tales indicate that the Atlanteans had perfected cloning of their powerful race and/or had created intelligent robotic clones of themselves. And some tales tell of a 'alternate Earth' that the Atlanteans periodically visited, possibly by the use of the previously mentioned portal machinery.
Atlantis - Just A Story?
For over two thousand years the story of Atlantis was just a story. Then, in the late 1800s, an American named Ignatius Donnelly became fascinated with the story and wrote a book called Atlantis, the Antediluvian World, which became a bestseller. Ignatius studied flood history from Egypt to Mexico and believed that Plato was recording an actual natural disaster. Since then, several books have been written about the lost city.
Atlantis - Facts And Fiction
The most believable theory about Atlantis came from the Greek archaeologist Angelos Galanopoulos in the late '60s. He theorized that around 1500 BCE, a massive eruption from a volcano ripped apart the island of Santorini in the Mediterranean and probably wiped out most of the civilization on the Greek islands and regions of Greece. Angelos suggested this disaster is the one that sank Atlantis. If this is so, then he must have his dates wrong - or does he? He reasons that when the story was being translated, the Egyptian symbol for 100 (a coiled rope) was mistaken for the symbol for 1000 (a lotus flower). This changes the date from 9000 years ago to 900 years ago. The only thing wrong with this explanation is that Plato specifically said the city was near the Pillars of Hercules, which are thought to be nowhere near Greece.
The Destruction
As time passed, legend has it that as their wealth and knowledge reached unfathomed levels, the people began to falter and become greedy. Some legends tell us that as punishment, the God Zeus pummeled the metropolis and the entire island nation sank into the city killing all of its habitants. Some take a more practical view and believe that an earthquake of great flood destroyed the metropolis ins a single night of terror. Others believe the Atlanteans, reaching unbelievable levels of success, simply self-destructed and destroyed themselves.
Where Could Atlantis Be?
The exact location of the lost city of Atlantis has been questioned by many people, like British Royal Air Force photo interpreter J.M. Allen. He is convinced Atlantis is in Altiplano, near the Andes Mountains, in Bolivia. The famous psychic channeler Edgar Cayce believed the remains would be found off the coast of Florida near Bimini Island. Other people think it's lost somewhere in Central America, the China Sea or Africa. Others believe that Atlantis is nothing more than a myth. Some historians believe that the Atlanteans actually survived their cataclysm and migrated to other places. Common belief is that their migration took them to Egypt where the continued to forge new and innovative methods of technology. This theory concludes that that the great Egyptian marvels, such as the Sphinx and the great Egyptian writings. Others feel that Solon, the supposed family member who originally passed the story on to Plato, may have mistaken Egypt itself for the city of Atlantis.
Some researchers believe that the shifting continents may have displaced Atlantis to a location not nearly as close to the Atlantic Ocean as Plato described. Prevailing evidence using advanced calculations indicates that the lost civilization may indeed lie under the ice of Antarctica.
Bimini Island - possible site of Atlantis (5995 bytes)Other researchers and readings from the infamous Edgar Cayce, indicate that Atlantis may have been located near the Bimini Island in the Bahamas. There is evidence that the Bimini Island may have once been a mountain region with the largest part of the island now submerged beneath the ocean. Cayce believed that Atlantis actually suffered three destructive events. The first destroyed their major power source (what the power source was in not known). The second actually split the islands into 3 separate entities. The third and final catastrophe caused all three of the islands to sink into the sea. Cayce concluded his reading of the City of Atlantis with a warning - between 1958 and 2008 our modern society would be presented with the same opportunities and challenges that the Atlanteans faced. Our response to those challenges may dictate our fate just as it did the Atlanteans.
Map of Atlantis off China Coast (7801 bytes)Probably the most sound scientific explanation of the location of Atlantis places it off the southern coast of China. This location of this site makes if somewhat difficult to study but a general scientific consensus of the world's 'map' around the end of the Ice Age indicates that a great portion of that continent is now located underwater. Depth studies of the region also indicate that there are three areas that are particularly shallow, all being less than 100 meters under the water.
This is the easiest answer - Atlantis is fiction. It was made up to suit the purposes of Plato's dialogues.
For:
Nothing to prove. Timaeus and Critias are simply stories.
Against:
It is stated several times within the dialogues that the story is true and a parts about the impassable sea and the true continent on the other side of Atlantis tend to indicate a more detailed knowledge that a fictional story
Thera & The Minoan Civilization
There are some compelling similarites between the destruction of Thera and the destruction of Atlantis.....
For
* The island of Thera, a volcanic island, was destroyed around 1500 BC by an explosion which caused more than half of the island to sink into the sea.
* Artifacts found on the island indicate a sophisticated culture, probably part of the Minoan Civilization.
* There is evidence pointing to trade between the Minoans and Egyptians. The Egyptians would certainly have been aware of the destruction or at least the tremedous damage done to one of their trading partners.
* We'll examine this possibility in more detail in upcoming issues of Enigma.
Against
* Proponents of this theory claim that Plato's date of 9000 years ago should really have been 900 years ago: somewhere along the line either Solon or Plato made a mistake. If the story was 900 years ago it would place Atlantis in the time frame of the Minoan civilization on Crete and Thera. Conveniently overlooked in this thinking is that in Timaeus the priest tells Solon that ancient Athens and Atlantis preceeded Egypt by a thousand years. Egypt however existed and was known to have existed since long before 1500 BC, the time of Crete and Thera. The times just don't add up unless you assume the Egyptian priest was ignorant of his own recorded history.
Plato started all the hoopla about the lost city of Atlantis.
Plato
Around 350 BC, Plato wrote about a beautiful island in the Atlantic Ocean that went under the ocean waves in one day and one night. It took two books to describe the history and details of this almost magical island. For years people have been looking for this mysterious lost city, Atlantis. Plato described Atlantis as a island nation existing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It was said to be populated by a great a powerful race and was a center for trace and commerce during that era. The sheer scale of everything he said about Atlantis, from the grandeur of its buildings tot he enormous timescale involved, have provided a controversial debate that has extended for over 10,000 years. Plato claimed to have gotten his information from his family. The fact that Plato would never perpetrate a fraud involving deceased members of his revered family, and the common knowledge that Plato was never known for wholesale fabrication, indicates that Plato indeed told the story as a truthful account of this mysterious civilization.
Living In Atlantis
Plato describes the Atlantians as great engineers and architects. There were palaces, harbors, temples and docks. The capital city was built on a hill and surrounded by rings of water, which were joined by tunnels large enough for a ship to sail through. A huge canal connected the outer rings of water to the ocean. On the outskirts of the capital city there were huge fields where farmers grew the city's food. Past the field there were mountains where wealthy villagers lived. Plato goes great detail about the amazing buildings - complete with hot and cold fountains, shared dining halls and stone walls covered with precious metals. Atlantis was described as being remarkably modern for its day. It was said to have many man-made canals used for navigation and water supply. The people there were very wealthy and had considerable natural resources such as abundant plants and wildlife. Some believe that the inhabitants of Atlantis were even more 'advanced' than our modern civilization (and possibly wiser) contradicting the prevailing view of a slow, steady, linear ascent of human civilization from primitive beginnings to our modern technological society. In fact, some believe that that not all Atlanteans died in their cataclysmic event but rather survived and are the ancestors of all of our modern day 'intelligent' people. Given this belief, all of our modern day technology is simply a rediscovering of the knowledge and information possessed by the Atlantean culture.
Surrealistic tales of Atlantean intelligence propose that they had developed such technologically advanced mechanisms such as time machines, machinery to transport themselves into some sort of altered dimension, futuristic weaponry, and advanced communication devices. Some tales indicate that the Atlanteans had perfected cloning of their powerful race and/or had created intelligent robotic clones of themselves. And some tales tell of a 'alternate Earth' that the Atlanteans periodically visited, possibly by the use of the previously mentioned portal machinery.
Atlantis - Just A Story?
For over two thousand years the story of Atlantis was just a story. Then, in the late 1800s, an American named Ignatius Donnelly became fascinated with the story and wrote a book called Atlantis, the Antediluvian World, which became a bestseller. Ignatius studied flood history from Egypt to Mexico and believed that Plato was recording an actual natural disaster. Since then, several books have been written about the lost city.
Atlantis - Facts And Fiction
The most believable theory about Atlantis came from the Greek archaeologist Angelos Galanopoulos in the late '60s. He theorized that around 1500 BCE, a massive eruption from a volcano ripped apart the island of Santorini in the Mediterranean and probably wiped out most of the civilization on the Greek islands and regions of Greece. Angelos suggested this disaster is the one that sank Atlantis. If this is so, then he must have his dates wrong - or does he? He reasons that when the story was being translated, the Egyptian symbol for 100 (a coiled rope) was mistaken for the symbol for 1000 (a lotus flower). This changes the date from 9000 years ago to 900 years ago. The only thing wrong with this explanation is that Plato specifically said the city was near the Pillars of Hercules, which are thought to be nowhere near Greece.
The Destruction
As time passed, legend has it that as their wealth and knowledge reached unfathomed levels, the people began to falter and become greedy. Some legends tell us that as punishment, the God Zeus pummeled the metropolis and the entire island nation sank into the city killing all of its habitants. Some take a more practical view and believe that an earthquake of great flood destroyed the metropolis ins a single night of terror. Others believe the Atlanteans, reaching unbelievable levels of success, simply self-destructed and destroyed themselves.
Where Could Atlantis Be?
The exact location of the lost city of Atlantis has been questioned by many people, like British Royal Air Force photo interpreter J.M. Allen. He is convinced Atlantis is in Altiplano, near the Andes Mountains, in Bolivia. The famous psychic channeler Edgar Cayce believed the remains would be found off the coast of Florida near Bimini Island. Other people think it's lost somewhere in Central America, the China Sea or Africa. Others believe that Atlantis is nothing more than a myth. Some historians believe that the Atlanteans actually survived their cataclysm and migrated to other places. Common belief is that their migration took them to Egypt where the continued to forge new and innovative methods of technology. This theory concludes that that the great Egyptian marvels, such as the Sphinx and the great Egyptian writings. Others feel that Solon, the supposed family member who originally passed the story on to Plato, may have mistaken Egypt itself for the city of Atlantis.
Some researchers believe that the shifting continents may have displaced Atlantis to a location not nearly as close to the Atlantic Ocean as Plato described. Prevailing evidence using advanced calculations indicates that the lost civilization may indeed lie under the ice of Antarctica.
Bimini Island - possible site of Atlantis (5995 bytes)Other researchers and readings from the infamous Edgar Cayce, indicate that Atlantis may have been located near the Bimini Island in the Bahamas. There is evidence that the Bimini Island may have once been a mountain region with the largest part of the island now submerged beneath the ocean. Cayce believed that Atlantis actually suffered three destructive events. The first destroyed their major power source (what the power source was in not known). The second actually split the islands into 3 separate entities. The third and final catastrophe caused all three of the islands to sink into the sea. Cayce concluded his reading of the City of Atlantis with a warning - between 1958 and 2008 our modern society would be presented with the same opportunities and challenges that the Atlanteans faced. Our response to those challenges may dictate our fate just as it did the Atlanteans.
Map of Atlantis off China Coast (7801 bytes)Probably the most sound scientific explanation of the location of Atlantis places it off the southern coast of China. This location of this site makes if somewhat difficult to study but a general scientific consensus of the world's 'map' around the end of the Ice Age indicates that a great portion of that continent is now located underwater. Depth studies of the region also indicate that there are three areas that are particularly shallow, all being less than 100 meters under the water.
This is the easiest answer - Atlantis is fiction. It was made up to suit the purposes of Plato's dialogues.
For:
Nothing to prove. Timaeus and Critias are simply stories.
Against:
It is stated several times within the dialogues that the story is true and a parts about the impassable sea and the true continent on the other side of Atlantis tend to indicate a more detailed knowledge that a fictional story
Thera & The Minoan Civilization
There are some compelling similarites between the destruction of Thera and the destruction of Atlantis.....
For
* The island of Thera, a volcanic island, was destroyed around 1500 BC by an explosion which caused more than half of the island to sink into the sea.
* Artifacts found on the island indicate a sophisticated culture, probably part of the Minoan Civilization.
* There is evidence pointing to trade between the Minoans and Egyptians. The Egyptians would certainly have been aware of the destruction or at least the tremedous damage done to one of their trading partners.
* We'll examine this possibility in more detail in upcoming issues of Enigma.
Against
* Proponents of this theory claim that Plato's date of 9000 years ago should really have been 900 years ago: somewhere along the line either Solon or Plato made a mistake. If the story was 900 years ago it would place Atlantis in the time frame of the Minoan civilization on Crete and Thera. Conveniently overlooked in this thinking is that in Timaeus the priest tells Solon that ancient Athens and Atlantis preceeded Egypt by a thousand years. Egypt however existed and was known to have existed since long before 1500 BC, the time of Crete and Thera. The times just don't add up unless you assume the Egyptian priest was ignorant of his own recorded history.
Selasa, 21 Agustus 2007
Atlantis, Mu and the Maya
Early theories attributing Mesoamerican civilization to lost civilizations continue to deprive Native Americans of their cultural legacy today.
by Jason Colavito
Mayan pyramid at Tikal
The early history of Mesoamerican studies is characterized by a grave dispute over the origins of Mesoamerican civilization. In many ways, this dispute is an argument over two lost continents, Atlantis and Mu, and where their survivors may have settled. Proponents of the Atlantis hypothesis argued that survivors of that lost continent spread to Africa and to Central America, giving rise to advanced civilizations like Egypt and the Maya (Orser 2001), while followers of Mu claimed that refugees from the lost Pacific continent ventured to China and Central America, giving rise to advanced civilizations (Tompkins 1976). That Mesoamerican civilization began in situ is never contemplated.
The two leading advocates of their respective theories were Ignatius Donnelly and Col. James Churchward. According to Prof. Charles Orser (2001) Donnelly, a former vice-presidential candidate, built upon the myth of Atlantis laid down by Plato and created a vision of the island-continent that would last for a century after his book, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World ceased to be remembered: "It is, quite simply, the most significant pseudo-archaeology book ever written, and it has provided a roadmap for the flood of pseudo-archaeology that has come after it [Orser 2001]."
On the other end of the spectrum, Col. Churchward believed in an island civilization located in the Pacific Ocean, whose remains he believed can still be seen in the cyclopean ruins of the Polynesian islands, most notably the statues of Easter Island. Alternative historian Peter Tompkins (1976:364) says that Churchward's Mu was the origin of civilization with "one branch of colonization [which] ran from Mu to Central America, thence to Atlantis." In this scheme, civilization arrived in ancient Mesoamerica by a Pacific route, and Atlantis is downgraded to a colony of the greater Mu.
The conflict among these pre-modern diffusionist theories would lead generations of diffusionists to claim external origins for Mesoamerican civilization, much to the dismay of archaeologists, who tried to stop the robbing of indigenous cultures (see Haslip-Viera et al. 1997).
THE ATLANTIC CROSSING HYPOTHESIS
Donnelly placed Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean and had its descendants populate the Atlantic rim, bringing culture to the ignorant natives after the fall of the great island. This theory was eagerly adopted among the diffusionists of the nineteenth century because, as Tompkins (1976:36) recounts, "the similarity between Mexican and Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphs, and calendars was too strongly indicative of the existence in the Atlantic of an intervening continent or group of islands, for which Plato's account of Atlantis fit the bill." Of course, having the side-effect of denying the native peoples a culture on par with that of the Europeans did nothing to retard the spread of diffusionism.
After the twentieth century rejection of the Atlantis hypothesis, speculation transformed the Atlantis hypothesis into transoceanic contact. However, even under this scenario, the connection is tenuous at best. The Egyptian and Mesoamerican pyramids bear no relation to each other in either form or function. As Haslip-Viera, Montellano and Barbour (1997:427) point out, the Mexican pyramids were step-pyramids with wide, accessible stairs topped with temples while the Egyptian were regular pyramids with no access or temple-top. Furthermore, if the Egyptians did come to the New World, why should they have taught the Olmec of 1500 BC the pyramid-building techniques they themselves had stopped using hundreds of years earlier?
The same year that Tompkins wrote his alternative history of Mexican pyramid investigation, another researcher was using the old nineteenth century theories to formulate a different view of the origins of ancient Mexican civilization. As Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Bernard Ortiz de Montellano and Warren Barbour (1997) discuss, Ivan van Sertima proposed that ancient Mesoamerica derived its civilization from transatlantic voyages by Africans. Van Sertima was on the forefront of the Afrocentric movement, and firmly believed that African (black) people were responsible for all of the ancient civilizations of earth: "In the case of the Americas, a more complicated scenario had to be advanced in order to account for the relative isolation of these continents and the geographic obstacles posed by the Atlantic and Pacific [Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:420]."
Van Sertima laid out a complex scenario of transatlantic voyages that relied upon two basic pieces of evidence: African plants in the New World, and African faces carved in ancient Olmec stones. The botanical evidence may be disposed of in a few sentences, but the stone heads will take a longer, more circuitous route to understand.
The botanical evidence for transoceanic contact basically boils down to the African bottle-gourd, which, Michael Coe (2001b:34) points out, was the first domesticate of Mesoamerican peoples, cultivated around 6500 BC. Van Sertima had argued that African voyagers brought the plant to the New World, the oldest African bottle gourds cultivated in the Old World date only to 3000 BC: "Thus gourds were first cultivated in the New World much earlier than in Egypt [Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:429]." For knowledge of gourd cultivation to travel from Africa to Mexico, it would be necessary for the Africans to have been growing the gourd before the Mexicans, to whom they supposedly gave it. Furthermore, since the gourd is capable of traveling across the ocean unharmed, Haslip-Viera, Montellano and Barbour (1997:429) argue that "there is no need to posit human transport to the New World" because there is no other evidence of introduced African species before Columbus.
On the other hand, the evidence for Africans immortalized in ancient Mexican stonework requires deeper and more complex treatment.
Jacques Soustelle (1985: 10, 14) reports that the Olmec culture first became known in 1862 with the discovery of the first colossal stone head, but the culture was not identified as something apart from the Maya until 1926. Thus, the first report of an Olmec head was tinged not just with the racial attitudes of the day but also with a complete void in the archaeological understanding of the region.
When nineteenth-century traveler José María Melgar y Serrano ventured deep into the Mexican jungle to investigate rumors of colossal stone statuary hidden amidst the verdant green forests, he had no way of knowing that he would set off more than a century of speculation into the transcontinental origins of Mesoamerican civilization. For Melgar y Serrano had discovered the first signs of the oldest high civilization in the Americas, the Olmec, and he was shocked by one of their colossal stone heads which seemed to him to bear an uncanny resemblance to African peoples: "As a work of art, it is, without exaggeration, a magnificent sculpture... but what most amazed me was that the type it represents is Ethiopian. I concluded that there had doubtless been blacks in this region, and from the very earliest stages of the world [Soustelle 1985:9]."
Over the course of the next hundred and forty years, scores of authors would write about the African appearance of the Olmec and hold up these colossal stone heads as proof that voyagers from Africa had given the Olmec the boon of civilization.
In 1995, alternative historian Graham Hancock released his massive tome, Fingerprints of the Gods, in which he expanded on the old diffusionist theories for the origin of the Olmec. In claiming that the Olmec heads were of African origin, Hancock (1995: 131) argued that "It would probably be impossible . . . for a sculptor to invent the different combined characteristics of an authentic racial type. The portrayal of an authentic combination of racial characteristics therefore implied strongly that a human model had been used." These traits referred to were apparently the broad noses and thick lips of the Olmec heads, which van Sertima, Hancock and others link to Africans.
However, as any biological anthropologist could demonstrate, phenotypes have virtually nothing to do with race. As Jurmain, Nelson, Kilgore and Trevathan (1998:108) note, race is not a biological concept: "the amount of genetic variation accounted for by differences between groups is vastly exceeded by the variation that exists within groups." As a result, "race is a meaningless concept [Jurmain et al. 1998:108]." So having thus established that there are no races to be depicted on the Olmec heads, next it must be shown that the heads do not share the same characteristics with their supposed models.
Haslip-Viera, Montellano and Barbour (1997:423) spend a considerable amount of space discussing the evolutionary history of flat noses and wide lips as adaptations to the Mexican tropical climate. The old argument that Egyptians gave civilization to the Olmec is untenable by these heads because "Nubians and Egyptians have longer, thinner noses because they have lived in a desert (Haslip-Viera et al. 1997: 423)." That the heads were of West African (stereotypically black) origin is also refuted by noting that West Africans are prognathic (jutting jawed), while the Olmec heads are markedly not. Also, the Olmec heads have epicanthic eye-folds like Asians, while African populations do not. In other words, the Olmec heads show Mexican people: "they resembled people who still live in the tropical lowlands of Mexico [Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:423]."
The African-origins hypothesis seemed initially to accord well with the hyperdiffusionist movement of the late nineteenth century. It was then assumed that civilization began in Egypt and spread from there to all corners of the world, and that the peoples of the Americas had to have received their civilization from outside sources because of their biological inferiority (Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:420).
Of course, the late nineteenth century thinkers were troubled by the seemingly African features of the Olmec sculptures, since the Egyptians, whose civilization was the antecedent of all, were believed then to be Caucasian people. The so-called Negroid type was thought to be biologically inferior, as well. The genius of van Sertima's hypothesis was that it made the African phenotype the biologically superior one, and thus "established" that the old views were correct, but in the wrong color: "It is curious that this hypothesis has resurfaced in the late 20th century in revised form, with the biologically superior people now being identified as blacks' [Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:420]."
The African origins hypothesis has been refuted successfully on purely scientific grounds. Nevertheless, the manifold theories of African origins, in the words of Jacques Sostelle [1985:10], "continue to haunt Mexican archaeology like unsuccessfully exorcised ghosts."
THE PACIFIC CROSSING HYPOTHESIS
If the Africa-origins thinkers traced the beginning of their theory to the fiery demise of Atlantis, so do the Asian-origins speculators find their own lost continent had a hand in shaping the rise of Mesoamerican civilization. Writing after the demise of Donnelly's Atlantis theories, Col. James Churchward declared in 1930 the fabulous land of Mu was a Pacific continent greater than Atlantis, and that Central America was but a colony of this great land. While Tompkins (1976:372) believes that the Mu myth could explain the origins of Mesoamerican civilization, Churward's "word can only be taken by those who wish to believe him." Without evidence to back up his claims, Churchward's theory of a lost continent fell to the dustbin of history, though the idea of trans-Pacific voyages did not.
Michael Coe (2001a:57) mentions that "the possibility of some trans-Pacific influence on Mesoamerican cultures cannot, however, be so easily dismissed." The Asian-influence hypothesis has a stronger basis in fact than its African competitor, though there is still precious little to go on.
The strongest, and indeed only hard piece of evidence for trans-Pacific contact is the use of a particular technique for the manufacture of bark paper, common to China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Mesoamerica. Coe (2001a:58) says that knowledge of this paper-making method "was diffused from eastern Indonesia to Mesoamerica at a very early date." He further argues that since bark paper was used to make books, information may have been exchanged between Pacific and Mesoamerican peoples. This seems to accord with Tompkin's (1976:353) version of ancient Chinese records, which he claims document a transoceanic voyage between China and Mesoamerica in the fifth century A.D. Yet even if true, this would provide no evidence for Asian influence, since Olmec civilization sprang into being around 1500 B.C. (Soustelle 1985:31) and Maya civilization was well into its Classic Period greatness centuries before the supposed voyage (Coe 2001b: 82). However, Tompkins (1976:353) claimed earlier connection between China and Mesoamerica around the twenty-third century B.C. He was forced to concede, however, that since "there are no known historical records for such early periods... these stories float in a limbo between fact and fiction [Tompkins 1976:354]."
Another attempt to relate Mesoamerican cosmology to the Chinese involved the calendar system. Coe states (2001a:57) that the 260-day Mesoamerican calendar cycle, with its animal symbolism, is a near-perfect analog to the Southeast Asian lunar calendar: "Furthermore, Asian and Mesoamerican cosmological systems, which emphasize a quadripartite universe of four cardinal points associated with specific colors, plants, animals, and even gods, are amazingly similar [Coe 2001a:57]." Balaji Mundkur (1978:541) challenged this idea decades ago, arguing that the comparison was faulty: "These comparisons seem feeble not only because they are superficial and intrinsically contradictory, but also because they are opposed by a vast body of [Asian] religious symbolism. Furthermore, they are chronologically incompatible with historical events." For Mundkur (1978:542), the differences between Asian and Mesoamerican art far outweigh the superficial resemblances, and art analysis can only provide a subjective connection between the Old and New Worlds, especially since so much of the Asian culture supposedly borrowed by Mesoamericans actually arose hundreds of years after the rise of the Maya and Mexican civilizations.
But the superficial similarity in artistic styles has given rise to another line of argument. Among the most common arguments for trans-Pacific contact with Mesoamerica is a shared cult of the serpent, based on the presumed similarity of Chinese, Hindu and Mayan depictions. Both Asia and Mesoamerica dedicated shrines to serpents, and the cult of the serpent is seen in the most ancient civilized sites of Mesoamerica, including the Olmec occupation of Chalcatzingo (Coe 2001b:77) and La Venta (Hancock 1995:131f) as well as in ancient China and India (Mundkur 1976:429). However, the similarities appear to stop there. Mundkur (1976:429) successfully casts doubt on diffusionist claims when he notes that "the characteristics of the serpent cult in pre-Columbian civilized Mesoamerica... differ fundamentally from the serpent lore of India and Southeast Asia." Further, he notes that serpent worship is common not just to Asia and America but to nearly every known ancient culture and survived hunter-gatherers, from North America to Australia (Mundkur 1976:429). Something so universal cannot be taken to indicate common origin in historical times, though could conceivably point still further back to the Jungian archetypes that Victor Mansfield (1981) identified in the Mesoamerican pecked circles.
Both Asia and America seemed to share a penchant for making mandalas, the drawn or carved circles of divine meditation favored by Hindus and Buddhists. Victor Mansfield (1981:274) says that the Mesoamerican mandalas were of Teotihuacan origin and shared a similar shape and placement in temples to their Asian counterparts. He offers an explanation for the superficial similarity of Mesoamerican "pecked circles" to Asian mandalas: "the pecked circles may serve as calendars [1981:274]" because they have a cross within the circle whose arms tend to point to the direction of solstices and equinoxes. While Mansfield (1981: 274-275) goes on to offer an Jungian interpretation of the way universal psychic forces influenced mandala (and Christian labyrinth) designs, the calendar representation is the most likely, especially when one remembers that the Mesoamericans envisioned the universe in four parts, thus the cross divides the pecked circle into four sections. Of course, to the Asian-origin hypothesis's credit, Asian (especially Chinese) cosmology emphasized a quadripartite universe.
Yet, despite the stories and rumors surrounding Asian influence in Central America, there is very little hard evidence beyond the bark paper manufacturing technique. Coe (2001a:57) makes the point more succinctly: "[I]t should be categorically emphasized that no objects manufactured in the Old World have been identified in any Maya site." However, Coe (2001a:58) did agree that the Maya may have received Asian ideas "at a few times in their early history," though in no sense are they "derivative from Old World prototypes."
BEYOND HYPERDIFFUSIONISM
Thus far we have examined hypotheses that, while routed in old ideas of lost continents, dealt specifically with trans-oceanic origins for Mesoamerican civilization in an attempt to prove an Old World origin for New World civilization. The logical extension of this line of diffusionist thinking was a return to the nineteenth-century vision of a lost motherland for human civilization, this time with a space-age twist.
Swiss author Erich von Däniken (1969:viii) caused a sensation when he claimed "that our forefathers received visits from the universe in the remote past." Part obfuscation and part wild speculation, Däniken (1969:104) claimed that the Mesoamerican Feathered Serpent deity was a space alien because in his world, space aliens flew across the sky in rocket-ships, and these rockets seemed like snakes to the ancient Maya, who were presumably too stupid to understand much of anything: "How could anyone worship this repulsive creature as a god, and why could it fly as well? Among the Maya it could [von Däniken 1969:104]." Therefore, the Feathered Serpent must have been a rocket ship.
For von Däniken, the famed sarcophagus lid of Lord Pacal of Palenque shows not the "gigantic fleshless jaws ... the World Tree [and] the bird-monster Wuqub' Kaqix [Coe: 2001a:137]" but machinery: "today any child would identify his vehicle as a rocket [von Däniken 1969:100]." Almost thirty years later, Hancock (1995:151) argued after this line of reasoning that the tomb of Pacal "resembled a technological device much more strongly than it did... the king falling back into the fleshless jaws of the earth-monster." Only for Hancock, the agent responsible for this technology was not extraterrestrials, but "an older and a higher civilization [Hancock 1995:155]," not unlike the legendary Atlantis or Mu, long ago dismissed as improbable and unsupported by evidence. Thus the circle that began a century ago with Donnelly and then Churchward closes with more of the same.
Despite criticism from the scientific establishment, including famed scientist Carl Sagan, the ancient astronaut and lost civilization hypothesis remains popular. According to Omni (1994:77) "One of Sagan's original objections was the underlying assumption that our ancestors were apparently too stupid to create the monumental architecture of our past." And indeed, this is the theme that cuts across all the diffusionist ideas about the origins of Mesoamerican civilization. Each of these authors argues that the Mesoamericans were incapable of creating a unique, vital and exciting civilization on their own, and that they needed outside agents to help them overcome their mental handicaps.
This view is not only wrong, it is also racist. It is racist whether it comes from supporters of the Caucasian refugees of a lost continent (see Hancock 1995:102-104) or the Afrocentrists who see Africans as the superior race (see Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:420). What these belief systems fail to understand is that humanity has no biological determinism, that intelligence and the ability to create and to understand are not characteristics belonging to races, but individuals (Jurmain et al. 1998:109). Mesoamericans had a long tradition of civilization and culture before the Spanish conquest, and no attempt to rewrite history can deny the ancient peoples of Mexico their cultural heritage.
by Jason Colavito
Mayan pyramid at Tikal
The early history of Mesoamerican studies is characterized by a grave dispute over the origins of Mesoamerican civilization. In many ways, this dispute is an argument over two lost continents, Atlantis and Mu, and where their survivors may have settled. Proponents of the Atlantis hypothesis argued that survivors of that lost continent spread to Africa and to Central America, giving rise to advanced civilizations like Egypt and the Maya (Orser 2001), while followers of Mu claimed that refugees from the lost Pacific continent ventured to China and Central America, giving rise to advanced civilizations (Tompkins 1976). That Mesoamerican civilization began in situ is never contemplated.
The two leading advocates of their respective theories were Ignatius Donnelly and Col. James Churchward. According to Prof. Charles Orser (2001) Donnelly, a former vice-presidential candidate, built upon the myth of Atlantis laid down by Plato and created a vision of the island-continent that would last for a century after his book, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World ceased to be remembered: "It is, quite simply, the most significant pseudo-archaeology book ever written, and it has provided a roadmap for the flood of pseudo-archaeology that has come after it [Orser 2001]."
On the other end of the spectrum, Col. Churchward believed in an island civilization located in the Pacific Ocean, whose remains he believed can still be seen in the cyclopean ruins of the Polynesian islands, most notably the statues of Easter Island. Alternative historian Peter Tompkins (1976:364) says that Churchward's Mu was the origin of civilization with "one branch of colonization [which] ran from Mu to Central America, thence to Atlantis." In this scheme, civilization arrived in ancient Mesoamerica by a Pacific route, and Atlantis is downgraded to a colony of the greater Mu.
The conflict among these pre-modern diffusionist theories would lead generations of diffusionists to claim external origins for Mesoamerican civilization, much to the dismay of archaeologists, who tried to stop the robbing of indigenous cultures (see Haslip-Viera et al. 1997).
THE ATLANTIC CROSSING HYPOTHESIS
Donnelly placed Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean and had its descendants populate the Atlantic rim, bringing culture to the ignorant natives after the fall of the great island. This theory was eagerly adopted among the diffusionists of the nineteenth century because, as Tompkins (1976:36) recounts, "the similarity between Mexican and Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphs, and calendars was too strongly indicative of the existence in the Atlantic of an intervening continent or group of islands, for which Plato's account of Atlantis fit the bill." Of course, having the side-effect of denying the native peoples a culture on par with that of the Europeans did nothing to retard the spread of diffusionism.
After the twentieth century rejection of the Atlantis hypothesis, speculation transformed the Atlantis hypothesis into transoceanic contact. However, even under this scenario, the connection is tenuous at best. The Egyptian and Mesoamerican pyramids bear no relation to each other in either form or function. As Haslip-Viera, Montellano and Barbour (1997:427) point out, the Mexican pyramids were step-pyramids with wide, accessible stairs topped with temples while the Egyptian were regular pyramids with no access or temple-top. Furthermore, if the Egyptians did come to the New World, why should they have taught the Olmec of 1500 BC the pyramid-building techniques they themselves had stopped using hundreds of years earlier?
The same year that Tompkins wrote his alternative history of Mexican pyramid investigation, another researcher was using the old nineteenth century theories to formulate a different view of the origins of ancient Mexican civilization. As Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Bernard Ortiz de Montellano and Warren Barbour (1997) discuss, Ivan van Sertima proposed that ancient Mesoamerica derived its civilization from transatlantic voyages by Africans. Van Sertima was on the forefront of the Afrocentric movement, and firmly believed that African (black) people were responsible for all of the ancient civilizations of earth: "In the case of the Americas, a more complicated scenario had to be advanced in order to account for the relative isolation of these continents and the geographic obstacles posed by the Atlantic and Pacific [Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:420]."
Van Sertima laid out a complex scenario of transatlantic voyages that relied upon two basic pieces of evidence: African plants in the New World, and African faces carved in ancient Olmec stones. The botanical evidence may be disposed of in a few sentences, but the stone heads will take a longer, more circuitous route to understand.
The botanical evidence for transoceanic contact basically boils down to the African bottle-gourd, which, Michael Coe (2001b:34) points out, was the first domesticate of Mesoamerican peoples, cultivated around 6500 BC. Van Sertima had argued that African voyagers brought the plant to the New World, the oldest African bottle gourds cultivated in the Old World date only to 3000 BC: "Thus gourds were first cultivated in the New World much earlier than in Egypt [Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:429]." For knowledge of gourd cultivation to travel from Africa to Mexico, it would be necessary for the Africans to have been growing the gourd before the Mexicans, to whom they supposedly gave it. Furthermore, since the gourd is capable of traveling across the ocean unharmed, Haslip-Viera, Montellano and Barbour (1997:429) argue that "there is no need to posit human transport to the New World" because there is no other evidence of introduced African species before Columbus.
On the other hand, the evidence for Africans immortalized in ancient Mexican stonework requires deeper and more complex treatment.
Jacques Soustelle (1985: 10, 14) reports that the Olmec culture first became known in 1862 with the discovery of the first colossal stone head, but the culture was not identified as something apart from the Maya until 1926. Thus, the first report of an Olmec head was tinged not just with the racial attitudes of the day but also with a complete void in the archaeological understanding of the region.
When nineteenth-century traveler José María Melgar y Serrano ventured deep into the Mexican jungle to investigate rumors of colossal stone statuary hidden amidst the verdant green forests, he had no way of knowing that he would set off more than a century of speculation into the transcontinental origins of Mesoamerican civilization. For Melgar y Serrano had discovered the first signs of the oldest high civilization in the Americas, the Olmec, and he was shocked by one of their colossal stone heads which seemed to him to bear an uncanny resemblance to African peoples: "As a work of art, it is, without exaggeration, a magnificent sculpture... but what most amazed me was that the type it represents is Ethiopian. I concluded that there had doubtless been blacks in this region, and from the very earliest stages of the world [Soustelle 1985:9]."
Over the course of the next hundred and forty years, scores of authors would write about the African appearance of the Olmec and hold up these colossal stone heads as proof that voyagers from Africa had given the Olmec the boon of civilization.
In 1995, alternative historian Graham Hancock released his massive tome, Fingerprints of the Gods, in which he expanded on the old diffusionist theories for the origin of the Olmec. In claiming that the Olmec heads were of African origin, Hancock (1995: 131) argued that "It would probably be impossible . . . for a sculptor to invent the different combined characteristics of an authentic racial type. The portrayal of an authentic combination of racial characteristics therefore implied strongly that a human model had been used." These traits referred to were apparently the broad noses and thick lips of the Olmec heads, which van Sertima, Hancock and others link to Africans.
However, as any biological anthropologist could demonstrate, phenotypes have virtually nothing to do with race. As Jurmain, Nelson, Kilgore and Trevathan (1998:108) note, race is not a biological concept: "the amount of genetic variation accounted for by differences between groups is vastly exceeded by the variation that exists within groups." As a result, "race is a meaningless concept [Jurmain et al. 1998:108]." So having thus established that there are no races to be depicted on the Olmec heads, next it must be shown that the heads do not share the same characteristics with their supposed models.
Haslip-Viera, Montellano and Barbour (1997:423) spend a considerable amount of space discussing the evolutionary history of flat noses and wide lips as adaptations to the Mexican tropical climate. The old argument that Egyptians gave civilization to the Olmec is untenable by these heads because "Nubians and Egyptians have longer, thinner noses because they have lived in a desert (Haslip-Viera et al. 1997: 423)." That the heads were of West African (stereotypically black) origin is also refuted by noting that West Africans are prognathic (jutting jawed), while the Olmec heads are markedly not. Also, the Olmec heads have epicanthic eye-folds like Asians, while African populations do not. In other words, the Olmec heads show Mexican people: "they resembled people who still live in the tropical lowlands of Mexico [Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:423]."
The African-origins hypothesis seemed initially to accord well with the hyperdiffusionist movement of the late nineteenth century. It was then assumed that civilization began in Egypt and spread from there to all corners of the world, and that the peoples of the Americas had to have received their civilization from outside sources because of their biological inferiority (Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:420).
Of course, the late nineteenth century thinkers were troubled by the seemingly African features of the Olmec sculptures, since the Egyptians, whose civilization was the antecedent of all, were believed then to be Caucasian people. The so-called Negroid type was thought to be biologically inferior, as well. The genius of van Sertima's hypothesis was that it made the African phenotype the biologically superior one, and thus "established" that the old views were correct, but in the wrong color: "It is curious that this hypothesis has resurfaced in the late 20th century in revised form, with the biologically superior people now being identified as blacks' [Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:420]."
The African origins hypothesis has been refuted successfully on purely scientific grounds. Nevertheless, the manifold theories of African origins, in the words of Jacques Sostelle [1985:10], "continue to haunt Mexican archaeology like unsuccessfully exorcised ghosts."
THE PACIFIC CROSSING HYPOTHESIS
If the Africa-origins thinkers traced the beginning of their theory to the fiery demise of Atlantis, so do the Asian-origins speculators find their own lost continent had a hand in shaping the rise of Mesoamerican civilization. Writing after the demise of Donnelly's Atlantis theories, Col. James Churchward declared in 1930 the fabulous land of Mu was a Pacific continent greater than Atlantis, and that Central America was but a colony of this great land. While Tompkins (1976:372) believes that the Mu myth could explain the origins of Mesoamerican civilization, Churward's "word can only be taken by those who wish to believe him." Without evidence to back up his claims, Churchward's theory of a lost continent fell to the dustbin of history, though the idea of trans-Pacific voyages did not.
Michael Coe (2001a:57) mentions that "the possibility of some trans-Pacific influence on Mesoamerican cultures cannot, however, be so easily dismissed." The Asian-influence hypothesis has a stronger basis in fact than its African competitor, though there is still precious little to go on.
The strongest, and indeed only hard piece of evidence for trans-Pacific contact is the use of a particular technique for the manufacture of bark paper, common to China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Mesoamerica. Coe (2001a:58) says that knowledge of this paper-making method "was diffused from eastern Indonesia to Mesoamerica at a very early date." He further argues that since bark paper was used to make books, information may have been exchanged between Pacific and Mesoamerican peoples. This seems to accord with Tompkin's (1976:353) version of ancient Chinese records, which he claims document a transoceanic voyage between China and Mesoamerica in the fifth century A.D. Yet even if true, this would provide no evidence for Asian influence, since Olmec civilization sprang into being around 1500 B.C. (Soustelle 1985:31) and Maya civilization was well into its Classic Period greatness centuries before the supposed voyage (Coe 2001b: 82). However, Tompkins (1976:353) claimed earlier connection between China and Mesoamerica around the twenty-third century B.C. He was forced to concede, however, that since "there are no known historical records for such early periods... these stories float in a limbo between fact and fiction [Tompkins 1976:354]."
Another attempt to relate Mesoamerican cosmology to the Chinese involved the calendar system. Coe states (2001a:57) that the 260-day Mesoamerican calendar cycle, with its animal symbolism, is a near-perfect analog to the Southeast Asian lunar calendar: "Furthermore, Asian and Mesoamerican cosmological systems, which emphasize a quadripartite universe of four cardinal points associated with specific colors, plants, animals, and even gods, are amazingly similar [Coe 2001a:57]." Balaji Mundkur (1978:541) challenged this idea decades ago, arguing that the comparison was faulty: "These comparisons seem feeble not only because they are superficial and intrinsically contradictory, but also because they are opposed by a vast body of [Asian] religious symbolism. Furthermore, they are chronologically incompatible with historical events." For Mundkur (1978:542), the differences between Asian and Mesoamerican art far outweigh the superficial resemblances, and art analysis can only provide a subjective connection between the Old and New Worlds, especially since so much of the Asian culture supposedly borrowed by Mesoamericans actually arose hundreds of years after the rise of the Maya and Mexican civilizations.
But the superficial similarity in artistic styles has given rise to another line of argument. Among the most common arguments for trans-Pacific contact with Mesoamerica is a shared cult of the serpent, based on the presumed similarity of Chinese, Hindu and Mayan depictions. Both Asia and Mesoamerica dedicated shrines to serpents, and the cult of the serpent is seen in the most ancient civilized sites of Mesoamerica, including the Olmec occupation of Chalcatzingo (Coe 2001b:77) and La Venta (Hancock 1995:131f) as well as in ancient China and India (Mundkur 1976:429). However, the similarities appear to stop there. Mundkur (1976:429) successfully casts doubt on diffusionist claims when he notes that "the characteristics of the serpent cult in pre-Columbian civilized Mesoamerica... differ fundamentally from the serpent lore of India and Southeast Asia." Further, he notes that serpent worship is common not just to Asia and America but to nearly every known ancient culture and survived hunter-gatherers, from North America to Australia (Mundkur 1976:429). Something so universal cannot be taken to indicate common origin in historical times, though could conceivably point still further back to the Jungian archetypes that Victor Mansfield (1981) identified in the Mesoamerican pecked circles.
Both Asia and America seemed to share a penchant for making mandalas, the drawn or carved circles of divine meditation favored by Hindus and Buddhists. Victor Mansfield (1981:274) says that the Mesoamerican mandalas were of Teotihuacan origin and shared a similar shape and placement in temples to their Asian counterparts. He offers an explanation for the superficial similarity of Mesoamerican "pecked circles" to Asian mandalas: "the pecked circles may serve as calendars [1981:274]" because they have a cross within the circle whose arms tend to point to the direction of solstices and equinoxes. While Mansfield (1981: 274-275) goes on to offer an Jungian interpretation of the way universal psychic forces influenced mandala (and Christian labyrinth) designs, the calendar representation is the most likely, especially when one remembers that the Mesoamericans envisioned the universe in four parts, thus the cross divides the pecked circle into four sections. Of course, to the Asian-origin hypothesis's credit, Asian (especially Chinese) cosmology emphasized a quadripartite universe.
Yet, despite the stories and rumors surrounding Asian influence in Central America, there is very little hard evidence beyond the bark paper manufacturing technique. Coe (2001a:57) makes the point more succinctly: "[I]t should be categorically emphasized that no objects manufactured in the Old World have been identified in any Maya site." However, Coe (2001a:58) did agree that the Maya may have received Asian ideas "at a few times in their early history," though in no sense are they "derivative from Old World prototypes."
BEYOND HYPERDIFFUSIONISM
Thus far we have examined hypotheses that, while routed in old ideas of lost continents, dealt specifically with trans-oceanic origins for Mesoamerican civilization in an attempt to prove an Old World origin for New World civilization. The logical extension of this line of diffusionist thinking was a return to the nineteenth-century vision of a lost motherland for human civilization, this time with a space-age twist.
Swiss author Erich von Däniken (1969:viii) caused a sensation when he claimed "that our forefathers received visits from the universe in the remote past." Part obfuscation and part wild speculation, Däniken (1969:104) claimed that the Mesoamerican Feathered Serpent deity was a space alien because in his world, space aliens flew across the sky in rocket-ships, and these rockets seemed like snakes to the ancient Maya, who were presumably too stupid to understand much of anything: "How could anyone worship this repulsive creature as a god, and why could it fly as well? Among the Maya it could [von Däniken 1969:104]." Therefore, the Feathered Serpent must have been a rocket ship.
For von Däniken, the famed sarcophagus lid of Lord Pacal of Palenque shows not the "gigantic fleshless jaws ... the World Tree [and] the bird-monster Wuqub' Kaqix [Coe: 2001a:137]" but machinery: "today any child would identify his vehicle as a rocket [von Däniken 1969:100]." Almost thirty years later, Hancock (1995:151) argued after this line of reasoning that the tomb of Pacal "resembled a technological device much more strongly than it did... the king falling back into the fleshless jaws of the earth-monster." Only for Hancock, the agent responsible for this technology was not extraterrestrials, but "an older and a higher civilization [Hancock 1995:155]," not unlike the legendary Atlantis or Mu, long ago dismissed as improbable and unsupported by evidence. Thus the circle that began a century ago with Donnelly and then Churchward closes with more of the same.
Despite criticism from the scientific establishment, including famed scientist Carl Sagan, the ancient astronaut and lost civilization hypothesis remains popular. According to Omni (1994:77) "One of Sagan's original objections was the underlying assumption that our ancestors were apparently too stupid to create the monumental architecture of our past." And indeed, this is the theme that cuts across all the diffusionist ideas about the origins of Mesoamerican civilization. Each of these authors argues that the Mesoamericans were incapable of creating a unique, vital and exciting civilization on their own, and that they needed outside agents to help them overcome their mental handicaps.
This view is not only wrong, it is also racist. It is racist whether it comes from supporters of the Caucasian refugees of a lost continent (see Hancock 1995:102-104) or the Afrocentrists who see Africans as the superior race (see Haslip-Viera et al. 1997:420). What these belief systems fail to understand is that humanity has no biological determinism, that intelligence and the ability to create and to understand are not characteristics belonging to races, but individuals (Jurmain et al. 1998:109). Mesoamericans had a long tradition of civilization and culture before the Spanish conquest, and no attempt to rewrite history can deny the ancient peoples of Mexico their cultural heritage.
Senin, 20 Agustus 2007
Atlantis were located in Santorini?
When we speak about Atlantis, before which we spoke about much time, we must think of avançé people. It is astonishing, very that several of the spoken ancient Greeks seems to be historical and not fiction. Atlantis was not found yet, but after examining Santorini and some of the surrounding islands I drew the conclusion which Atlantis must have been in this sector. I really did not go to these places, although I have liked with. I examined these places by research, using my computer duel of confidence of core. It surely, why in the world I request would select a sector like this and submit a so daring report/ratio about it? It is very simple, Santorini seems to have been more advanced manner 3.500 years ago than anywhere elsewhere and it was struck by a disaster of the enormous proportions which adapts the tale of Atlantis.
The islands which I speak belonged to the civilization of Minoan and I believe that it was Minoans which were Atlantians. The principal island was formed directly above a volcano. As the pressure increased, it had no where to go and the volcano burst taking most of the principal island with him. It was on this principal island that it is believed existed the circular channels and the central city of the empire of Minoan. Plato declared that Atlantians had built channels in a model of ring with a right channel functioning by the rings right with the principal part of the city. This allowed boats with transverse the channels easily and enters and leaves the sea. The volcano which was under the ancient city is still made up and much feeling which it is ready to blow everywhere. The researchers declare that the original explosion was ten times larger than the explosion at Krakatoa. On August 25, 1883, Krakatoa burst four times. The breath was equivalent to 100 megatons of TNT. Like I said, the breath at Atlantis (if you agree that it was Atlantis) must have been equal to megatons 1000 of the TNT. As with Krakatoa, one determined it that the surrounding islands were prone to horrible tsunamis, which were caused by the material falling into the ocean.
When it was discovered that the manner more ash had covered some of the initially suspectées islands than, of the major excavations started. Then an astonishing discovery was made, a whole city was discovered. Before I continue to describe the city, I want that you maintained in the spirit that this city was 3.500 years and existed in one moment when the majority of the people lived in the huts. An archaeologist commented on that it did not realize that when it went inside house, it it was really on the third floor, the remainder of the house had not been dug outside still. With its amazement and the amazement of the rest of the world, the city was made up of three and four buildings of history. Not only that, but they had the piping and the toilets of interior. Something which was completely unknown then. Could it y have still greater discoveries to make? On more examination one noted it that the water pipelines were of a design built by mass. they were sections of the clay pipes which adapted one in the other and the pipes circulated water in all the whole building. The loss was rinsed far by water and the toilets were built so that eliminated odor, since the flushing water would also trap far the odor because of the design from pipe of reject. It is very alarming to see the city, except the lack of glass in the windows, it looks at very modern.
The temples were construction hones some with good number of them being made to be proof of earthquake. This was accomplished while making build a heavy reinforcement out of wooden which contained a heavy beam which would horizontally cut through the reinforcement each 4 courses or thus of the blocks hones some considering them tight while the whole wall was wedged between two beams upright at the two ends. This made the walls very strong. High pink floating of staircases also that four stories, resembling those seen in a modern building. They would go directly upwards, to make turn a landing then, and to travel to the top still to the next landing until they struck a floor, then they would continue. One built a system of the obturators and dividers of part which would allow in the light of penetrating even more the exchange of the rooms and would also direct a circulation of air anywhere in the building. It was not simply a temple, it was a building designed very well which with rait rendu les architectes d'aujourd'hui fiers.
Il est malheureux que même un bâtiment en pierre lourd, tel que le temple ci-dessus, ne pourrait pas résister aux tsunamis géants qui ont porté les morceaux énormes de débris qui ont battu les murs de temple et détruisents sa majeure partie. De la spéculation déclare que puisque le temple était le bâtiment le plus plein dans le secteur, on l'estime que le peuple pourrait l'avoir écrit pour la sûreté quand les explosions ont commencé. Peu ils ont su que rien ne leur offrirait la sûreté, ne pas égaliser les murs pleins de leurs temples.
D'où ces personnes ont obtenu leur technologie ? Pourquoi ont-elles été ainsi avancées ? Je devine qu'on pourrait indiquer que puisqu'elles ont commercé avec le monde entier, il se peut qu'elles aient incorporé chaque bonne idée qu'elles ont trouvée dans leur civilisation. Je ne sais pas if this is true or not, but I figure that this is as good a guess as any. It is hard to believe that the homes of these people were much like the homes in cities today. They would go out to work, come home, climb up to their second, third or fourth floor apartment, wash up, maybe use the toilet, then eat and relax. Bed frames were found from the town and they look just like a modern bed frames.
Some archeologists think that many of the survivors of the Minoan disaster took up residence in ancient Egypt. It might be that they lent their considerable building talents to many of the pharaoh's construction projects.
Was this Atlantis, can we swear to it? No we can't, but it certainly is one of the best candidates.
Santorini is a Greek Island. The eruption in 1,650 B.C. was one of the largest eruptions on earth in the last 10,000 years. It was so large that it dumped 7 cubic miles of material into the atmosphere. Scientists think that the pillar of plasma, at the time of the eruption, reached 23 miles into the air. This eruption was the probable cause of the end of the Minoan civilization on Crete. When Akroteri, another Minoan city that had an estimated population of 30,000 was examined, no bodies were found, indicating a successful evacuation. The city is buried in ash.
The islands which I speak belonged to the civilization of Minoan and I believe that it was Minoans which were Atlantians. The principal island was formed directly above a volcano. As the pressure increased, it had no where to go and the volcano burst taking most of the principal island with him. It was on this principal island that it is believed existed the circular channels and the central city of the empire of Minoan. Plato declared that Atlantians had built channels in a model of ring with a right channel functioning by the rings right with the principal part of the city. This allowed boats with transverse the channels easily and enters and leaves the sea. The volcano which was under the ancient city is still made up and much feeling which it is ready to blow everywhere. The researchers declare that the original explosion was ten times larger than the explosion at Krakatoa. On August 25, 1883, Krakatoa burst four times. The breath was equivalent to 100 megatons of TNT. Like I said, the breath at Atlantis (if you agree that it was Atlantis) must have been equal to megatons 1000 of the TNT. As with Krakatoa, one determined it that the surrounding islands were prone to horrible tsunamis, which were caused by the material falling into the ocean.
When it was discovered that the manner more ash had covered some of the initially suspectées islands than, of the major excavations started. Then an astonishing discovery was made, a whole city was discovered. Before I continue to describe the city, I want that you maintained in the spirit that this city was 3.500 years and existed in one moment when the majority of the people lived in the huts. An archaeologist commented on that it did not realize that when it went inside house, it it was really on the third floor, the remainder of the house had not been dug outside still. With its amazement and the amazement of the rest of the world, the city was made up of three and four buildings of history. Not only that, but they had the piping and the toilets of interior. Something which was completely unknown then. Could it y have still greater discoveries to make? On more examination one noted it that the water pipelines were of a design built by mass. they were sections of the clay pipes which adapted one in the other and the pipes circulated water in all the whole building. The loss was rinsed far by water and the toilets were built so that eliminated odor, since the flushing water would also trap far the odor because of the design from pipe of reject. It is very alarming to see the city, except the lack of glass in the windows, it looks at very modern.
The temples were construction hones some with good number of them being made to be proof of earthquake. This was accomplished while making build a heavy reinforcement out of wooden which contained a heavy beam which would horizontally cut through the reinforcement each 4 courses or thus of the blocks hones some considering them tight while the whole wall was wedged between two beams upright at the two ends. This made the walls very strong. High pink floating of staircases also that four stories, resembling those seen in a modern building. They would go directly upwards, to make turn a landing then, and to travel to the top still to the next landing until they struck a floor, then they would continue. One built a system of the obturators and dividers of part which would allow in the light of penetrating even more the exchange of the rooms and would also direct a circulation of air anywhere in the building. It was not simply a temple, it was a building designed very well which with rait rendu les architectes d'aujourd'hui fiers.
Il est malheureux que même un bâtiment en pierre lourd, tel que le temple ci-dessus, ne pourrait pas résister aux tsunamis géants qui ont porté les morceaux énormes de débris qui ont battu les murs de temple et détruisents sa majeure partie. De la spéculation déclare que puisque le temple était le bâtiment le plus plein dans le secteur, on l'estime que le peuple pourrait l'avoir écrit pour la sûreté quand les explosions ont commencé. Peu ils ont su que rien ne leur offrirait la sûreté, ne pas égaliser les murs pleins de leurs temples.
D'où ces personnes ont obtenu leur technologie ? Pourquoi ont-elles été ainsi avancées ? Je devine qu'on pourrait indiquer que puisqu'elles ont commercé avec le monde entier, il se peut qu'elles aient incorporé chaque bonne idée qu'elles ont trouvée dans leur civilisation. Je ne sais pas if this is true or not, but I figure that this is as good a guess as any. It is hard to believe that the homes of these people were much like the homes in cities today. They would go out to work, come home, climb up to their second, third or fourth floor apartment, wash up, maybe use the toilet, then eat and relax. Bed frames were found from the town and they look just like a modern bed frames.
Some archeologists think that many of the survivors of the Minoan disaster took up residence in ancient Egypt. It might be that they lent their considerable building talents to many of the pharaoh's construction projects.
Was this Atlantis, can we swear to it? No we can't, but it certainly is one of the best candidates.
Santorini is a Greek Island. The eruption in 1,650 B.C. was one of the largest eruptions on earth in the last 10,000 years. It was so large that it dumped 7 cubic miles of material into the atmosphere. Scientists think that the pillar of plasma, at the time of the eruption, reached 23 miles into the air. This eruption was the probable cause of the end of the Minoan civilization on Crete. When Akroteri, another Minoan city that had an estimated population of 30,000 was examined, no bodies were found, indicating a successful evacuation. The city is buried in ash.
Sabtu, 18 Agustus 2007
Discover Atlantis
Well we definitely found Atlantis! This is according to Robert Sarmast. But who, exactly is Mr. Robert Sarmast? Mr. Sarmast was an architect who became fascinated with the search for lost civilizations and ancient history. For years he traveled, gathering facts in his pursuit of these ancient cultures. He was extremely interested in Atlantis. He published a book on the subject in 2003 entitled "Discovery of Atlantis" and has come to the conclusion that the island of Cyprus was where Atlantis existed.
There are many theories as to where Atlantis existed. Lately the South Pole or Antarctica has been suggested. In the past so many different places have been chosen that if we were to make a list of them, they would cover many different areas of the Earth. A few years ago ruins were found off the coast of Japan and many suggest that this was the location of Atlantis. The same is true with the Bahamas. The famous Bimini Road is said to be a relic of Atlantis. Another area which is said to be where Atlantis was situated is South America. After all there are many mysterious cities that have been abandoned there that were built in such a way as to defy construction methods. In some of these places the stones are so close together that even a sheet of paper can't fit between them, yet no mortar was used. In other of these cities, huge stone were hauled to the tops of mountains to be used in city construction, a feat that we can't even equal today. There are other places where Atlantis was suspected of existing and some of these are in the middle of the ocean. Some people say that Atlantis sank and that is why we can't find its location. Oh there are so many different stories about Atlantis.
So, why exactly do people believe that they know were Atlantis was,. or in fact, that it even existed? Homer, the famous Greek story teller and author, lived around the 8th century BC. Originally it was believed by modern day people that Homer was a great writer of fiction, but then things began to happen that suggested that maybe his works weren't fiction after all. The City of Troy was unearthed. Homer had written the Iliad, the story of the battle between the Greeks and the city of Troy that lasted ten years. All of a sudden a work that all though was fiction may have been based on fact. People began to look at the Odessy, another of Homer's famous works. If the Iliad were true than could the Odessy be true also? This is important because many think that the Phoenician island of Scheria might have been Atlantis and Homer mentions this island in his work. Plato was another ancient greek as we know. This ancient philosopher lived about 400 BC. There are two books written by Plato that have passages referring to Atlantis. These books are the Timeaus and the Criteas. They seem to indicate that Atlantis was located in the Atlantic Ocean and was the home of an advanced race that went to war against Athens and lost. It was said that Atlantis was located before the Pillars of Hercules. It goes on to say that they, the Atlantans, had defeated many European countries but the Athenians were able to drive them back out of Europe. The story goes on to say that records of this feat were lost due to a great flood that wipe out part of Athens and all of Atlantis. In Criteas Plato gives a very detailed account of Atlantis.
Now we know why people believe that Atlantis did exist. so let get back to Mr. Sarmast. Why Cyprus and not somewhere else? “It’s definitely Atlantis,”Mr Sarmast said, referring to Cyprus. Sarmast states that the clues were there in Plato's descriptions. He said that received data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that fits perfectly. He went on to say that this data was gathered in 1987 when a scientific survey of the Mediterranean was taken. Then to further back up his claim, he stated that he had used sonar to find unnatural formations that were found at the center of the ancient city of Atlantis.
A remote viewer was called in by Psychognosia, an organization who had challenged the finding. The *remote viewer formerly used his talents while in the US military. When he was asked to tell what he saw both now and 10,000 years ago he stated, that going back in time he could see a predominant city with buildings but now it was only ruins that were buried.
Could Cyprus be Atlantis? Why not, I guess it has just as good of a chance as anywhere else. Maybe Mr. Sarmast has hit upon something. I guess only time will tell.
*During the cold war, the US Government conducted experiments using individuals to 'see' targets anywhere in the world from the room they were in. The experiments were said to have meet with some success. This same people were said to be able to look into the past. The Soviet Union also employed these same type of people, they were called Remote Viewers.
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