Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories - Wikipedia

Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories - Wikipedia
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Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories
Speculative historical theories
For the prevailing models which describe the geographic origins and early migrations of humans in the Americas, see
Peopling of the Americas
. For further information about Native American genetic heritage, see
Genetic history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas
. For evidenced pre-Columbian communication across the Bering Strait, see
Pre-Columbian trans-Bering Strait contact
Reenactment of a
Viking
landing in
L'Anse aux Meadows
Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories
, many of which are speculative, propose that visits to the
Americas
, interactions with the
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
, or both, were made by people from elsewhere prior to
Christopher Columbus
's
first voyage
to the
Caribbean
in 1492.
Studies between 2004 and 2009 suggest the possibility that the earliest human
migrations to the Americas
may have been made by boat from
Beringia
and travel down the Pacific coast, contemporary with and possibly predating land migrations over the Beringia land bridge,
which during the glacial period joined what today are
Siberia
and
Alaska
. Apart from
Norse contact and settlement
, whether transoceanic travel occurred during the historic period, resulting in pre-Columbian contact between the settled American peoples and voyagers from other continents, is vigorously debated.
Only a few cases of pre-Columbian contact are widely accepted by mainstream scientists and scholars.
Yup'ik
and
Aleut
peoples residing on both sides of the Bering Strait had frequent contact with each other, and multiple artifacts traded across the Bering Strait have been discovered in pre-Columbian archaeological sites in
Alaska
Maritime explorations by
Norse
peoples from
Scandinavia
during the late 10th century led to the
Norse colonization
of
Greenland
and a base camp
L'Anse aux Meadows
in
Newfoundland
which preceded Columbus's arrival in the Americas by some 500 years. Recent genetic studies have also suggested that some eastern
Polynesian
populations have
admixture
from coastal western South American peoples, with an estimated date of contact around 1200 CE.
Scientific and scholarly responses to other claims of post-prehistory, pre-Columbian transoceanic contact have varied. Some of these claims are examined in reputable peer-reviewed sources. Many others are based only on circumstantial or ambiguous interpretations of archaeological evidence, the discovery of alleged
out-of-place artifacts
, superficial cultural comparisons, comments in historical documents, or narrative accounts. These have been dismissed as
fringe science
pseudoarchaeology
, or
pseudohistory
Claims of Polynesian contact
edit
Human genetics
edit
Between 2007 and 2009, geneticist
Erik Thorsby
and colleagues published two studies in
Tissue Antigens
that offer evidence of an Amerindian genetic contribution to human populations on
Easter Island
, determining that it was probably introduced before European discovery of the island.
10
In 2014, geneticist Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas of the Center for GeoGenetics at the
University of Copenhagen
published a study in
Current Biology
that found human genetic evidence of contact between the populations of Easter Island and
South America
, dating to approximately 600 years ago (i.e. 1400 CE ± 100 years).
11
In 2017, a comprehensive genomes study found "no Native American admixture in pre- and post-European-contact individuals".
12
Two skulls suggested to belong to "Botocudo" people (a term used to refer to Native Americans who live in the interior of
Brazil
that speak
Macro-Jê languages
), were found in research published in 2013 to have been members of
mtDNA haplogroup
B4a1a1
, which is normally found only among Polynesians and other subgroups of
Austronesians
. This was based on an analysis of 14 skulls. Two belonged to B4a1a1, while twelve belonged to subclades of mtDNA
haplogroup C1
(common among Native Americans). The research team examined various scenarios, none of which they could say for certain were correct. They dismissed a scenario of direct contact in prehistory between
Polynesia
and Brazil as "too unlikely to be seriously entertained." While B4a1a1 is also found among the
Malagasy people
of
Madagascar
(which experienced significant Austronesian settlement in prehistory), the authors described as "fanciful" suggestions that B4a1a1 among the Botocudo resulted from the African slave trade (which included Madagascar).
13
A later review paper of Polynesian history suggested that it was "more likely that these are the skulls of two people who died in Polynesia sometime early in the period of European voyaging, and whose graves were robbed by later visitors, and then mistakenly grouped in collections with the remains of Native Americans."
14
In 2020, a study in
Nature
found that populations in the
Mangareva
Marquesas
, and
Palliser
islands and Easter Island had
genetic admixture
from indigenous populations of South America, with the DNA of contemporary populations of
Zenú people
from the Pacific coast of
Colombia
being the closest match. The authors suggest that the genetic signatures were probably the result of a single ancient contact. They proposed that an initial admixture event between indigenous South Americans and Polynesians occurred in eastern Polynesia between 1150 and 1230 CE, with later admixture in Easter Island around 1380 CE,
but suggested other possible contact scenarios—for example, Polynesian voyages to South America followed by Polynesian people's returning to Polynesia with South American people, or carrying South American genetic heritage.
15
Several scholars uninvolved in the study suggested that a contact event in South America was more likely.
16
17
18
Further genetic analysis on Easter Island indigenous population showed about 10% of the genome to be of Native American origin.
19
Plant genetics
edit
The genetics of several plant species has also been used to support pre-Columbian contact via the Pacific. For example, there is a genetically distinct sub-population of coconuts on the western coast of South America. This has been suggested to be evidence of introduction by Austronesian seafarers.
20
Sweet potato
edit
See also:
Sweet potato cultivation in Polynesia
The spread of sweet potatoes. The red lines indicate the likely spread carried out by the Polynesians.
The
sweet potato
, a food crop native to the Americas, was widespread in Polynesia by the time European explorers first reached the Pacific. Sweet potato has been radiocarbon-dated to 1000 CE in the
Cook Islands
. Current thinking is that it was brought to central Polynesia c. 700 CE and spread across Polynesia from there.
21
It has been suggested that it was brought by Polynesians who had traveled across the Pacific to South America and back, or that South Americans brought it to Polynesia.
22
It is also possible that the plant floated across the ocean after being discarded from the cargo of a boat.
23
According to the "tripartite hypothesis",
phylogenetic
analysis supports at least two separate introductions of sweet potatoes from South America into Polynesia, including one before and one after European contact.
24
Sweet potatoes for sale, Thames, New Zealand. The word "kumara" has entered English from
Māori
and is widely used, especially in Polynesia.
Dutch linguists and specialists in
Amerindian languages
Willem Adelaar
and Pieter Muysken have suggested that the word for sweet potato is shared by Polynesian languages and languages of South America.
Proto-Polynesian
kumala
25
(compare
Easter Island
kumara
Hawaiian
ʻuala
Māori
kūmara
; even though a proto-form is reconstructed above, apparent
cognates
outside
Eastern Polynesian
are either definitely
borrowed
from Eastern Polynesian languages or irregular, calling Proto-Polynesian status and age into question) may be connected with dialectal
Quechua
and
Aymara
k'umar ~ k'umara
; most Quechua dialects actually use
apichu
instead, but
comal
was attested at extinct
Cañari language
on the coast of what is now Ecuador in 1582.
26
Adelaar and Muysken assert that the similarity in the word for sweet potato "constitutes near proof of incidental contact between inhabitants of the Andean region and the South Pacific." The authors argue that the presence of the word for sweet potato suggests sporadic contact between Polynesia and South America, but not necessarily migrations.
27
Ageratum conyzoides
edit
Ageratum conyzoides
, also known as billygoat-weed, chick weed, goatweed, or whiteweed, is native to the tropical Americas, and was found in Hawaii by
William Hillebrand
in 1888 who considered it to have grown there before
Captain Cook's
arrival in 1778. A legitimate native name (
meie parari
or
mei rore
) and established native medicinal usage and use as a scent and in
leis
have been offered as support for the pre-Cookian age.
28
29
Turmeric
edit
Turmeric
Curcuma longa
) originated in Asia, and there is linguistic and circumstantial evidence of the spread and use of turmeric by the Austronesian peoples into Oceania and Madagascar. Günter Tessmann in 1930 (300 years after European contact) reported that a species of
Curcuma
was grown by the
Amahuaca
tribe to the east of the Upper Ucayali River in Peru and was a dye-plant used for the painting of the body, with the nearby
Witoto people
using it as face paint in their ceremonial dances.
30
31
David Sopher noted in 1950 that "the evidence for a pre-European, transpacific introduction of the plant by man seems very strong indeed".
32
Physical anthropology
edit
Mocha Island
off the coast of the
Arauco Peninsula
, Chile
In December 2007, several human skulls were found in a museum in
Concepción, Chile
. These skulls originated on
Mocha Island
, an island which is located just off the coast of Chile on the Pacific Ocean, formerly inhabited by the Mapuche.
Craniometric
analysis of the skulls, according to
Lisa Matisoo-Smith
of the
University of Otago
and
José Miguel Ramírez Aliaga
of the
Universidad de Valparaíso
, suggests that the skulls have "
Polynesian
features" – such as a pentagonal shape when they are viewed from behind, and rocker jaws.
33
Rocker jaws have also been found at an excavation led José Miguel Ramírez in the coastal locality of
Tunquén
, Central Chile.
34
The site of excavation corresponds to an area with pre-Hispanic tombs and
shell middens
Spanish
conchal
).
34
A global review of rocker jaws among different populations show that while rocker jaws are not unique to Polynesians "[t]he rarity of rocker jaw in South American natives supports" the view of "Polynesian voyagers who ventured to the west coast of South America".
35
Disputed evidence
edit
Araucanian chickens
edit
In 2007, evidence emerged which suggested the possibility of pre-Columbian contact between the
Mapuche people
(Araucanians) of south-central Chile and Polynesians. Bones of
Araucana chickens
found at
El Arenal
site in the
Arauco Peninsula
, an area inhabited by Mapuche, support a pre-Columbian introduction of
landraces
from the South Pacific islands to South America.
36
The bones found in Chile were radiocarbon-dated to between 1304 and 1424, before the arrival of the Spanish. Chicken DNA sequences were matched to those of chickens in
American Samoa
and
Tonga
, and found to be dissimilar to those of European chickens.
37
38
However, this finding was challenged by a 2008 study which questioned its methodology and concluded that its conclusion is flawed, although the theory it posits may still be possible.
39
Another study in 2014 reinforced that dismissal, and posited the crucial flaw in the initial research: "The analysis of ancient and modern specimens reveals a unique Polynesian genetic signature" and that "a previously reported connection between pre-European South America and Polynesian chickens most likely resulted from contamination with modern DNA, and that this issue is likely to confound ancient DNA studies involving haplogroup E chicken sequences."
40
However, in a 2013 study, the original authors extended and elaborated their findings, concluding:
41
This comprehensive approach demonstrates that the examination of modern chicken DNA sequences does not contribute to our understanding of the origins of Chile's earliest chickens. Interpretations based on poorly sourced and documented modern chicken populations, divorced from the archeological and historical evidence, do not withstand scrutiny. Instead, this expanded account will confirm the pre-Columbian age of the El Arenal remains and lend support to our original hypothesis that their appearance in South America is most likely due to Polynesian contact with the Americas in prehistory.
A 2019 study of South American chickens "revealed an unknown genetic component that is mostly present in the Easter Island population that is also present in local chicken populations from the South American Pacific fringe".
42
The Easter Island chicken's "genetic proximity with the SA continental gamefowl can be explained by the fact that both populations were not crossed with cosmopolitan breeds and therefore remain closer to the ancestral population that originated them. "
42
The genetic proximity might also "be indicative of a common origin of these two populations".
42
California canoes
edit
Elye'wun
, a reconstructed Chumash
tomol
Researchers including Kathryn Klar and Terry Jones have proposed a theory of contact between
Hawaiians
and the
Chumash people
of
Southern California
between 400 and 800 CE. The sewn-plank canoes crafted by the Chumash and neighboring
Tongva
are unique among the indigenous peoples of North America, but similar in design to larger canoes used by Polynesians and Melanesians for deep-sea voyages.
Tomolo'o
, the
Chumash
word for such a craft, may derive from
tumulaʻau/kumulaʻau
, the Hawaiian term for the logs from which shipwrights carve planks to be sewn into canoes.
43
44
45
46
The analogous
Tongva
term,
tii'at
, is unrelated. If it occurred, this contact left no genetic legacy in California or Hawaii. This theory has attracted limited media attention within California, but most archaeologists of the Tongva and Chumash cultures reject it on the grounds that the independent development of the sewn-plank canoe over several centuries is well-represented in the material record.
47
48
49
Clava hand-club and words for axes
edit
Archaeological artefacts known as
clava hand-clubs
found in
Araucanía
and nearby areas of Argentina have a strong resemblance to the
mere okewa
found in
New Zealand
50
The clava hand-clubs are also mentioned in the Spanish chronicles dating to the
Conquest of Chile
50
According to
Grete Mostny
, clava hand-clubs "appear to have arrived to the west coast of South America from the Pacific".
50
Polynesian clubs from
Chatham Islands
are reportedly the most similar to those of Chile.
51
The clava hand-club is one of various Polynesian-like Mapuche artifacts known.
51
Possible linguistic evidence for Austronesian-American contact is found in words for axes.
52
53
54
On Easter Island, the word for a stone axe is
toki
; among the New Zealand Maori, the word
toki
denotes an
adze
. Similar words are found in the Americas: In the
Mapuche language
of
Chile
and
Argentina
, the word for a stone axe is
toki
; and further afield in
Colombia
, the
Yurumanguí
word for an axe is
totoki
27
Stone adzes often had ceremonial value and were worn by Maori chiefs.
55
The Mapuche word
toki
may also mean "chief" and thus may be related to the
Quechua
word
toqe
("militia chief") and the
Aymara
word
toqueni
("person of great judgement").
56
In the view of Moulian et al. (2015) the possible South American links complicate matters regarding the meaning of the word
toki
because they are suggestive of Polynesian contact.
56
Population Y
edit
A 2015 study found some Indigenous American groups, particularly those in the Amazon, carry a small admixture (around 1-2% of the genome) related to groups in Southeast Asia and Australasia like
Andamanese peoples
Indigenous Australians
Papuans
and the
Mamanwa
people of the Philippines. This ancestry component has been dubbed "Population Y". Some authors have suggested that this reflects a trans-Pacific migration, but scholars have suggested that this more likely reflects genetic heterogeneity in the initial founding population of Native Americans present in
Beringia
, only some of which carried the "Population Y" ancestry. It has also been noted that a 40,000 year old individual from
Tianyuan Cave
in northern China also carries this ancestry, making it more likely that this ancestry was the result of contact in Eurasia, prior to the arrival of the ancestors of Native Americans in Beringia.
57
Claims of East Asian contact
edit
Claims of contact with Ecuador
edit
A 2013 genetic study suggested the possibility of contact between
Ecuador
and
East Asia
, that would have happened no earlier than 6,000 years ago (4000 BC) via either a trans-oceanic or a late-stage coastal migration that did not leave genetic imprints in North America.
58
Further research did not support this but was rather "a case of a rare founding lineage that has been lost elsewhere by drift."
59
Claims of Chinese contact
edit
A jade
Olmec
mask from
Central America
. Gordon Ekholm, an archaeologist and curator at the
American Museum of Natural History
, suggested that the Olmec art style might have originated in
Bronze Age
China.
60
Some researchers have argued that the
Olmec
civilization came into existence with the help of Chinese refugees, particularly at the end of the
Shang dynasty
61
In 1975,
Betty Meggers
of the
Smithsonian Institution
argued that the Olmec civilization originated around 1200 BCE due to Shang Chinese influences.
62
In a 1996 book, Mike Xu, with the aid of Chen Hanping, claimed that
celts
from
La Venta
bear Chinese characters.
63
64
These claims are unsupported by mainstream Mesoamerican researchers.
65
Other claims of early Chinese contact with North America have been made. In 1882, approximately 30 brass coins, perhaps strung together, were reportedly found in the area of the
Cassiar Gold Rush
, apparently near
Dease Creek
, an area which was dominated by Chinese gold miners. A contemporary account states:
66
In the summer of 1882 a miner found on De Foe (Deorse?) creek, Cassiar district, Br. Columbia, thirty Chinese coins in the auriferous sand, twenty-five feet below the surface. They appeared to have been strung, but on taking them up the miner let them drop apart. The earth above and around them was as compact as any in the neighborhood. One of these coins I examined at the store of Chu Chong in Victoria. Neither in metal nor markings did it resemble the modern coins, but in its figures looked more like an Aztec calendar. So far as I can make out the markings, this is a Chinese chronological cycle of sixty years, invented by
Emperor Huungti
, 2637 BCE, and circulated in this form to make his people remember it.
Grant Keddie, curator of archeology at the
Royal B.C. Museum
, identified these as good luck temple tokens which were minted in the 19th century. He believed that claims that these were very old made them notorious and he wrote that "The temple coins were shown to many people and different versions of stories pertaining to their discovery and age spread around the province to be put into print and changed frequently by many authors in the last 100 years."
67
A group of Chinese Buddhist missionaries led by
Hui Shen
before 500 CE claimed to have visited a location called
Fusang
. Although Chinese mapmakers placed this territory on the Asian coast, others have suggested as early as the 1800s
68
that Fusang might have been in North America, due to perceived similarities between portions of the California coast and Fusang as depicted by Asian sources.
69
In his debunked
pseudohistorical
book
1421: The Year China Discovered the World
, British author
Gavin Menzies
claimed that the
treasure fleets
of
Ming
admiral
Zheng He
arrived in America in 1421.
70
The consensus among professional historians is that Zheng He only reached the eastern coast of Africa, and they dismiss Menzies's claims as entirely without evidence.
71
72
73
74
In 1973 and 1975,
doughnut
-shaped stones that resembled stone anchors which were used by Chinese fishermen were discovered off the coast of California. These stones (sometimes called the
Palos Verdes stones
) were initially thought to be up to 1,500 years old and therefore, they were thought to be proof of pre-Columbian contact by Chinese sailors. Later geological investigations showed that they were made of a local rock which is known as
Monterey shale
, and it is currently believed that they were used by Chinese settlers who fished off the coast during the 19th century.
75
Claims of Japanese contact
edit
Otokichi
, a Japanese castaway in America in 1834, depicted here in 1849
Archaeologist Emilio Estrada and co-workers wrote that pottery which was associated with the
Valdivia culture
of coastal Ecuador and dated to 3000–1500 BCE exhibited similarities to pottery which was produced during the
Jōmon period
in Japan, arguing that contact between the two cultures might explain the similarities.
76
77
Chronological and other problems have led most archaeologists to dismiss this idea as implausible.
78
79
The suggestion has been made that the resemblances (which are not complete) are simply due to the limited number of designs possible when incising clay.
Alaskan anthropologist Nancy Yaw Davis claims that the
Zuni people
of
New Mexico
exhibit linguistic and cultural similarities to the Japanese.
80
The
Zuni language
is a
linguistic isolate
, and Davis contends that the culture appears to differ from that of the surrounding natives in terms of blood type,
endemic disease
, and religion. Davis speculates that
Buddhist
priests or restless peasants from Japan may have crossed the Pacific in the 13th century, traveled to the
American Southwest
, and influenced Zuni society.
80
In the 1890s, lawyer and politician
James Wickersham
81
argued that pre-Columbian contact between Japanese sailors and Native Americans was highly probable, given that from the early 17th century to the mid-19th century several dozen Japanese ships are known to have been carried from Asia to North America along the powerful
Kuroshio Currents
. Japanese ships landed at places between the
Aleutian Islands
in the north and Mexico in the south, carrying a total of 293 people in the 23 cases where head-counts were given in historical records. In most cases, the Japanese sailors gradually made their way home on merchant vessels. In 1834, a dismasted, rudderless Japanese ship was wrecked near
Cape Flattery
in the
Pacific Northwest
. Three survivors of the ship were enslaved by
Makahs
for a period before being rescued by members of the
Hudson's Bay Company
82
83
Another Japanese ship went ashore in about 1850 near the mouth of the
Columbia River
, Wickersham writes, and the sailors were assimilated into the local Native American population. While admitting there is no definitive proof of pre-Columbian contact between Japanese and North Americans, Wickersham thought it implausible that such contacts as outlined above would have started only after Europeans arrived in North America and began documenting them.
Claims of Indian contact
edit
The
Somnathpur
figures at the sides hold maize-like objects in their left hands
In 1879,
Alexander Cunningham
wrote a description of the carvings on the
Stupa
of
Bharhut
in central India, dating from c. 200 BCE, among which he noted what appeared to be a depiction of a custard-apple (
Annona squamosa
).
84
Cunningham was not initially aware that this plant, indigenous to the New World tropics, was introduced to India after
Vasco da Gama
's discovery of the sea route in 1498, and the problem was pointed out to him. A 2009 study claimed to have found carbonized remains that date to 2000 BCE and appear to be those of custard-apple seeds.
85
Copán stela B was claimed by Smith as representing elephants
Grafton Elliot Smith
claimed that certain motifs present in the carvings on the Mayan stelae at
Copán
represented the
Asian elephant
, and wrote a book on the topic entitled
Elephants and Ethnologists
in 1924. Contemporary archaeologists suggested that the depictions were almost certainly based on the (indigenous)
tapir
, with the result that Smith's suggestions have generally been dismissed by subsequent research.
86
Some objects depicted in carvings from
Karnataka
, dating from the 12th century, that resemble ears of maize (
Zea mays
—a crop native to the New World), were interpreted by Carl Johannessen in 1989 as evidence of pre-Columbian contact.
87
These suggestions were dismissed by multiple Indian researchers based on several lines of evidence. The object has been claimed by some to instead represent a "Muktaphala", an imaginary fruit bedecked with pearls.
88
89
Claims of African and West Asian contact
edit
Claims of African contact
edit
See also:
Olmec alternative origin speculations
and
Atlantic voyage of the predecessor of Mansa Musa
Several
Olmec colossal heads
have features that some diffusionists link to African contact
Proposed claims for an African presence in
Mesoamerica
stem from attributes of the
Olmec
culture, the claimed transfer of African plants to the Americas,
90
and interpretations of European and Arabic historical accounts.
In 1922,
Leo Wiener
attested in
Africa and the Discovery of America
that there are similarities between the
Mandinka people
of West Africa and native Mesoamerican religious symbols such as the winged serpent and the sun disk, or
Quetzalcoatl
, and words that have
Mandé
roots and share similar meanings across both cultures, such as "kore", "gadwal", and "qubila" (in Arabic) or "kofila" (in Mandinka).
91
92
93
The Olmec culture existed in what is now southern Mexico from roughly 1200 BCE to 400 BCE. The idea that the Olmecs are related to Africans was first suggested by José Melgar, who discovered the first
colossal head
at Hueyapan (now
Tres Zapotes
) in 1862.
94
More recently,
Ivan Van Sertima
speculated an African influence on Mesoamerican culture in his book
They Came Before Columbus
(1976). His claims included the attribution of
Mesoamerican pyramids
, calendar technology,
mummification
, and mythology to the arrival of Africans by boat on currents running from Western Africa to the Americas. Heavily inspired by
Leo Wiener
(see above), Van Sertima suggested that the
Aztec
god
Quetzalcoatl
represented an African visitor. His conclusions have been severely criticized by mainstream academics and considered
pseudoarchaeology
95
Malian sources describe what some consider to be visits to the New World by a fleet from the
Mali Empire
in 1311, led by
Abu Bakr II
96
According to the only known primary-source-based copy of Christopher Columbus's journal (transcribed by
Bartolomé de las Casas
), the purpose of
Columbus's third voyage
was to test both (1) the claims of King
John II of Portugal
that "canoes had been found which set out from the coast of Guinea [West Africa] and sailed to the west with merchandise" and (2) the claims of the native inhabitants of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola that "there had come to Española from the south and south-east, a black people who have the tops of their spears made of a metal which they call
guanin
, of which he had sent samples to the Sovereigns to have them assayed, when it was found that of 32 parts, 18 were of gold, 6 of silver and 8 of copper".
97
98
99
Brazilian researcher
Niede Guidon
, who led the excavations of the
Pedra Furada
sites, "said she believed that humans...might have come not overland from Asia but by boat from Africa", with the journey taking place 100,000 years ago, well before the accepted dates for the earliest human migrations that led to the prehistoric settlement of the Americas.
Michael R. Waters
, a
geoarchaeologist
at
Texas A&M University
, noted the absence of genetic evidence in modern populations to support Guidon's claim.
100
Claims of Arab contact
edit
Early Chinese accounts of Muslim expeditions state that Muslim sailors reached a region called Mulan Pi ("magnolia skin") (
Chinese
木蘭皮
pinyin
Mùlán Pí
Wade–Giles
Mu-lan-p'i
). Mulan Pi is mentioned in
Lingwai Daida
(1178) by
Zhou Qufei
and
Zhufan Zhi
(1225) by
Chao Jukua
, together referred to as the "
Sung Document
". Mulan Pi is normally identified as Spain and Morocco of the
Almoravid dynasty
(Al-Murabitun),
101
though some fringe theories hold that it is instead some part of the Americas.
102
103
One supporter of the interpretation of Mulan Pi as part of the Americas was historian
Hui-lin Li
in 1961,
102
103
and while
Joseph Needham
was also open to the possibility, he doubted that Arab ships at the time would have been able to withstand a return journey over such a long distance across the Atlantic Ocean, pointing out that a return journey would have been impossible without knowledge of prevailing winds and currents.
104
Al-Mas'udi's atlas of the world includes a continent west (or south) of the
Old World
According to
Muslim
historian
Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Mas'udi
(871–957),
Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad
sailed over the Atlantic Ocean and discovered a previously unknown land (
Arḍ Majhūlah
Arabic
أرض مجهولة
) in 889 and returned with a shipload of valuable treasures.
105
106
The passage has been alternatively interpreted to imply that Ali al-Masudi regarded the story of Khashkhash to be a fanciful tale.
citation needed
Professor
Fuat Sezgin
authored a paper titled "The Pre-Columbian Discovery of the American Continent by Muslim Sea-Farers". In it, he examines several maps and travel accounts, and concludes that it is quite possible that Muslim sailors reached the eastern shores of South America.
107
Claims of ancient Phoenician contact
edit
Main article:
Theory of Phoenician discovery of the Americas
In 1996,
Mark McMenamin
proposed that
Phoenician
sailors discovered the
New World
c. 350 BC.
108
The Phoenician state of
Carthage
minted gold
staters
in 350 BC bearing a pattern in the reverse exergue of the coins, which McMenamin initially interpreted as a map of the Mediterranean with the Americas shown to the west across the Atlantic.
108
109
McMenamin later demonstrated that these coins found in America were modern forgeries.
110
Claims of ancient Judaic contact
edit
The
Bat Creek inscription
The
Bat Creek inscription
and
Los Lunas Decalogue Stone
have led some to suggest the possibility that
Jewish
seafarers may have traveled to America after they fled from the
Roman Empire
at the time of the
Jewish–Roman Wars
in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE.
111
However, American archaeologists Robert C. Mainfort Jr. and Mary L. Kwas argued in
American Antiquity
(2004) that the Bat Creek inscription was copied from an illustration in an 1870
Masonic
reference book and introduced by the Smithsonian field assistant who found it during excavation activities.
112
113
As for the Decalogue Stone, there are mistakes which suggest that it was carved by one or more novices who either overlooked or misunderstood some details on a source Decalogue from which they copied it. Since there is no other evidence or archaeological context in the vicinity, it is most likely that the legend at the nearby university is true—that the stone was carved by two anthropology students whose signatures can be seen inscribed in the rock below the Decalogue, "Eva and Hobe 3-13-30."
114
Scholar
Cyrus H. Gordon
believed that
Phoenicians
and other Semitic-speaking groups had crossed the Atlantic in antiquity, ultimately arriving in both North and South America.
115
This opinion was based on his own work on the Bat Creek inscription.
116
Similar ideas were also held by
John Philip Cohane
; Cohane even claimed that many geographical placenames in the United States have a Semitic origin.
117
118
Claims of European contact
edit
Solutrean hypothesis
edit
Main article:
Solutrean hypothesis
Examples of Clovis and other Paleoindian point forms, markers of archaeological cultures in northeastern North America
The
Solutrean hypothesis
argues that Europeans migrated to the New World during the
Paleolithic
era, circa 16,000 to 13,000 BCE. This hypothesis proposes contact partly on the basis of perceived similarities between the flint tools of the
Solutrean culture
in modern-day France, Spain, and Portugal (which thrived circa 20,000 to 15,000 BCE), and the
Clovis culture
of North America, which developed circa 9,000 BCE.
119
120
The Solutrean hypothesis was proposed in the mid-1990s.
121
It has little support amongst the scientific community, and genetic markers are inconsistent with the idea.
122
123
Claims of ancient Roman contact
edit
Evidence of contacts with the civilizations of
Classical Antiquity
—primarily with the
Roman Empire
, but sometimes also with other contemporaneous cultures—have been based on isolated archaeological finds in American sites that originated in the Old World. For example, the Bay of Jars in Brazil has been yielding ancient clay storage jars that resemble
Roman amphorae
124
for over 150 years. It has been proposed that the origin of these jars is a Roman shipwreck, although it has also been suggested that they could be 15th- or 16th-century Spanish olive oil jars.
Archaeologist Romeo Hristov argues that a Roman ship, or the drifting of such a shipwreck to American shores, is a possible explanation for the alleged discovery of artifacts that are apparently ancient Roman in origin (such as the
Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca bearded head
) in America. Hristov claims that the possibility of such an event has been made more likely by the discovery of evidence of travels by Romans to
Tenerife
and
Lanzarote
in the
Canary Islands
, and of a Roman settlement (from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE) on Lanzarote.
125
Floor mosaic depicting a fruit which looks like a
pineapple
. Opus vermiculatum, Roman artwork of the end of the 1st century BCE/beginning of the 1st century CE.
In 1950, an Italian botanist, Domenico Casella, suggested that a depiction of a
pineapple
(a fruit native to the New World tropics) was represented among wall paintings of Mediterranean fruits at
Pompeii
. According to
Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski
, this interpretation has been challenged by other botanists, who identify it as a pine
cone
from the
umbrella pine tree
, which is native to the Mediterranean area.
126
The leaves shown in the depiction (as with stone carvings from
Nineveh
127
make the pine cone identification problematic.
Roman and other European coins have been found in the United States.
128
Jeremiah Epstein, an American anthropologist, rejected the suggestion that these coins can be cited as evidence of Pre-Columbian contact between Europe and the Americas, pointing out the lack of any pre-Columbian archaeological contexts relating to these finds, the lack of detail concerning the discoveries, and the possibility of forgery (at least two were clearly forgeries).
129
A possible explanation for many of the ancient European coins found in the Americas is that they were carried over by modern ships, mixed in with solid
ballast
. Ships leaving European harbors would often take aboard sand and gravel dug from the shoreline in order to add weight and stability in the absence of cargo. Upon arrival at New World ports, these ships would dump the ballast and load up on trade goods. It is likely that this ballast, dug from the shores of ancient centers of commerce, contained small artifacts such as coins.
130
Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head
edit
Main article:
Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head
A small
terracotta
sculpture of a head, with a beard and European-like features, was found in 1933 in the
Toluca Valley
, 72 kilometres (45 mi) southwest of
Mexico City
, in a burial offering under three intact floors of a
pre-colonial
building dated to between 1476 and 1510. The artifact has been studied by Roman art authority Bernard Andreae, director emeritus of the German Institute of Archaeology in Rome, Italy, and Austrian anthropologist
Robert von Heine-Geldern
, both of whom stated that the style of the artifact was compatible with small Roman sculptures of the 2nd century. If genuine and if not placed there after 1492 (the pottery found with it dates to between 1476 and 1510),
131
the find provides evidence for at least a one-time contact between the Old and New Worlds.
132
According to
Arizona State University
's Michael E. Smith, a leading Mesoamerican scholar named John Paddock used to tell his classes in the years before he died that the artifact was planted as a joke by Hugo Moedano, a student who originally worked on the site. Despite speaking with individuals who knew the original discoverer (García Payón), and Moedano, Smith says he has been unable to confirm or reject this claim. Though he remains skeptical, Smith concedes he cannot rule out the possibility that the head was a genuinely buried post-Classic offering at
Calixtlahuaca
133
14th- and 15th-century European contact
edit
Further information:
Priory of Sion
and
Westford Knight
Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney
and feudal baron of
Roslin
(c. 1345 – c. 1400), was a Scottish
nobleman
who is best known today from a modern legend which claims that he took part in explorations of
Greenland
and North America almost 100 years before
Christopher Columbus
's voyages to the Americas.
134
In 1784, he was identified by
Johann Reinhold Forster
135
as possibly being the Prince
Zichmni
who is described in letters which were allegedly written around 1400 by the
Zeno brothers
of
Venice
, in which they describe a voyage which they made throughout the
North Atlantic
under the command of Zichmni.
136
According to
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
, "the Zeno affair remains one of the most preposterous and at the same time one of the most successful fabrications in the history of exploration."
137
Henry was the grandfather of
William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness
, the builder of
Rosslyn Chapel
near
Edinburgh
, Scotland. The authors
Robert Lomas
and
Christopher Knight
believe some carvings in the chapel were intended to represent ears of New World corn or
maize
138
a crop unknown in Europe at the time of the chapel's construction. Knight and Lomas view these carvings as evidence supporting the idea that Henry Sinclair traveled to the Americas well before Columbus. In their book, they discuss meeting with the wife of the botanist Adrian Dyer and state that Dyer's wife told them that Dyer agreed that the image thought to be maize was accurate.
138
In fact, Dyer found only one identifiable plant among the botanical carvings and instead suggested that the "maize" and "aloe" were stylized wooden patterns, only coincidentally looking like real plants.
139
Specialists in medieval architecture have variously interpreted the carvings as stylised depictions of wheat, strawberries, or lilies.
140
141
Henry Yule Oldham
suggested that the
Bianco world map
depicted part of the coast of
Brazil
before 1448. This was immediately opposed by members of the
Royal Geographical Society
but later repeated by American and European historians. This was later refuted by
Abel Fontoura da Costa
, who proved that it actually depicted
Santiago
, the largest island of the
Cape Verde
archipelago.
142
A 1547 edition of Oviedo's
La historia general de las Indias
Some
who?
have conjectured that Columbus was able to persuade the
Catholic Monarchs
of
Castile
and
Aragon
to support his planned voyage only because they were aware of some recent earlier voyage across the Atlantic. Some
who?
suggest that Columbus himself visited Canada or Greenland before 1492, because, according to
Bartolomé de las Casas
, he wrote he had sailed 100 leagues past an island that he called
Thule
in 1477. Whether Columbus actually did this and what island he visited, if any, is uncertain. Columbus is thought to have visited
Bristol
in 1476.
143
Bristol was also the port from which
John Cabot
sailed in 1497, crewed mostly by Bristol sailors. In a letter of late 1497 or early 1498, the English merchant John Day wrote to Columbus about Cabot's discoveries, saying that land found by Cabot was "discovered in the past by the men from Bristol who found 'Brasil' as your lordship knows".
144
There may be records of expeditions from Bristol to find the "
isle of Brazil
" in 1480 and 1481.
145
Trade between Bristol and Iceland is well documented from the mid-15th century.
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés
records several such legends in his
Historia general de las Indias
of 1526, which includes biographical information on Columbus. He discusses the then-current story of a Spanish caravel that was swept off its course while on its way to England, and wound up in a foreign land populated by naked tribesmen. The crew gathered supplies and made its way back to Europe, but the trip took several months and the captain and most of the men died before reaching land. The caravel's
ship pilot
, a man called
Alonso Sánchez
, and a few others made it to Portugal, but all were very ill. Columbus was a good friend of the pilot, and took him to be treated in his own house, and the pilot described the land they had seen and marked it on a map before dying. People in Oviedo's time knew this story in several versions, though Oviedo himself regarded it as a myth.
146
In 1925, Soren Larsen wrote a book claiming that a joint Danish-Portuguese expedition landed in Newfoundland or Labrador in 1473 and again in 1476. Larsen claimed that
Didrik Pining
and
Hans Pothorst
served as captains, while
João Vaz Corte-Real
and the possibly mythical
John Scolvus
served as navigators, accompanied by
Álvaro Martins
147
Nothing beyond circumstantial evidence has been found to support Larsen's claims.
148
The historical record shows that
Basque
fishermen were present in
Newfoundland and Labrador
from at least 1517 onward (therefore predating all recorded European settlements in the region except those of the Norse). The Basques' fishing expeditions led to significant trade and cultural exchanges with Native Americans. A fringe theory suggests that Basque sailors first arrived in North America prior to Columbus' voyages to the New World (some sources suggest the late 14th century as a tentative date) but kept the destination a secret in order to avoid competition over the fishing resources of the North American coasts. There is no historical or archaeological evidence to support this claim.
149
Irish and Welsh legends
edit
See also:
Great Ireland
Saint Brendan and the whale, from a 15th-century manuscript
The legend of Saint
Brendan
, an
Irish
monk from what is now
County Kerry
, involves a fantastical journey into the Atlantic Ocean in search of Paradise in the 6th century. Since the discovery of the New World, various authors have tried to link the Brendan legend with an early discovery of America. In 1977, the voyage was successfully recreated by
Tim Severin
using a replica of an ancient Irish
currach
150
According to a British myth,
Madoc
was a prince from
Wales
who explored the Americas as early as 1170. While most scholars consider this legend to be untrue, it was used to bolster British claims in the Americas vis-à-vis those of Spain.
151
152
The "Madoc story" remained popular in later centuries, and a later development asserted that Madoc's voyagers had intermarried with local Native Americans, and that their Welsh-speaking descendants still live somewhere in the United States. These "Welsh Indians" were credited with the construction of a number of landmarks throughout the
Midwestern United States
, and a number of white travelers were inspired to go look for them. The "Madoc story" has been the subject of much speculation in the context of possible pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. No conclusive archaeological proof of such a man or his voyages has been found in the New or Old World; however, speculation abounds connecting him with certain sites, such as
Devil's Backbone
, located on the Ohio River at Fourteen Mile Creek near
Louisville, Kentucky
153
At
Fort Mountain State Park
in Georgia, a plaque formerly mentioned a 19th-century interpretation of the ancient stone wall that gives the site its name. The plaque repeated a claim by Tennessee governor
John Sevier
that
Cherokees
believed "a people called Welsh" had built a fort on the mountain long ago to repel Indian attacks.
154
The plaque has been changed, leaving no reference to Madoc or the Welsh.
155
Biologist and controversial amateur epigrapher
Barry Fell
claims that Irish
Ogham
writing has been found carved into stones in the Virginias.
156
Linguist
David H. Kelley
has criticized some of Fell's work but nonetheless argued that genuine Celtic Ogham inscriptions have in fact been discovered in America.
157
However, others have raised serious doubts about these claims.
158
Claims of transoceanic travel originating in the New World
edit
Claims of Egyptian coca and tobacco
edit
The
mummy
of
Ramesses II
Traces of
coca
and
nicotine
which are found in some Egyptian mummies have led to speculation that
Ancient Egyptians
may have had contact with the New World. The initial discovery was made by a German
toxicologist
Svetlana Balabanova after examining the mummy of a priestess named
Henut Taui
. Follow-up tests on the hair shaft, which were performed in order to rule out the possibility of contamination, revealed the same results.
159
A television show reported that examinations of numerous
Sudanese
mummies which were also undertaken by Balabanova mirrored what was found in the mummy of Henut Taui.
160
Balabanova suggested that the tobacco may be accounted for since it may have also been known in China and Europe, as indicated by analyses run on human remains from those respective regions. Balabanova proposed that such plants native to the general area may have developed independently, but have since gone extinct.
160
Other explanations include fraud, though curator Alfred Grimm of the Egyptian Museum in
Munich
disputes this.
160
Skeptical of Balabanova's findings, Rosalie David, Keeper of Egyptology at the
Manchester Museum
, had similar tests performed on samples which were taken from the Manchester mummy collection and she reported that two of the tissue samples and one hair sample tested positive for the presence of nicotine.
160
However, mainstream scholars remain skeptical, and they do not see the results of these tests as proof of ancient contact between Africa and the Americas, especially because there could be Old World sources of cocaine and nicotine.
161
162
Two attempts to replicate Balabanova's findings of cocaine failed, suggesting "that either Balabanova and her associates are misinterpreting their results or that the samples of mummies tested by them have been mysteriously exposed to cocaine".
163
A re-examination of the mummy of
Ramesses II
in the 1970s revealed the presence of fragments of tobacco leaves in its abdomen. This finding became a popular topic in fringe literature and the media and it was seen as proof of contact between Ancient Egypt and the New World. The investigator
Maurice Bucaille
noted that when the mummy was unwrapped in 1886 the abdomen was left open and "it was no longer possible to attach any importance to the presence inside the abdominal cavity of whatever material was found there, since the material could have come from the surrounding environment."
164
Following the renewed discussion of tobacco sparked by Balabanova's research and its mention in a 2000 publication by Rosalie David, a study in the journal
Antiquity
suggested that reports of both tobacco and cocaine in mummies "ignored their post-excavation histories" and pointed out that the mummy of Ramesses II had been moved five times between 1883 and 1975.
162
Claims of travel in Roman times
edit
Pomponius Mela
writes,
165
and is copied by
Pliny the Elder
166
that
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer
(died 59 BCE),
proconsul
in
Gaul
, received "several Indians" (
Indi
) who had been driven by a storm to the coasts of
Germania
as a present from a foreign king, listed by Mela, in different manuscripts, as
rege Boorum/Boiorum/Botorum
167
and usually identified in recent scholarship as king of the
Boii
167
168
169
though Tausend (1999) argued that it might be corrupted name of the
Goths
170
Pliny identifies the king as the ruler of the
Suebi
instead:
Ultra Caspium sinum quidnam esset, ambiguum aliquamdiu fuit, idemne Oceanus an tellus infesta frigoribus sine ambitu ac sine fine proiecta. Sed praeter physicos Homerumque qui universum orbem mari circumfusum esse dixerunt, Cornelius Nepos ut recentior, auctoritate sic certior; testem autem rei Quintum Metellum Celerem adicit, eumque ita rettulisse commemorat: cum Galliae pro consule praeesset, Indos quosdam a rege Boiorum dono sibi datos; unde in eas terras devenissent requirendo cognosse, vi tempestatium ex Indicis aequoribus abreptos, emensosque quae intererant, tandem in Germaniae litora exisse. Restat ergo pelagus, sed reliqua lateris eiusdem adsiduo gelu durantur et ideo deserta sunt.
168
For a long time it was doubtful what there was beyond the Caspian bay: whether the same Ocean, or a land infested with cold, spreading out without circumference and boundless. But, in addition to the natural Philosophers and Homer, who have said that the whole universe was surrounded by sea,
Cornelius Nepos
, as more recent in authority and hence more certain, is available. Moreover he adds Quintus Metellus Celer as a witness to the fact, and asserts that he related this account: that while he was in charge of the Gauls as proconsul, certain Indians were given to him by a king of the Boii as a gift; and that in inquiring whence they had arrived into these regions, he learned that, driven from Indian waters by the violence of tempests, they had passed over the seas which intervened and finally had come through onto the shores of Germany. Therefore, there remains the sea, but the remaining places of this same side are held in the grip of continual cold and hence are deserted.
165
Both Mela and Pliny listed this incident as evidence supporting the notion that all lands of the world, including northern parts of Europe and Asia, are surrounded by
Oceanus
, and that it is theoretically possible to sail from India to Europe through a northern passage.
167
168
Since Metellus Celer died just after his consulship, before he ever got to
Transalpine Gaul
(in the area of present-day southern France),
171
the authors accepting the historicity of the incident either date it to 62 BCE, when Celer was governing
Cisalpine Gaul
(in the area of present-day northern Italy),
172
167
168
or interpret texts of Mela and Pliny as garbled accounts of Celer's encounter with some Indians at an earlier date, when he served as
Pompey
's legate in Asia.
173
174
Richard Hennig suggested that the castaways mentioned by Mela and Pliny were possibly
American Indians
175
Other interpretations of the incident were also proposed. Bengtson (1954), McLaughlin (2016) and Lerner (2020) argued that Celer might have encountered actual merchants from India, who reached Europe from
Phasis
on the
Black Sea
coast.
176
177
168
Other authors interpret supposed Indians as misidentified speakers of
Finno-Ugric languages
originating from the areas east of the
Bothnian Bay
170
or
Baltic Veneti
167
An article in the
Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York
published in 1891 suggests that the word "Indos" is so indefinite as to be subject to speculation, and that copyist errors may have changed "Jernos" (Irish) or "Iberos" (Spaniards) to Indos.
178
Icelander DNA finding
edit
In 2010, Sigríður Sunna Ebenesersdóttir published a genetic study showing that over 350 living Icelanders carried mitochondrial DNA of a new type, C1e, belonging to the C1 clade which was until then known only from Native American and East Asian populations. Using the
deCODE genetics
database, Sigríður Sunna determined that the DNA entered the Icelandic population not later than 1700, and likely several centuries earlier. However Sigríður Sunna also states that "while a Native American origin seems most likely for [this new haplogroup], an Asian or European origin cannot be ruled out".
179
In 2014, a study discovered a new mtDNA subclade C1f from the remains of three people found in north-western Russia and dated to 7,500 years ago. It has not been detected in modern populations. The study proposed the hypothesis that the sister C1e and C1f subclades had split early from the most recent common ancestor of the C1 clade and had evolved independently, and that subclade C1e had a northern European origin. Iceland was settled by the Vikings in the 9th century and they had raided heavily into western Russia, where the sister subclade C1f is now known to have resided. They proposed that both subclades were brought to Iceland through the Vikings, and that C1e went extinct on mainland northern Europe due to population turnover and its small representation, and subclade C1f went extinct completely.
180
Norse legends and sagas
edit
Statue of Thorfinn Karlsefni
In 1009, legends report that Norse explorer
Thorfinn Karlsefni
abducted two children from
Markland
, an area on the North American mainland where Norse explorers visited but did not settle. The two children were then taken to Greenland, where they were baptized and taught to speak Norse.
181
In 1420, Danish geographer
Claudius Clavus Swart
wrote that he personally had seen "
pygmies
" from Greenland who were caught by Norsemen in a small skin boat. Their boat was hung in
Nidaros Cathedral
in
Trondheim
along with another, longer boat also taken from "pygmies". Clavus Swart's description fits the Inuit and two of their types of boats, the
kayak
and the
umiak
182
183
Similarly, the Swedish clergyman
Olaus Magnus
wrote in 1505 that he saw in
Oslo Cathedral
two leather boats taken decades earlier. According to Olaus, the boats were captured from Greenland pirates by one of the
Haakons
, which would place the event in the 14th century.
182
Claims of Inuit travel to the Old World
edit
It has been suggested that the Norse took other indigenous peoples to Europe as slaves over the following centuries, because they are known to have taken Scottish and Irish slaves.
182
183
In
Ferdinand Columbus
's biography of his father Christopher, he says that in 1477 his father saw in
Galway
, Ireland, two dead bodies which had washed ashore in their boat. The bodies and boat were of exotic appearance, and have been suggested to have been
Inuit
who had drifted off course.
184
There is also evidence of Inuit coming to Europe under their own power or as captives after 1492. In
Scotland
, they were known as the
Finn-men
. A substantial body of Greenland Inuit folklore first collected in the 19th century told of journeys by boat to
Akilineq
, depicted as a rich country across the ocean.
185
Claims of Inca travel to Oceania
edit
Peruvian historian
José Antonio del Busto Duthurburu
popularized the theory that
Inca
ruler
Topa Inca Yupanqui
may have led a maritime exploration voyage across the Pacific Ocean around 1465, eventually reaching
French Polynesia
and
Rapa Nui
(Easter Island). Different Spanish chroniclers of the 16th century recount stories told to them by Inca peoples, in which Yupanqui embarked on a sea voyage, eventually reaching two islands referred to as
Nina Chumpi
("fire belt") and
Hawa Chumpi
("outer belt", also spelled
Avachumpi, Hahua chumpi
). According to the stories, Yupanqui returned from the expedition bringing back with him black-skinned people, gold, a chair made of brass, and the skin of a horse or an animal similar to a horse. Del Busto speculated the "black-skinned people" may have been
Melanesians
, while the animal skin may have belonged to a Polynesian
wild boar
that was misidentified.
186
Critics have pointed out that Yupanqui's expedition—assuming it ever took place—could have reached the
Galápagos Islands
or some other part of the Americas instead of Oceania.
187
Claims based on religious traditions or symbols
edit
Claims of pre-Columbian contact with Christian voyagers
edit
During the period of
Spanish colonization of the Americas
, several indigenous myths and works of art led a number of Spanish chroniclers and authors to suggest that Christian preachers may have visited
Mesoamerica
well before the
Age of Discovery
Bernal Díaz del Castillo
, for example, was intrigued by the presence of cross symbols in Maya hieroglyphs, which according to him suggested that other Christians may have arrived in ancient Mexico before the Spanish
conquistadors
Fray Diego Durán
, for his part, linked the legend of the Pre-Columbian god
Quetzalcoatl
(whom he describes as being chaste, penitent, and a miracle-worker) to the Biblical accounts of Christian apostles.
Bartolomé de las Casas
describes Quetzalcoatl as being fair-skinned, tall, and bearded (therefore suggesting an Old World origin), while
Fray Juan de Torquemada
credits him with bringing agriculture to the Americas. Modern scholarship has cast serious doubts on several of these claims, since agriculture was practiced in the Americas well before the emergence of Christianity in the Old World, and Maya crosses have been found to have a very different symbolism from that present in Christian religious traditions.
188
According to Pre-Columbian myth, Quetzalcoatl departed Mexico in ancient times by travelling east across the ocean, promising he would return. Some scholars have argued that
Aztec
emperor
Moctezuma Xocoyotzin
believed Spanish
conquistador
Hernán Cortés
(who arrived in what today is Mexico from the east) to be Quetzalcoatl, and his arrival to be a fulfilling of the myth's prophecy, though others have disputed this claim.
189
Fringe theories suggest that Quetzalcoatl may have been a Christian preacher from the Old World who lived among indigenous peoples of ancient Mexico, and eventually attempted to return home by sailing eastwards.
Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora
, for example, speculated that the Quetzalcoatl myth might have originated from a visit to the Americas by
Thomas the Apostle
in the 1st century CE. Later on,
Fray Servando Teresa de Mier
argued that the cloak with the image of the
Virgin of Guadalupe
, which the
Catholic Church
claims was worn by
Juan Diego
, was instead brought to the Americas much earlier by Thomas, who used it as an instrument for
evangelization
188
Mexican historian
Manuel Orozco y Berra
conjectured that both the cross hieroglyphs and the Quetzalcoatl myth might have originated on a visit to Mesoamerica by a Catholic
Norse
missionary in medieval times. However, there is no archaeological or historical evidence to suggest that the
Norse explorations
ever made it as far as ancient Mexico or Central America.
188
Other proposed identities for Quetzalcoatl (attributed to their proponents pursuing religious agendas) include
St. Brendan
or even
Jesus Christ
190
A popular thread of
conspiracy theory
originating with
Holy Blood, Holy Grail
has it that the Templars used a fleet of 18 ships at
La Rochelle
to escape arrest in France. The fleet allegedly left laden with knights and treasures just before the issue of the warrant for the arrest of the Order in October 1307.
191
192
This, in turn, was based on a single item of testimony from serving brother Jean de Châlon, who says he had "heard people talking that [Gerard de Villiers had] put to sea with 18 galleys, and the brother Hugues de Chalon fled with the whole treasury of the brother Hugues de Pairaud."
193
However, aside from being the sole source for this statement, the transcript indicates that it is hearsay, and this serving brother seems to be prone to making some of the wildest and most damning of claims about the Order, which have led some to doubt his credibility.
194
What destination, if any, was reached by this fleet is uncertain. A fringe theory suggests the fleet may have made its way to the Americas, where the Knights Templar interacted with the aboriginal population. Helen Nicholson of
Cardiff University
has cast doubt on the existence of this voyage, arguing that the Knights Templar did not have ships capable of navigating the Atlantic Ocean.
195
Claims of ancient Jewish migration to the Americas
edit
Main article:
Ten Lost Tribes
See also:
Jewish Indian theory
From the first centuries of
European colonization of the Americas
until the 19th century, several European intellectuals and theologians tried to account for the presence of the Amerindian aboriginal peoples by connecting them to the
Ten Lost Tribes
of Israel, who according to Biblical tradition were deported following the conquest of the Israelite kingdom by the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
. These efforts have been used to further the interests of religious groups, both Jewish and Christian, and they have also been used to justify European settlement of the Americas.
196
One of the first people to claim that the indigenous peoples of the Americas were descendants of the Lost Tribes was the Portuguese rabbi and writer
Menasseh Ben Israel
(1604-1657), who argued in his book
The Hope of Israel
that the discovery of the alleged long-lost Jews heralded the imminent coming of the Biblical
Messiah
196
In 1650, a
Norfolk
preacher,
Thomas Thorowgood
, published
Jewes in America or Probabilities that the Americans are of that Race
, for the New England missionary society.
citation needed
Tudor Parfitt writes:
The society was active in trying to convert the Indians but suspected that they might be Jews and realized they better be prepared for an arduous task. Thorowgood's tract argued that the native population of North America were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes.
197
In 1652,
Sir Hamon L'Estrange
, an English author writing on history and theology, published
Americans no Jews, or improbabilities that the Americans are of that Race
in response to the tract by Thorowgood. In response to L'Estrange, Thorowgood published a second edition of his book in 1660 with a revised title and included a foreword written by
John Eliot
, a
Puritan
missionary who had translated the Bible into an Indian language.
198
Elias Boudinot
, a signatory to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, made similar claims in his 1816 book titled
A Star in the West: A Humble Attempt to Discover the Long Lost Ten Tribes of Israel; Preparatory to Their Return to Their Beloved City, Jerusalem
199
Latter Day Saint movement's teachings
edit
Main articles:
Historicity of the Book of Mormon
Native American people and Mormonism
, and
Pacific Islanders and Mormonism
The
Book of Mormon
, a
sacred text
of the
Latter Day Saint movement
, states that some ancient inhabitants of the New World are descendants of Semitic peoples who sailed from the Old World. There is no support from genetic studies and archaeology for the
historicity of the Book of Mormon
or
Middle Eastern
origins for any Native American peoples.
200
201
202
Since the 1850s
Mormon
leaders have identified
Polynesian islands
with the "islands of the sea" discussed in the
Book of Mormon
and taught that the people there were descendants of
Israelite
people.
206
In a 1998 letter, the
National Geographic Society
stated it "does not know of anything found so far that has substantiated the Book of Mormon."
207
Some LDS scholars hold the view that archaeological studies of the Book of Mormon's claims are not meant to vindicate the literary narrative. For example,
Terryl Givens
, professor of English at the
University of Richmond
, argues that there is a lack of historical accuracy in the Book of Mormon in relation to modern archaeological knowledge.
208
See also
edit
Ancient maritime history
Antillia
– 15th-century phantom island
Atlantis Expedition
– 1984 Argentine raft journey across Atlantic Ocean
Burrows Cave
– Alleged cave site
Columbian exchange
Davenport Tablets
– Three inscribed slate tables found in the United States in the 1870s
Diffusion (anthropology)
Genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas
Gwennan Gorn
– Ship of supposed Welsh sea-voyager
Hyperdiffusionism
Hyperdiffusionism in archaeology
Institute for the Study of American Cultures
Jean Cousin (navigator)
Jewish Indian theory
Kensington Runestone
– Faked Viking runestone in Minnesota, US
Kon-Tiki expedition
– 1947 raft journey from South America to Polynesia
Magna Bowl
Maine penny
– Norwegian silver coin
Newport Tower (Rhode Island)
– Remains of 17th-century windmill
Origins of Paleoindians
Pre-Columbian rafts
Vinland Map
– Forged 'Norse' map of North America
Westford Knight
– Pattern on a rock in the United States
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The putative Carthaginian coins must now be removed from the body admissible evidence favoring a pre-Columbian transatlantic crossing. It gives me some chagrin to admit this, as I had earlier come out mildly in support of the authenticity of these coins (McMenamin 1999b, 2000a, 2000b). Weak evidence (involving measurements of die axis; the Arkansas coin has a die axis [33 degrees] differing from the Alabama type coins [12 to 20 degrees]) in support of the authenticity of these coins (McMenamin 2000b) is superseded by the strong evidence in the current work.
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Recent analyses of mitochondrial genomes from Native Americans have brought the overall number of recognized maternal founding lineages from just four to a current count of 15. However, because of their relative low number, almost nothing is known about some of these lineages. This leaves a considerable void in understanding the events that led to the colonization of the Americas following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). In this study, we identified and completely sequenced 14 mitochondrial DNAs belonging to one extremely rare Native American lineage known as haplogroup C4c. Its age and geographical distribution raise the possibility that C4c marked the Paleo-Indian group(s) that entered North America from Beringia through the ice-free corridor between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets. The similarities in ages and geographical distributions for C4c and the previously analyzed X2a lineage provide support to the scenario of a dual origin for Paleo-Indians.
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I have no personal doubts that some of the inscriptions which have been reported [in the Americas] are genuine Celtic ogham. [...] Despite my occasional harsh criticism of Fell's treatment of individual inscriptions, it should be recognized that without Fell's work there would be no [North American]
ogham
problem to perplex us. We need to ask not only what Fell has done wrong in his epigraphy, but also where we have gone wrong as archaeologists in not recognizing such an extensive European presence in the New World.
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Item dixit, quod potentes ordinis prescientes istam confusionem fugiunt et ipse obviavit fratri Girardo de Villariis ducenti quinquaginta equos, et audivit dici, quod intravit mare cum XVIII galeis, et frater Hugo de Cabilone fugiit cum tot thesauro fratris Hugonis de Peraudo.
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"Brethren Persecuted Part Two: Revenge Destroys Everything"
Knight Templar Magazine, the official publication of the York Rite Masonry Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States of America
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University of Illinois Press
doi
10.2307/45224944
ISSN
0012-2157
203
: 85–86, 93
204
: 39–40, 44–46
205
: 91–97
Gillespie, Thomas (September 19, 2013).
Satan's Strategies of Deception
(1st ed.). Eugene, Oregon, USA:
Wipf and Stock
. p. 139.
ISBN
978-1-6667-8966-9
Givens, Terryl (2004).
The Latter-day Saint Experience in America
Greenwood Publishing Group
. p. 145.
ISBN
978-0-313-32750-6
. Retrieved
November 8,
2014
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