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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 |
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A Parade Of Early Visitors To America
Early Europeans. D. Kelley, a Calgary archeologist, claims that rock carvings in Petroglyph Provincial Park were etched by European explorers circa 800 BC rather than by Native Americans. One petroglyph, for example, depicts a Viking-like ship almost identical to those carved on a rock near Boslund, Sweden. There are also abstract symbols like those used by Northern Europeans in the same time frame.
(Anonymous; "Did Vikings Pay Early Visit?" Baltimore Sun, August 13, 1999.)
Comment. Kelley's observations certainly bolster B. Fell's claims in his book America B.C. that Europeans made landfall in North America long before Columbus set sail.
Early Chinese. Perhaps Chinese adventurers beat the Europeans to the New World. At a symposium in Anyang, China, M. Xu Hui (Texas Christian University) presented 56 matching sets of characters found in both the Americas and China.
"They so closely resemble the 3,000-year-old Shang Dynasty characters for the sun, sky, rain, water, crops, trees, and astronomy that if they had not been found in America, Chinese experts would have classified them automatically as pre-221 B.C. Chinese script."
(Rennie, David; "Carvings Link Chinese with American Indians," Chicago SunTimes, August 31, 1999. Cr. J. Cieciel.)
Early Australians. A new BBC documentary entitled Ancient Voices proclaims that the first settlers of the New World were from Australia and Melanesia. Skulls thought to be 9,000-12,000 years old have been unearthed in Brazil with features that closely match those of Australians living about 60,000 years ago.
Evidence of even earlier contacts comes from stone tools and charcoal at Serra da Capivara, in northeastern Brazil. These artifacts indicate human habitation as long as 50,000 years ago.
These very early Australians, however, seem to have been exterminated by a later wave of Mongoloid invaders. W. Neves, University of Sao Paolo, has measured hundreds of skulls between 7,000 and 9,000 years old. He notes a marked change in skull shape during that period going from exclusively Australian to totally Mongoloid.
(Anonymous; BBC Online Network, August 26, 1999. Cr. M. Colpitts.
Comments
- The claimed Mongoloid invasion of Brazil jibes nicely with claims of early Chinese visits to the New World.
- The artifacts at Serra da Capivara support the findings of N. Guidon at Pedra Furada, Brazil -- also said to be about 50,000 years old. (SF#112, #108, #105)
- The three references given above are not science journals, so caution is advised.