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Pre-Columbian America.
When were the America's first colonised?
The now fossilised, worked
bone in the photo (below), was found nearly 40ft deep in upper Pleistocene
deposits dating from about 10,000 - 8,000 BC, at Tequixquiax, in the north of
the valley of Mexico. Height 6 inches (15.4cm). (Present location: Museo Nacional de Antropologia,
Mexico).
Science Daily (Apr. 3, 2008) — 'DNA
from dried human excrement recovered from Oregon's Paisley Caves is
the oldest found yet in the New World -- dating to 14,300 years ago,
some 1,200 years before Clovis culture -- and provides genetic ties to Siberia or Asia, according to an international team of
13 scientists'. (5)
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Featured Locations:
 Chaco
canyon
- (Sun dagger)
In what is now the state of New Mexico
in an area known as Chaco Canyon are the remains of an elaborate
development of the Anasazi people who lived in the region from about 500
to 1300 AD. Some 120 meters (400 feet) above the canyon floor near the
top of an outcropping known as Fajada Butte, three slabs of sandstone
are leaning against a rock wall creating a shaded space. Carved into
this shaded wall are two spiral petroglyphs, one large and one small.
Sunlight passes over them at various times throughout the year as it
streams through chinks between the sandstone, but it was not until the
1970s that their true purpose was literally illumined.
(More about the Chaco-canyon
sun-dagger)
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 Chavin
du Huantar
-
(Capital of the Chavin culture).
Chavin du Huantar, is an unusual complex of
steeply walled platforms, honeycombed with stone-lined passages surrounding
a sunken plaza. It is unique amongst Pre-Columbian temple groups. The
principle edifice, called 'The Castillo' is faced with cut-stone blocks in
courses of varying widths. Inside the core are at least three irregular
storeys of stone-lined galleries, chambers and ventilating shafts.
There are still several engraved obelisks
as Chavin du Huantar. Perhaps the most incredible (Right), called 'El-Toro'
(the Bull), or 'Lanzon'
(the Lance), was originally situated in the centre and deep in the
underground catacombs at Chavin de Huantar. The top of it, at 4.5m,
protruded through the ceiling, and the floor above.
(More about Chavin du
Huantar) |
 Chichen
Itza - (Abandoned Mayan city).
The stepped pyramid-temple (Right), records
the equinoxes in a unique way. The sun creates a shadow of a huge 'snake' to
ascend the steps in spring, and descend again in autumn (2). Whether or not this
was a deliberate design feature is speculative, but other astronomical features
at the site certainly lend weight to the idea that it was intentional.
Each step corresponds to a day, each platform
to a Mayan month. The temple is erected above the 365 steps. (17).
(More about
Chichen Itza)
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 La
Venta The 'African' Heads:
It was in 1938 that Dr. Stirling uncovered
the first head, which was made from a single piece of basalt rock resting on
a prepared foundation of un-worked slabs of stone. He said of it that it
was:
'...unique amongst aboriginal
American sculptures, it is remarkable for its realistic treatment. The
features are bold and it is amazingly negroid in character'. (3)
(More about La Venta) |
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Machu
Pichu -
(Mountain Citadel)
 This
Pre-Columbian Inca mountain citadel was only rediscovered in 1911. It shows
several strong indications of astronomical observation.
The structures are built from white
granite, with blocks reaching up to 3.7 metres in length.
Location of the famous Intihuatana stone,
also called "The Hitching Point of the Sun" because it was believed
to hold the sun in its place along its annual path in the sky. At
midday on March 21 and September 21, the equinoxes, the sun stands almost
above the pillar—casting no shadow at all.
Skeletal remains show a 10:1
ratio of females to males. (12)
(More about Machu Pichu) |
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 Palenque
- (Mayan pyramid complex).
The
only known
example of an original
burial within a pyramid.
The tomb of Pakal was found deep within the 'Temple of
Inscriptions' (which also houses the second longest Glyphic text from the
Mayan world). The photo (left) is the famous lid of Pakal's tomb, suggested
to represent Pakal in the guise of one of the manifestations of the Maize
God emerging from the underworld.
Spence (8),
says: 'The entire city of Palenque was solely a priestly centre, a place of
pilgrimage'. The city is laid out in the shape of an amphitheatre, with a
central pyramid. The city was deserted in the 8th century AD, along with
several other Mayan centres.
In the last 15 or 20 years, a great deal
more of the site has been excavated, but currently, archaeologists estimate
that only 5% of the total city has been uncovered.
(More about Palenque) |
 San
Agustin, Columbia: Columbian Megaliths.
The San Agustin archaeological
park in Colombia includes a wide variety of stone sculptures (Megaliths), mostly
carved between AD 100 and 1200. In the park are an amazing array of separate
stone sculptures, in the shapes of animals and warriors and human faces, some
mythical, some realistic. They are carved out of volcanic rock - some are over 4
meters tall and weigh several tons. The site, excavated by K. Th. Preuss during
the 1940s, has been declared a World Heritage Site.
(More about San Agustin)
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Tiahuanaco, Bolivia:
Mountain complex
 Tiahuanaco
sits in the Bolivian Andes at a height of over 12,500 ft.
Inca tradition spoke of the founding Inca male and female coming
to Cuzco
from the 'Island of the Sun' on Lake
Titicaca, nearby. (4)
The city was the administrative and
religious heart of a pre-Incan civilisation that began in the year
237 BC and endured for over 1400 years. During its peak (724- 1172
AD) the Tiahuanacan Empire covered nearly all of Bolivia, Northern
Chile and Southern Peru, ruling over more than three million
subjects. (9)
(More about
Tiahuanaco)
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Teotihuacán
-
The 'City of the Gods'.
It was
suspected by Stansbury Hagar, that the city had been built as a 'map of heaven'.
During the 1960's and 1970's a comprehensive mathematical survey was carried out
by Hugh Harleston Jr who determined that the principle structures line up along
the street of the dead (and beyond), and that the city was a precise scale model
of the solar system. (21).
The
Pyramid of the sun (Right), has the same base dimensions and half the height of
the great pyramid in Egypt.
(More about Teotihuacan)
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The Piri-reis map - The
first map of the American continent.
The significance of this map is
sometimes overshadowed by the various myths and claims surrounding it.
Regardless of the debatable claim that the map shows the outline of the
Antarctic continent, there are certain demonstrable facts which make
this map potentially one of America's most valuable historical relics.
The Piri-reis map (c. 1513), is
a fragment of a larger composite map of the world, with its epicentre in
Egypt. It was created with a working understanding of longitude and
latitude and a system of geometry which allowed the cartographer to
accurately draw the outlines of Africa and America relative to each
other.
The legend on the map dates it to 'Muharran' in the Muslim year 919 (1513 AD), only 20
years after the official discovery of the Americas by Columbus in
1492. The legend itself however, gave claims an origin far
older than 20 years, revealing that it was a section of a world map
composed from more than twenty source maps, some drawn in the time
of Alexander the great, and that 'some were based on
mathematics'
(7).
 The
map has pre-Columbian provenance.
The map shows the eastern coastline of America.
The map shows accurate use of Longitude
and Latitude.
The map-builders used 'Spherical
geometry'.
The centre of the map is at the junction
of the 23.5˚
parallel and the longitude of Alexandria.
The cartographers of the Piri-reis map used a system
called the 12-wind system, which was used extensively in the middle
ages and has its roots in the Babylonian sciences.
(More about
the Piri-reis map) |
Indian Maize (Corn)...?
Although Corn (Maize) officially only made the
journey from the 'New-world' following Columbus discovery of the
Americas, it is found in Indian art several hundreds of years before
his time.
The Mound Builders.
USA has more than 100,000 artificial
mounds between the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. (12).
In 1838, the first
authenticated Phoenician inscription was excavated from a burial chamber
found at the base of Mammoth Mound, in Moundsville, West Virginia. The
similarity to Iberian Writing was recognised, and the contents of the
mound were attributed to European visitors. The mounds of the eastern and
central America have timber chambers rather than stone, but they contain
similar archaeological remains to those found in Iberia. (1)
 
Copper ingot from Crete (Left), and a British
Museum Ingot from the 'Foundry Hoard' at Enkomi, Cyprus c.
1225-1150 BC (Right).
American sites have
yielded considerable numbers of copper tablets shaped like the hide of an
animal; and they were named 'reels'. In 1896, in Cyprus, and subsequently
in many Mediterranean excavations, corresponding 'Bronze Age' copper
objects, recognised now as ingots used in international currency, have
been found. The American examples indicate an international trading system
existed. (1)
(More on this subject)
(Return to Top)
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'Old-World' - 'New World' contact before Columbus:
There is a clear weight of evidence to
demonstrate that the America's were populated for a long time before
Columbus arrival in 1497. The focus of debate today is centred on
suggestions that the Americas were colonised by people from what
is generically termed the 'old-world', in reference to the Eurasian
and African Land-masses.
(Click here for more about Old-world /
New-world Contact)
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Featured American
Sites:
American Sites (U.S.A):
South American
Sites:
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