Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 05:29:13 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: FARMING FROM 6,000 YEARS AGO
http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=156622&command=displayContent&sourceNode=156618&contentPK=18789712&folderPk=87030
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Diffusion - Cultural similarities between Old and New Worlds - Atlantis ?

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 12   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Diffusion - Cultural similarities between Old and New Worlds - Atlantis ?  (Read 8931 times)
0 Members and 123 Guests are viewing this topic.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #15 on: October 01, 2007, 04:51:16 pm »








The Sanskrit word for serpent is naga and she explained that from time immemorial the serpent, as the dragon, has in every part of the world signified a "wise man, endowed with extraordinary magic powers." She further alluded to the clear relationship between the reference to nagas or wise initiates residing in Patala (America), and the nagals, a Mexican Indian name for "the (now) sorcerers and medicine men."

This brings us to Professor Gordon's research in the Aztecan and Mayan (and also South American Indian) tradition that it was a white, bearded personage who brought the arts of civilization to America, arriving from the east by boat. Both the Aztecan and Mayan titles for this personage, Quetzalcoatl and Kukulcan respectively, mean "Plumed Serpent." Additional testimony to the ubiquity and central religious importance among early American peoples of the snake or serpent need hardly be given, but we can briefly refer to the Snake Tribes among the North American Indians, the gigantic Serpent Mound over 700 feet in length that was constructed by the mound-building peoples of ancient Ohio, and the use of the feathered serpent (often dragonlike in appearance) in the magnificent pre-Columbian stone structures throughout Central America.

What Dr. Gordon has done is to provide evidence that:

The classical Old World has something to say about bearded white men who are at the same time plumed serpents. A pediment from the Athenian acropolis portrays on one side three plumed serpents, each with the head of a bearded man. This embodies the essential traits -- at two levels -- of the American iconography. There are too many details involved to be attributed to accident. (Before Columbus, pp. 51-53.)

Dr. Gordon has included in his book a photograph of this pediment of an archaic temple on the Acropolis.

Another very interesting corroboration of Old World links with the Plumed Serpent tradition, not mentioned by Professor Gordon, is offered by the Scots antiquary, Dorothea Chaplin, who, writing in 1938, (Mythological Bonds Between East and West, pp. 35-36.) discusses linguistic evidences for prehistoric links between the Celtic hero Cuchulinn (or Kukil Can) and the Mayan Kukulcan, noting that both of these figures were characterized as the Feathered Serpent.

For his courage in allowing his evidence to stand or fall on its inherent cogency and appeal to our sense of logic and probability, Professor Gordon deserves a loud vote of thanks, for, as he correctly observes, his conclusions do "help us more fully to understand ourselves, our place in the order of things and our responsibilities."
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #16 on: October 01, 2007, 04:54:40 pm »







Part Two



When we review the field of prehistory, there is no doubt that we are really only at the beginning of gauging with any accuracy the place and meaning of our present civilization in man's long trek from his racial origins, and that research in all branches of knowledge is needed to bring us to a fuller understanding.

For instance, Professor Gordon, an acknowledged expert in ancient Mesopotamian and Mediterranean tongues, used his skills to striking advantage in his book, "Before Columbus", in showing what rich stores of information are to be garnered by an enlightened use of linguistics in tandem with other lines of investigation of prehistory. Aside from citing an amazing number of comparative word derivations, he devotes a full chapter to the array of evidence found in language which, among others, points to links connecting the ancient Mesopotamian peoples with those of Mesoamerica.

Noting distribution of the crocodile over both Old and New Worlds, Dr. Gordon says that in Egypt this animal was called sbk (usually pronounced sobek). The Aztecan name for the reptile is cipactli, whose stem is cipac- (pronounced sipac-) plus the nominal -t1i. He writes:

As far as the consonants go, there is no discrepancy between Egyptian sbk and Nahuatl spk because in the latter b and p are not distinguished. -- p. 135

He then cites the Central American Nahuatl word teo-tl, god, drawing attention to the parallel Greek theo-s and the Latin deu-s, and regards the comparison well founded that was made more than 150 years ago by Alexander von Humboldt between the Nahuatl teo-calli (god's house) and the Greek theoukalia (god's house, shrine). Further, he draws attention to the Nahuatl papalotl and the Latin papilio, both words meaning butterfly.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2007, 05:15:39 pm by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #17 on: October 01, 2007, 04:58:04 pm »








Another example should be quoted here because of the role it plays in authenticating a possible sixth century B.C. voyage from the Red Sea to Brazil by Canaanite traders.

The author tells us that the word for "iron" in most Semitic languages other than Arabic is barzel (brzl in Ugaritic, parzillu in Akkadian), and that the word found its way into the Atlantic community where, in the Midland counties of England, brazil means "iron pyrites." Old Irish lore refers to Hy Brasil, "The Island of Brazil," out in the Atlantic Ocean beyond Ireland. He notes that Hy Brasil stands for the Northwest Semitic 'I BRZL, or "The Island of Iron":

Whether "the Island of Brazil" designated a part of the country now known as Brazil has not yet been proved. We can however say that no country in the world merits the name BRZL "Iron" more than Brazil, whose chief resource is still iron. -- Before Columbus, p. 119

Dr. Gordon links this etymology with an inscribed stone found in Brazil in 1872 which he believes records a crossing from Canaan to Brazil in 534-531 B.C. This was initially branded as a forgery, but after translating the eight-line inscription again in 1968, he is convinced the text is genuine. He bases his conclusion on the fact that it contains readings, unknown in 1872, that have since then been authenticated by inscriptions discovered during the century that has elapsed.

The stone tells of the separation of a Sidonian Canaanite ship from a fleet of ten voyaging for two years westward around Africa, and then being cast onto the shores of the "Island of Iron" (or Brazil).
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #18 on: October 01, 2007, 05:02:15 pm »








By means of this kind of convincing analysis, only briefly exemplified above, Professor Gordon and his many sung and unsung predecessors have made it now much clearer that the first task facing us is the unraveling and clarifying of the history and events of that still mysterious period which dates roughly from 13,000 up to 3,000 or 2,000 years B.C.

For somewhere within those approximate dates will almost certainly be found the keys to the existence of an Atlantis, of that early advanced ecumene of Sea People and of the nature of the prehistoric Meso-american civilizations.

Moreover, and perhaps of greater import, such key data should afford us a truer vision of the real age of man.

This prospect takes on a much sharper significance when we realize that our major schools of anthropology and archaeology are still working in a strangely artificial frame of reference as to time. The period from about 13,000 to 8,000 B.C. is characterized as a primitive "middle stone age"; the next 4,000 years as a similarly aboriginal "recent stone age"; and the period from about 4,000 to 2,000 B.C. is seen as a not much more sophisticated "bronze age."

Specialists restrict themselves almost exclusively to stratigraphy and the classification of artifacts and fossils as evidence about the nature and degree of civilization enjoyed by the mankind of those eras. The defect of such an approach is highlighted by Dr. Gordon's criticism of "the hyperskeptical denial fostered by over-specialization" and his emphasis on the deadening effect this has had upon the type of basic research he believes is needed to unravel our immediate prehistory.

He is in favor of bringing to bear the contributions made by as many fields of human knowledge as possible upon the unsolved problems in a consciously coordinated and mutually supportive effort. His book affords a good example of such a wide-open approach to new correlations of knowledge.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #19 on: October 01, 2007, 05:03:48 pm »








The significance of the period from about 13,000 to 2,000 B.C. for a more extended human history may be seen from what modern geological knowledge tells us, because that period takes us back to the close of the most recent Ice Age.

Named in Europe the Wurm and in North America the Wisconsin, this age of glaciation is calculated to have blanketed much of the northern hemisphere in those two areas with a massive ice shield from about 50,000 to much less than 20,000 years ago. In North America east of the Rocky Mountains the icefields are said to have extended as far as southern Indiana and Illinois until about 13,000 years ago, and are estimated to have disappeared from central Quebec not more than 10,000 years ago. In the western ranges the Ice Age was represented mainly by scattered mountain glaciers which did not have the same general grinding effect over great sweeps of the land as in the eastern areas.

The withdrawal of the icesheet, calculated to have been more than a mile in thickness at its center, had many important effects. As the enormous weight of the ice was released, great portions of the land rose hundreds of feet from under their former burden, while the water, cycled into the oceans, raised the sea level also by as much as 350 feet. With the melting process came radical changes in the climate, which became drier and much warmer and milder. Flora and fauna moved northward, with major shifts of various land masses, accompanied by unusual volcanic, tectonic, and landslip activity also taking place.

Of obvious interest in this connection is the dating of the sinking of Poseidonis as 11,536 years ago. The notable rise in the level of the oceans not only would have favored, but also would have required more extensive maritime activity by the civilized man of that epoch.

The widespread ameliorating of climatic conditions throughout the Temperate Zone would certainly have conduced to much more extensive human movement and exploration than had been possible during the long millennia of the great icesheets, and may even have permitted significant increases in total world population.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #20 on: October 01, 2007, 05:07:14 pm »








Recent geological discoveries show that for several thousand years prior to a date of about 3,000 B.C. -- i.e., 5,000 years ago and earlier there occurred a "Climatic Optimum" within the general warming trend on the earth, during which world temperatures were much higher than at present so that even the arctic seas were free of ice, and mountain glaciers had dwindled to a few remnants on the highest peaks.

This "Climatic Optimum" would have existed, we may observe, precisely during the period of some thousands of years when, according to Professors Brogger, Stefansson, Hapgood, and Gordon -- who argue from other kinds of evidence than that of geology -- a highly civilized global ecumene flourished based upon advanced knowledge of astronomy and navigation.

On the Pacific side it would have existed just at the time when the ancient records of India tell us that Arjuna crossed from Asia to visit America, and, somewhat later perhaps, Chinese records of world geography and exploration show their emissaries in the New World, to say nothing of the Japanese who apparently visited Ecuador during the same era.

If to this picture we add further geological information showing that some 4,000 years ago there occurred a "Little Ice Age" within the broader warming trend -- during which arctic seas were refrozen and mountain glaciers again reborn once more descended into fertile valleys in Temperate Zone regions -- it is possible to get some understanding of how people isolated by the cold could soon have lost knowledge of their neighbors and why we do not have more general physical evidence of possibly several preglacial civilizations.

Since then, according to some scientists, this "Little Ice Age" has advanced and retreated in minor cycles.

But authorities are not yet fully agreed whether our own time is in fact a fourth interglacial period (three former such periods are said to have occurred in the last 900,000 years, between four Ice Ages of which the Wurm-Wisconsin was the most recent) or part of a new Ice Age.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #21 on: October 01, 2007, 05:10:09 pm »








There are of course many other reasons than Ice Ages, seismic events, and submergences, why formerly widespread knowledge became inaccessible to our generation. We can cite the deliberate destruction a various times of such records by man himself.

Hapgood remarks that there is evidence the maps of the early sea peoples were collected and studied in the great library at Alexandria until most of them were lost in the catastrophe of its final destruction in the seventh century A.D.

Edward H. Thompson has recorded the wholesale burning at Chichen Itza in Yucatan by the early Spanish Bishop de Landa of priceless stores of rolled deerskin and maguey paper manuscripts collected there by the Mayan wise men, the "Itzaes," and the demolition of thousands of stone figures, altar stones, vases, and other artifacts reflecting the high craftsmanship of the Mayans.

And we read of an early ruler of China who ordered the destruction of all existing books so that human history could begin with his reign.

A corollary to this sort of activity is the growth at various times of a scientific, religious, or academic 'establishment' that becomes so obsessed with its own dogmas that for long periods the truth receives little attention.

As an example, we may ask how it can be that, in our most enlightened of eras, Western medical science has remained until only yesterday so oblivious to and disinterested in the Chinese technique of acupuncture, which reflects a knowledge of anesthetics and the nervous system that we might long since have been utilizing for our general benefit?
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #22 on: October 01, 2007, 05:12:50 pm »







Such seminal works as "Before Columbus" illustrate as almost nothing else can how poorly we have used the records of antiquity that by fortune escaped destruction and have come down to us in whole or in part, particularly the obvious key materials such as those of language and the traditional legends and epics of early peoples.

We are made painfully aware that it is not the ancients who are at fault, for their efforts to pass on a full account of their own and even former times were far better than we had imagined.

It is rather our own canons of scholarship which must bear the major blame for this neglect, characterized as they are by an excessive parochialism and skepticism toward the earliest literatures as recordings of authentic history.

We have set up arbitrary standards of evidence and then have refused to consider any findings judged not to conform to those standards. The result is apparent: a distorted and culture-bound perspective of our past.

What is clearly needed is a larger theoretical horizon that takes the whole globe as its ecumene, and a corresponding time-frame for man as civilized homo sapiens that comprehends much vaster periods and epochs of years for his development than the paltry few thousands presently allowed him by academic specialists.

By their insistence upon a broad, impartial and elevated scrutiny of the far vistas of prehistory as the only adequate standard of scholarship, the Donnellys, Stefanssons, Hapgoods and Gordons offer much hope to the intelligent layman and the open-minded professional that the past can be read usefully and with benefit for all.

It becomes ever more apparent that such an unfettered perspective is needed not only to confirm our intuitions of an ancient human greatness, but also to show that the early accounts make perfect sense as recordings of an archaic racial history, whose decipherment, by the same token, will confer new dignity upon us and our strivings to cope more effectively with the perplexities of our own time and condition.



 (From Sunrise magazine, June-July, August-September 1972; copyright © 1972 Theosophical University Press)


http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/world/america/am-moff2.htm
« Last Edit: October 06, 2007, 05:09:54 pm by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #23 on: October 01, 2007, 05:40:02 pm »





FROM THE ARTICLE:



"On the Pacific side it would have existed just at the time when the ancient records of India tell us that
Arjuna crossed from Asia to visit America, and, somewhat later perhaps, Chinese records of world geography
and exploration show their emissaries in the New World, to say nothing of the Japanese who apparently
visited Ecuador during the same era."



This especially answers a question that has been going through my mind since I was 13 years old.

It was 1951 and my parents and I had just arrived in Canada from Italy.  Two weeks later  I was
in boarding school as, rightly, my parents believed I would learn English faster that way......

I quickly found myself among French-speaking girls from Quebec and a great number of others from
Latin America, both Central and South.  We all had one thing in common: learning English.
Actually, being the lone Italian, I cheated.  I learned how to speak French and Spanish much easier
than English.  When the sisters got wise, they separated us......

I became close friends with a girl from Ecuador.  I could never figure out until today why she looked
so Oriental:  her mother was obviously of Spanish descent and her father looked just like we see the
natives look in current TV documentaries.  Her two brothers were a mixture of the parents.

This is the first time I ever discussed this - ever.....

BTW, I knew what Eskimos looked like, I had seen enough of them to know.  But she didn't resemble
them either.  Nor did she resemble ordinary Japanese folks.  But she definitely had Oriental features 
and.... her black hair was as CURLY as a  black person's.

With time, I identified her look with that ancient Japanese tribe that lives in isolation. I'll have to look
up the name....

Thing is, until I read this article, I have always wondered HOW she resembled an ancient Japanese
with VERY CURLY black hair.

Now I know.  Better late than never......
« Last Edit: October 01, 2007, 06:06:23 pm by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #24 on: October 01, 2007, 05:57:27 pm »







A I N U



It is believed that the Ainu and their ancestors, the Jomon were from South East Asia, possibly Micronesian. They settled in the Ryukyu islands (Okinawa), the main Japanese island, and the northern areas, Hokkaido, Sakhalin and Kuriles.

Sometime in history there was an invasion either through Korean peninsula, or from the Amur, across to Sakhalin then down to the main Japanese islands. The identity of this invaders is not clear, but most likely either a Tungus race or Korean (or both) and then mixed with most of those early settlers.

There was some DNA testing done and it seemed that those inhabitting Honshu had the least percentage of jomon blood, while the Okinawans had a greater number and the Ainu having the most.

If you ever see an Okinawan (plenty in Hawaii), they look significantly different than the Japanese. the Okinawans tend to have a squarer jaw line, stockier build, shorter height, and alot of body hair. Many have tan complexions with some passing as Filipinos (some not all). the Ainu is also known to be short, stocky and especially hairy. Chinese sources often mention their body hair.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2007, 05:58:36 pm by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #25 on: October 01, 2007, 06:20:57 pm »






THE PACIFIC OCEAN


The southern portion is dotted with thousands of small volcanic islands and coral atolls (i.e. Fuji, Tahiti). The western rim is lined with large lines of volcanic islands (i.e. Japan, the Philippines).
« Last Edit: October 01, 2007, 06:23:26 pm by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Valerie
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4942



« Reply #26 on: October 02, 2007, 02:26:27 am »

Don't forget the proof that that linkage actually occurred:

American Drugs in Egyptian Mummies:
A Review of the Evidence

Samuel A. Wells


Abstract:


The recent findings of ****, nicotine, and hashish in Egyptian mummies by Balabanova et. al. have been criticized on grounds that: contamination of the mummies may have occurred, improper techniques may have been used, chemical decomposition may have produced the compounds in question, recent mummies of drug users were mistakenly evaluated, that no similar cases are known of such compounds in long-dead bodies, and especially that pre-Columbian transoceanic voyages are highly speculative. These criticisms are each discussed in turn. Balabanova et. al. are shown to have used and confirmed their findings with accepted methods. The possibility of the compounds being byproducts of decomposition is shown to be without precedent and highly unlikely. The possibility that the researchers made evaluations from of faked mummies of recent drug users is shown to be highly unlikely in almost all cases. Several additional cases of identified American drugs in mummies are discussed. Additionally, it is shown that significant evidence exists for contact with the Americas in pre-Columbian times. It is determined that the original findings are supported by substantial evidence despite the initial criticisms.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a one-page article appearing in Naturwissenschaften, German scientist Svetla Balabanova (1992) and two of her colleagues reported findings of ****, hashish and nicotine in Egyptian mummies. The findings were immediately identified as improbable on the grounds that two of the substances are known to be derived only from American plants - **** from Erythroxylon coca, and nicotine from Nicotiana tabacum. The suggestion that such compounds could have found their way to Egypt before Columbus' discovery of America seemed patently impossible.

The study was done as part of an ongoing program of investigating the use of hallucinogenic substances in ancient societies. The authors themselves were quite surprised by the findings (Discovery, 1997) but stood by their results despite being the major focus of criticism in the following volume of Naturwissenschaften. Of the nine mummies evaluated, all showed signs of **** and hashish (Tetrahydrocannabinol), whereas all but one sampled positive for nicotine. It is interesting too that the concentrations of the compounds suggest uses other than that of abuse. (For example, modern drug addicts often have concentrations of **** and nicotine in their hair 75 and 20 times higher respectively than that found in the mummy hair samples.) It is even possible that the quantities found may be high due to concentration in body tissues through time.

Without question, the study has sparked an interest in various disciplines. As Balabanova et. al. predicted, "…the results open up an entirely new field of research which unravels aspects of past human life-style far beyound [sic] basic biological reconstruction."


The Criticisms

The biggest criticism of the findings of Balabanova et. al. was not necessarily directed at the extraction process per se, although this was discussed. The biggest criticism was that **** and nicotine could not possibly have been used in Egypt before the discovery of the New World, and that transatlantic journeys were not known - or at least they are highly speculative. It is safe to say that the criticisms of the study would have been minimal or nonexistent if the findings had been made of Old World drugs. Such findings, in fact, would not have been at all unusual as the use of stimulants were known in Egypt. Poppy seeds and lotus plants have been identified for just this use in manuscripts (the Papyrus Ebers) and in hieroglyphs (as Balabanova et. al. show).

Schafer (1993) argues that, "the detection of pharmacologically active substances in mummified material never proves their use prior to death." He argues that such compounds could have been introduced as part of the mummification process. The suggestion is that (especially) nicotine could have been introduced around the mummy (and subsequently absorbed into its tissue) as an insecticide (being used as a preservative) within relatively modern times. A similar criticism was raised by Bjorn (1993) who wondered if nicotine might have been absorbed by the mummies from cigarette smoke in the museums where the mummies have been preserved. According to Schafer, the only way to show that the compounds were taken into the bodies while they were alive would be to find different concentrations at different distances from the scalp - a procedure not undertaken by the authors.

Another interesting criticism of Schafer (1993) is that Balabanova et. al. might have been the victims of faked mummies. Apparently people (living in the not too far distant past) believed that mummies contained black tar called bitumen and that it could be ground up and used to cure various illnesses. In fact the very word 'mummy' comes from the Persian 'mummia' meaning bitumen (Discovery, 1997). A business seems to have developed wherein recently dead bodies where deliberately aged to appear as mummies and that some of the perpetrators of such deeds were drug abusers.

The criticism that seems most popular is that the identified drugs might have been products of "necrochemical and necrobiochemical processes" (Schafer, 1993; Bjorn, 1993). One explanation is that Egyptian priests used tropine-alkaloid-containing plants during the mummification process that subsequently underwent changes in the mummy to resemble the identified compounds.

Yet another argument is that there is nothing in the literature showing that any of the three compounds have been identified in bodies that have been dead for some time.

Reply to the Critics

Analytical Techniques and Contamination


In the study, samples were taken from nine mummies that were dated from between 1070 B.C. to 395 A.D. The samples included hair, skin and muscle were taken from the head and abdomen. Bone tissue was also taken from the skull. All tissues were pulverized and dissolved in NaCl solution, homogenized, and centrifuged. A portion of the supernatant was extracted with chloroform and dried and then dissolved in a phosphate buffer. Samples were then measured by both radioimmunoassay (Merck; Biermann) and gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (Hewlett Packard) - hereinafter GCMS.

This is the procedure used to produce what McPhillips (1998) considered indisputable evidence for confirming products of substance abuse in hair. Within recent years, hair analysis has been used more commonly in this kind of screening process and the techniques employed have been optimized. Mistakes are known to have occurred in some cases evaluating for metals, but the ability to detect drugs such as ****, nicotine, and hashish seem not been problematic (Wilhelm, 1996). The two possible mistakes in analyzing hair for drugs include false positives, which are caused by environmental contamination; and false negatives, where actual compounds are lost because of such things as hair coloring or perming. In recent years, these techniques of hair analysis have revealed the interesting findings of arsenic in the hair of Napoleon Bonaparte, and laudanum in the hair of the poet Keats.

The procedure includes a thorough washing of the hair to remove external contaminants followed by a process of physical degradation using a variety of methods (such as digestion with enzymes or dissolution with acids, organic solvents, etc.,). Following these preparatory procedures, the hair is then analyzed. Antibody testing (e.g. radioimmunoassay) is a well-established procedure although there is small potential of obtaining false positive results. These are mainly caused by the cross-reactivity of the antibody with other compounds, including minor analgesics, cold remedies and antipsychotic drugs - compounds not likely to be found in Egyptian mummies. Because of the possible false positives, chromatography (GC-MS) is routinely utilized to confirm the results.

The suggestion of nicotine contamination from cigarette smoke is eliminated by the use of solvents and/or acids in the cleaning process - methods used by Balabanova et. al. and all other researchers that have documented drugs in mummies.

The validity of Balabanova's findings seems to be vindicated at least so far as the analytical methods used in the study. The authors' methods as well as those in the additional findings reported here (see below) have used the combination of immunological and chromatographic methods to both analyze and confirm samples.

Faked Mummies

The argument that the mummies might have been modern fakes was investigated by David (Discovery, 1997). David is the Keeper of Egyptology at the Manchester Museum, and undertook her own analysis of mummies, independent of Balabanova's group. In addition, she traveled to Munich to evaluate for herself the mummies studied by Balabanova's group. Unfortunately the mummies weren't available for filming and they were being kept isolated from further research on grounds of religious respect. David had to resort to the museum's records. She found that, except for the city's famous mummy of Henot Tawi (Lady of the Two Lands) the mummies were of unknown origin and some were represented only by detached heads.

David's inability to examine the mummies herself may have kept the possibility of faked ones open; however, her evaluation of the museum's records seemed to indicate otherwise. The mummies were preserved with packages of their viscera inside. Some even contained images of the gods. In addition the state of mummification itself was very good. The isolated heads may have been fakes (evidence one way or the other is lacking) but the intact bodies examined in Balabanova's research were clearly genuine.

Chemical Changes

The argument that the identified drugs might be byproducts of decomposition is highly unlikely. The argument appears to resemble a 'Just So' story of biochemical evolution without the benefit of natural selection. Schafer (1993) admits that natural decomposition or mummification has never led to the synthesis of **** or related alkaloids but leaves the possibility open anyway. He argues that the compounds in question might theoretically have been produced by tropine-alkaloid-containing plants (such as were present in species that were utilized in the mummification process).

The benefit of the doubt in this case clearly goes to Balabanova et. al. Until it is shown how **** could be produced in this way, the argument is hypothetical at best.


Isolated Example

The detection of drugs in human hair is a fairly recent endeavor (McPhillips, 1998; Sachs, 1998). A few compounds were identified during the 1980's but it wasn't until the 1990s that drug screening via hair analysis became accepted and used as a possible alternative to urine sampling. The criticism that no known cases of ****, nicotine, or hashish have been reported in human hair must, therefor be interpreted with clarification. None of these compounds had been observed in human hair because the process had not been fully developed, nor had the application even been considered until quite recently. Even then the claim is not true.

Cartwell et. al. (1991) using a radioimmunoassay method detected **** metabolites in pre-Columbian mummy hair from South America. In this study two out of eight mummies analyzed showed **** metabolites. All samples tested were confirmed by a separate laboratory (Psychomedics Corporation, Santa Monica, California) using GC-MS. The two mummies testing positive were from the Camarones Valley in northern Chile. The artifacts as well as the mummies at this site were typical of Inca culture.

Since the initial work of Balabanova et. al., other studies have revealed the same drugs (****, nicotine, and hashish) in Egyptian mummies, confirming the original results. Nerlich et. al. (1995), in a study evaluating the tissue pathology of an Egyptian mummy dating from approximately 950 B.C., found the compounds in several of the mummy's organs. They found the highest amounts of nicotine and **** in the mummy's stomach, and the hashish traces primarily in the lungs. These findings were again identified using both radioimmunoassay and GSMS techniques. Very similar results were again found in yet another study by Parsche and Nerlich (1995). Again, the findings were obtained using the immunological and chromatographic techniques.

David's work (Discovery, 1997) though not finding ****, did confirm the presence of nicotine. This finding has seemed a little less threatening to conservative scholarship in that it seems possible (albeit unlikely) that a nicotine-producing plant may have existed in Africa within historic times - only becoming extinct recently.

Such a possibility might allow for a comfortable resolution to conservative scholarship but doesn't explain the evidence of ****. Additionally, the possibility of a native plant going extinct is unlikely. Much more reasonable would be that an introduced species under cultivation could go extinct, yet this only begs the question of the original provenance of the species.

In any event, considering the several confirmations of Balabanova's work (as well as that of Caldwell et. al. prior to her study) it appears that the argument against their findings based on too little evidence is quickly vanishing (if not already obviated).

Pre-Columbian Voyages to America

The major reason for the initial criticisms to Balabanova's work is the disbelief in pre-Columbian transoceanic contacts. Egyptologist John Baines (Discovery, 1997) went so far as to state, "The idea that the Egyptians should have traveled to America is overall absurd…and I also don't know anyone who spends time doing research in these areas, because they're not perceived to be areas that have any real meaning for the subjects." Another interpretation on why researchers haven't considered the subject closer is given by Kehoe (1998), "After mid-century, any archaeologist worried about money or career avoided looking at pre-Columbian contacts across saltwater [p. 193]." It appears that acknowledging that pre-Columbian contacts occurred was not academically acceptable. Kehoe (1998) also gives examples of several researchers whose work has been academically marginalized because it supported these views (e.g. Stephen Jett, Carl Johannessen, Gordon Ekholm, Paul Tolstoy, and George Carter).

Surprising at it may seem, evidence for early ocean voyages to America from the Old World is not lacking - nor is it negligibly verifiable. Within the last two years, two periodicals, focusing on these contacts have been established. The first, entitled Pre-Columbiana, is edited by Stephen C. Jett, Professor of Clothings and Textiles at the University of California, Davis; the second is entitled Migration and Diffusion and is edited by Professor Christine Pellek in Vienna, Italy. There is certainly quite a bit of spurious reports of early contacts from the Old World, however, a general disregard for all of the evidence is, anymore, itself evidence of academic negligence, as these two periodicals indicate.

A bibliography of these early contacts is given by John Sorensen (1998) in the first issue of Pre-Columbiana. It is a good example of the kinds of evidence being uncovered by legitimate researchers and institutions. The bibliography is itself a condensation of a two-volume work of these publications and includes titles such as: The world's oldest ship? (showing evidence for a pre-Columbian ship in America) published in Archaeology; Peruvian fabrics (showing very strong similarities between Peru and Asia) published in Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History; Robbing native American cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs (showing evidence for connections between Africa and the Olmecs of Middle America) published in Current Anthropology; Possible Indonesian or Southeast Asian Influences in New World textile industries (showing at least three textile-related inventions that appear in both Indonesia and the New World) published in Indonesian Textiles; and, Genes may link Ancient Eurasians, Native Americans, published in Science.

And the list goes on and on - some evidence being better than others - but as a whole it seems pretty much irrefutable. Claims to the contrary seem to be made by individuals with a vested interest in the isolationist position. The evidence, pro and con, when evaluated objectively, would seem without question, to favor the diffusionist position (which claims that pre-Columbian contacts took place).

Considerations

The initial reaction to the findings of Balabanova et. al. were highly critical. These criticisms were not based on a known failing in the authors' research methodology, rather they were attempts to cast doubt on an implication of the research - that **** and nicotine were brought to Egypt from the New World before Columbus. This conclusion is not acceptable to conservative investigators of the past. In fact it suggests a deep-rooted aversion to what Balabanova suggested might mean an unraveling of aspects of history contrary to basic reconstructions. This aversion, according to Kehoe (1998) stems from the conviction that Indians were primitive savages destined to be overcome by the civilized world - that the acme of evolutionary success resided in the conquering race itself. "Childlike savages could never have voyaged across oceans."

Balabanova's findings bring yet other evidence forward that humanity is not so easily pinioned into the pre-conceived notions of primitive and advanced - even as this might be related to the presumed technology of earlier times. The quest for discovery - to find new worlds - is not just a modern selective advantage of our species. Perhaps it is the defining characteristic.

Literature Cited:

Balababova, S., F. Parsche, and W. Pirsig. 1992. First identification of drugs in Egyptian mummies. Naturwissenschaften 79:358.

Bisset, N.G. and M.H. Zenk. 1993. Responding to 'First identification of drugs in Egyptian mummies'. Naturwissenschaften 80:244-245.

Bjorn, L.O. 1993. Responding to 'First identification of drugs in Egyptian mummies'. Naturwissenschaften 80:244.

Cartwell, L.W. et. al. 1991. **** metabolites in pre-Columbian mummy hair. Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association 84:11-12.

Discovery Information. 1997. Curse of the **** Mummies. Thirty-six page transcript of program viewed on US national TV in January 1997 and July 1999.

Kehoe, A.B. 1998. The Land of Prehistory, A Critical History of American Archaeology. Routledge, New York and London. 266 pp.

McIntosh, N.D.P. 1993. Responding to 'First identification of drugs in Egyptian mummies'. Naturwissenschaften 80:245-246.

McPhillips, M. et. al. 1998. Hair analysis, new laboratory ability to test for substance use. British Journal of Psychiatry 173: 287-290.

Nerlich, A.G. et. al. 1995. Extensive pulmonary haemorrhage in an Egyptian mummy. Virchows Archiv 127:423-429.

Parsche, F. 1993. Reply to "Responding to 'First identification of drugs in Egyptian mummies'". Naturwissenschaften 80:245-246.

Parsche, F. and A. Nerlich. 1995. Presence of drugs in different tissues of an Egyptian mummy. Fresenius' Journal of Analytical Chemistry 352:380-384.

Sachs, H. and P. Kintz. 1998. Testing for drugs in hair, critical review of chromatographic procedures since 1992. Journal of Chromatography (B) 713:147-161.

Schafer, T. 1993. Responding to 'First identification of drugs in Egyptian mummies'. Naturwissenschaften 80:243-244.

Sorenson, J.L. 1998. Bibliographia Pre-Columbiana. Pre-Columbiana 1(1&2):143-154.

Wilhelm, M. 1996. Hair analysis in environmental medicine. Zentralblatt fur Hygeine und Umweltmedizin 198: 485-501.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/Entomology/courses/en570/papers_2000/wells.html
Report Spam   Logged

Neart inár lámha, fírinne ar ár dteanga, glaine inár gcroí
"Strength in our arms, truth on our tongue, clarity in our heart"
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #27 on: October 02, 2007, 07:48:07 am »








                               Chinese Knew North America More Than 4000 Years Ago!






by Angus Sutherland

Today we know that Zheng He or Cheng Ho, China's greatest navigator (1371-1435) was not the first who discovered America. He reached the North American continent before the European explorers such as Magellan, Columbus, Vasco Da Gama and Captain Cook.

There are also Chinese maps of the Americas that show that the Chinese were familiar with the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North and South America for about 2,000 years.
 


Or perhaps as it was suggested ancient Semites (early Hebrews) sailed to America already 2,500 years before Zheng He and Columbus. While we try to find out "who" really was the true discoverer of America, it would be worth to mention that an extensive scientific survey of the North American continent was made by the Chinese almost ... 4,500 years ago!
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #28 on: October 02, 2007, 07:49:56 am »








According to the early Chinese records, China possessed advanced knowledge obtained from the geographical survey of the world taken shortly after the Great Flood!

There is an ancient Chinese piece of literature known as the "Shan Hai King", which means The Classic of Mountains and Seas. Its author, "the great Yu" who became Emperor in 2208 BC is almost as legendary as his work. He wrote it approximately in 2250 BC, during the so called Yu period (2257-2208 BC) in China. This date - 2250 BC is particularly interesting because it is about a century after the death of Almodad. Almodad meaning "immeasurable", was the seventh generation descendant of Noah. He was known to "measure the earth to its extremities".

But later it came a dark period for the great work "Shan Hai King". This totally underestimated literary work was relegated and announced as unimportant.
But why? The answer is simple: the Chinese could not identify the invaluable geographical knowledge it contained.

In fact the oldest Chinese literary work describes - North America!
 


Some years ago, the "Shan Hai King" was for the first time reexamined and reevaluated. The Fourth Book entitled "The Classic of Eastern Mountains" has four sections which describe mysterious mountains situated "beyond the Eastern Sea" - on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Each of the four sections of the book describes the geographical features of a certain mountain such like mineral deposits, shape, height, vegetation and all rivers located in the vicinity! Then other mountains are described in the same way and additionally the distances and directions are also provided for a better orientation. 
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #29 on: October 02, 2007, 07:51:15 am »








Some years ago, the "Shan Hai King" was for the first time reexamined and reevaluated. The Fourth Book entitled "The Classic of Eastern Mountains" has four sections which describe mysterious mountains situated "beyond the Eastern Sea" - on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Each of the four sections of the book describes the geographical features of a certain mountain such like mineral deposits, shape, height, vegetation and all rivers located in the vicinity! Then other mountains are described in the same way and additionally the distances and directions are also provided for a better orientation.

If you guess the book describes western and central North America - you are right. To the same conclusion came those who investigated and analyzed the great work of the Chinese emperor Yu. But please remember that this book describing the North America was written soon after the Great Flood.

Then who made this extraordinary geographical survey of North America soon after the Flood?

The first part of the book starts with description of the Sweetwater River. Later it proceeds southeast to Medicine Bow Peak in Wyoming, then to Longs Peak, Grays Peak, Mount Princeton and Blanca Peak Colorado. Then continues to North Truchas Peak, Manzano Peak and Sierra Blanca of New Mexico. Through Guadalupe Peak and Baldy Peak, this astonishing description ends with Chinati Peak in the vicinity of the Rio Grande, Texas. 
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 12   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy