Could Africans have traveled to the Americas before Columbus?

[Stop_the_War]

I have stumbled across a fascinating site while searching for information on this subject. I'm sure most of you have heard that the Chinese traveled to the Americas long before Columbus, well guess what the Africans also had found the Americas! :D

http://members.aol.com/carltred/AfricanPresence.htm

[Dr.Phool]

1. Distinctly possible

In Columbus' diaries (according to Howard Zinn, in "A peoples History of The United States) Many weapons and tools used by Native Americans were exact copies of those used in Africa.

[shraby]

2. Ever see those great big stone balls

from Central America that are carved into heads? The facial features are definitely Negroid.

[Stop_the_War]

3. don't use that word, it's racist.........

say instead "the facial features are definitely African"

[CatWoman]

4. I see nothing wrong with the use of the term, "negroid"

:shrug:

[Stop_the_War]

5. you don't?

:shrug: the term "negroid" is from racist nineteenth century racial theories, these white men divided the world into four races, caucasoid, negroid, mongoloid, and australoid. IT IS RACIST.

[CatWoman]

9. regardless

of where it came from -- I still don't see what's wrong with it.

But then again, I try not to be overly PC. Always gets me into trouble, too.

[Stop_the_War]

10. I don't see what's right with it.....

Are you telling me you've used that word in public? :wow:

[CatWoman]

11. You need to understand

I'm African American, and yes, I've used that word in public.

In all its variations.

We tend to do that sometimes.

[Stop_the_War]

14. please help me understand...

do you think it's offensive? I've always thought it was offensive and I'm white.

[CatWoman]

18. I guess I don't find it offensive

as I've heard worse, and it takes a lot to offend me.

[brindis_desala]

22. historically speaking negroid is a racialist term laden with

negative connotations. In this case it may be presumptuous to assume that the figures referenced were "African" simply because of their features. However, your sensitivity is not improper, (using Caucasoid would normally be equally arcane), except in this particular context "Negroid" seems freed from its usual freight and therefore acceptable.

[Tomee450]

30. I'm black too,

I've never thought the word "Negroid" was offensive but maybe it is to some African Americans.

[Enquiringkitty]

25. Those are scientific terms still used in forensics and archeology

Black scientists use them too.

[Yupster]

28. Maybe sub-Saharan African?

You'd want to say more than African to distinguish this from another theory I read years ago which said that Carthaginians may have reached the Western hemisphere. They would be Africans too.

To me though, the most interesting stories of recent years are the skeletons that appear to pre-date the Native-American migrations. Last article I read supposed a migration by sea along the Pacific coast thousands of years before the group that we now call Native Americans came in.

[TheFarseer]

6. Thank you for that post

I have always been interested in theoretical history or whatever you want to call it. I've heard so many stories about people before Columbus discovering the new world, but I had not heard that one.

[Stop_the_War]

7. kick

[pocoloco]

8. A truly fascinating subject indeed!

Allow me to recommend "The God Kings & The Titans", subtitled "The New World Ascendancy In Ancient Times" by James Bailey. Out of print now but you should be able to obtain a copy from your Library. Many examples of the possibility of Old World contact with the New.

[Stop_the_War]

20. thank you for the recommendations n/t

[Starlight]

12. The Americas weren't lost. People were already living here. n/t

[CatWoman]

13. L-O-Fucking-L!!!!

Ain't that the truth!!

[jaysunb]

17. Never thought of you as a

"negroid....but maybe a, "negress" LOL !! remember that one ? :hi:

[CatWoman]

19. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

wench will do!!!!!

:hi:

[Stop_the_War]

15. I know that!

:P okay i'll edit it. thanks for pointing that out.

[OxQQme]

16. There are different races dammit

http://www.sitchin.com/elephant.htm
<snip>
THE CASE OF THE MISSING ELEPHANT



The ruins and remains of Mexico's pre-Columbian civilizations enchant, intrigue, fascinate and puzzle. Of them the oldest and earliest, that of people referred-to as Olmecs, is the most enigmatic -- for they challenge present-day scholars to explain how had people from Africa come and settled and thrived in this part of the New World, thousands of years before Columbus.

The Discovery
We know how they looked because they left behind countless sculptures, marvelously carved in stone, depicting them; some, in fact, are stone portraits of Olmec leaders; colossal in size, they immortalize in stone what, to many, has been an unpleasant enigma.

The first colossal stone head was discovered in the Mexican state of Veracruz back in 1869. Its discoverer reported it in the Bulletin of the Mexican Geographical and Statistical Society as "a magnificent sculpture that most amazingly represents an Ethiopian." The report included a drawing clearly showing the stone head's Negroid features; and that doomed the discovery to oblivion...


much more here.
From "The Lost Realms" by Sitchin

[psychopomp]

21. A very interesting read

I knew about the westward currents and find it to be a plausible idea that there was contact between West Africa and Central America. I just wonder, did Africans make it back from across the Atlantic and what route did they take?

[angee_is_mad]

23. Interesting

EXtremely interesting. It's amazing how little we know of African culture in this country.

[H2O Man]

24. Read "America BC"

by Barry Fell, previously from Harvard.

[norml]

26. The cocaine mummies prove that there was trade between America and Africa.

Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies - transcript of the video
Transcript of the video. The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies. In ... And so began
the mystery -. The mystery of the cocaine mummies. It ...
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Misc/mummies.htm - 39k - Cached - Similar pages

Toke Like An Egyptian - FT117
Toke Like an Egyptian. Commentary on the Cocaine Mummies. from Fortean Times
Magazine. ... No other Old World mummies have revealed cocaine. ...
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/ history/toke_like_egyptian.htm - 18k - Cached - Similar pages
< More results from www.druglibrary.org >

reported findings of cocaine, hashish and nicotine in Egyptian ...
The Cocaine Mummies. In a one-page article appearing in Naturwissenschaften,
German scientist Svetla Balabanova (1992) and two of ...
www.spiritbridge.com/cocaine%20mummies.htm - 18k - Cached - Similar pages

Cocaine Mummies
... Since the cocaine metabolite benzoylecognine is entrapped in hair of the user, this
could ... We tested the scalp hair of 8 Chilean mummies with dates ranging from ...
cocaine.org/history/mummies.html - 4k - Cached - Similar pages

The Straight Dope: What's up with the "cocaine mummies"?
What's up with the "cocaine mummies"? 26-Jan-2001. Dear Cecil: What's the
story with the cocaine mummies? Researchers have evidently ...
www.straightdope.com/columns/010126.html - 9k - Cached - Similar pages

The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies
The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies. ... Maybe there's a fraud present of some kind. You
don't think that cocaine can be present in an Egyptian mummy. ...
homepages.ihug.co.nz/~wayfarer/ anomaly/archaeology/cocaine_trans.htm - 53k - Cached - Similar pages

A Journal of Alternative News
... Contact: The Curse of the Cocaine Mummies. By RAND & ROSE FLEM-ATH. ... It is within
this context that we must watch The Curse of the Cocaine Mummies. ...
www.newdawnmagazine.com/Articles/ Curse%20of%20the%20Cocaine%20Mummies.html - 24k - Cached - Similar pages

Age of the Sphinx
COCAINE MUMMIES: 4/7/98 From: Rudahunter, AL USA. ... Rose and I have written
an article on the cocaine mummies which we reproduce here: ...
www.flem-ath.com/cocaine1.htm - 5k - Cached - Similar pages

Age of the Sphinx
... It appears so. The cocaine mummies jumped the tracks of long established views. ... Sources:
"Curse of the Cocaine Mummies" written and directed by Sarah Marris. ...
www.flem-ath.com/cocaine4.htm - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
< More results from www.flem-ath.com >

American Drugs in Egyptian Mummies
... In this study two out of eight mummies analyzed showed cocaine metabolites. ...
Discovery Information. 1997. Curse of the Cocaine Mummies. ...
www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomology/ courses/en570/papers_2000/wells.html - 21k - Cached - Similar pages


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cocaine+mummies&btnG=Google+Search

[H2O Man]

27. It's important to understand

that the peoples of the world knew of each other, and had contact -- though on a far more limited basis than today, of course. But people explore, and people trade. People from every continent knew of each other.

At a certain point in time, the Roman Empire "fell," and the land we call "Europe" went into a period called the Dark Ages. Europeans lost most of their accumulated knowledge, including previous contact with the Americas. The exception was Ireland; as everyone who reads should know, the Irish "saved" civilization in Europe, by saving many of the books and manuscripts which were copied and hidden by the monks. But of course Brendan had been to America, as had generations of Norsemen.

But that doesn't mean that anyone else on earth was living in the dark. Just the Europeans.

[psychopomp]

29. I thought the Arabs saved Western civ?

I guess it was an effort by the Irish and the Muslims?:shrug:

[Stop_the_War]

31. they did....

[H2O Man]

33. I would not think

that many historians would view Arabs as playing the major role in "saving" western civilization in the Dark Ages and post-Dark Ages. The single best book you could read would be Thomas Cahill's "How the Irish Saved Civilization." It's one of a series of Cahill's absolutely fascinating books that everyone should read.

[psychopomp]

34. Okay, not "saved" then how about "preserved?"

The libraries of Constantinople preserved many of the texts that were burned in Europe. That Cahill did not choose to elaborate on this topic points to a deficit in his portrayal of history.

[H2O Man]

39. Most histories of Ireland

focus more on Ireland than other lands. The deficit is not in Cahill's book.

[Solon]

38. I would think it was both...

Various monks throughout Europe did preserve many texts that would otherwise have been lost. Ireland is an ideal place for that, being geographically isolated from both the Continent and Great Britian. Also during this time period, Arabs preserved many works in Constantinople and elsewhere along with making many Scientific and Mathematical discoveries(Algebra). So I would say both theories are correct, to a degree. Not any one place could have preserved and advanced knowledge to cause Europe to have the Enlightenment, so why not a combination?

[Radical Activist]

32. I'll read the article when they change the color scheme

That is killer on the eyes.

[okasha]

35. Lots of good stuff in the article, lots of questionable stuff, too

I don't for a second doubt that Sub-saharan Africans made it to the Americas well before Columbus, along with a whole crowd of just about everybody else. But the claims about the affinities between Egyptian and Mesoamerican pyramids are plain wrong; they're superficially similar, but had a very different evolution. I'd also like some specifics about linguistic similarities and "African animals" in the Americas because I have my doubts there, too.

[okasha]

36. Lots of good stuff in the article, lots of questionable stuff, too

Oops. Double post.

[oneighty]

37. Also the book 'Pale Ink'

How the ancient Chinese discovered America in 3000 and 5000 BC.

An interesting read be it fact or not.

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