[blam]

"More recently the Zuni have been found to probably be descendants of Zen priests who fled to America in the 1300s."

Dr Nancy Yaw Davis makes a compelling argument that the Zuni's are Japanese. Her book is worth Reading

THE ZUNI ENIGMA

The Zuni sacred rosette (top) closely resembles Japan's national symbol, a stylized chrysanthemum (bottom) The Zunis of New Mexico are different from other Native Americans in many ways. In an impressive, very detailed paper in the NEARA Journal, N.Y. Davis summarizes her investigation of these anomalies as follows:

"...evidence suggesting Asian admixture is found in Zuni biology, lexicon, religion, social organization, and oral traditions of migration. Possible cultural and language links of Zuni to California, the social disruption at the end of the Heian period of the 12th century in Japan, the size of Japanese ships at the time of proposed migration, the cluster of significant changes in the late 13th century in Zuni, all lend further credibility to a relatively late prehistoric contact."

We cannot delve into all classes of evidence adduced by Davis. Let us focus on the Zuni biological anomalies:

Skeletal remains. These show a significant change in Zuni physical characteristics from 1250-1400 AD, suggesting the arrival of a new element in the Zuni population.

Dentition. Three tooth features of the Zunis lie midway between those of Asians and other Native Americans; namely, shoveling, Carabelli's cusp, and 5-cusp pattern on the lower second molar.

Blood-group characteristics. Blood Type B is frequent in East Asian populations but nearly absent in most Native Americans. Zuni, on the other hand, have a high incidence of Type-B blood.

The "Zuni disease". The kidney disease mesangiopathic glomerulonephritis is much more common among the Zuni than other Americans, and it is also very common in the Orient.

[muawiyah]

What so many call a "sacred rosette" is actually a double butterfly, or cho-cho. The Cherokee Indians also call the same device when used in formal dance a "butterfly". Since not everybody is or can be an artist, the "rosette" form is frequently used in place of the more accurate butterfly drawing.

The "butterfly" has to do with the silk worm business. The old nobles among the Yayoi and the pre-Samurai Ainu used this symbol. More recently several branches of the Royal Family have used one butterfly, or two butterflies (head to head). I have seen three butterflies, which are similar to the Mon that would use three balls of silk thread.

The silk worm business, interestingly enough, was once tied in directly with traders who worked a route that ended in Japan and stretched all the way to Rome (which is why it was called the "Silk Road").

There is some evidence that European-like people actually operated silk thread collection posts in Japan itself. This is inconclusive because I don't think they've found any Caucasion skeletons in Japan from that period.