The Diffusionists Have Landed

The Atlantic ^ | January 1st, 2000 | Marc K. Stengel

[SunkenCiv]

The Norwegian archaeologists Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad's famous identification, in 1961, of a Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, from just after A.D. 1000 is, of course, a notable exception, no longer in dispute. But that discovery has so far gone nowhere. The Norse settlers, who may have numbered as many as 160 and stayed for three years or longer, seem to have made no lasting impression on the aboriginal skraellings that, according to Norse sagas, they encountered, and to have avoided being influenced in turn. The traditions of the Micmac people, modern-day inhabitants of the area, have not been seriously investigated; another people historically associated with this area, the reputedly fair-skinned Beothuks, have been extinct since 1829.

...the diffusionists have a habit of raising awkward questions -- questions that even some mainstream scholars find hard to ignore, much less to explain away. Who carved Phoenician-era Iberian script into a stone found at Grave Creek, West Virginia? How did a large stone block incised with medieval Norse runes make its way to Kensington, Minnesota? Why would a rough version of the Ten Commandments appear in Old Hebrew script on a boulder-sized tablet near Los Lunas, New Mexico? Conversely, how could the sweet potato, known to be indigenous to the Americas, have become a food staple throughout Polynesia and the Pacific basin as early as A.D. 400? And why would dozens of eleventh- to thirteenth-century temple sculptures in Karnataka, India, include depictions of what appears to be American maize?

At the ISAC gathering Mike Xu, a professor of modern languages and literatures at Texas Christian University, raised the possibility of direct Chinese influence on Mesoamerica's Olmec culture.

[SunkenCiv]

Maize in pre-Columbian India is documented in my article with Anne Z. Parker, "Maize Ears Sculptured in 12th and 13th Century A.D. India as Indicators of Pre-Columbian Diffusion," Economic Botany 43 (2), 1989, pp. 164-180. The following color illustrations of a few of the sculptures discussed in that article show more detail than was possible in the published black and white photographs that accompanied the article. [Carl L. Johannessen]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks go out to Carry_Okie and blam:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/716088/posts?page=14#14
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/716088/posts?page=15#15
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/743515/posts?page=22#22

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

I was going to post an excerpt of each of the three parts as a separate topic, but not sure that will fly. Here are the links to parts two and three:

Part two:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/01/001stengel2.htm

Part three:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/01/001stengel3.htm

[left that other site]

Somehow...

That picture reminds me of obama.

[Zeneta]

Ping me when someone finds an arrowhead lodged in a Dinosaur bone.

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Carl L. Johannessen, Professor Emeritus links:

• Maize in India #2
• Maize in India #3
• "Melanotic Chicken Use and Chinese Traits in Guatemala", Historia de America, numero 93, enero-junio 1982.
• "Pre-Columbia American Sunflower and Maize Images in Indian Temples: Evidence of Contact between Civilizations in India and America." Neara Journal, Volume XXXII, No. 1 Summer 1998. First Page First Figure
• "American Crop Plants in Asia Before 1500 A.D.", Excerpt from Pre-Columbiana, Volume1, Numbers 1 & 2.
• "Maize Diffused to India before Columbus Came to America", Across Before Columbus.
• "Considerations of Asian Crops Indicate Longstanding Transoceanic Pre-Columbian Contacts." Epigraphic Society Occasional Paper, Volume 25, 2006 pp 5-12.
• A Bibliography of Carl L. Johannessen's Works Relating to Transoceanic Influence, through 1999.

[SunkenCiv]

If one does turn up, we’ll know that the shooter wasn’t representative of authentic Islam, and probably wouldn’t have shot the dino if he’d just had a job, or even a fancy restaurant where he could get food.

[SunkenCiv]

The Maize keyword:

• Ancient maize followed two paths into the Southwest [2015]
• Fossilized maize, rice found in Temanggung [2014]
• The Rosslyn Code [2011]
• Tracking the Ancestry of Corn Back 9,000 Years [2010]
• Maize may have fueled ancient Andean civilization [ update of sorts ] [2009]
• Maize (Corn) May Have Been Domesticated In Mexico As Early As 10,000 Years Ago [2008]
• Ancient Mexican Maize Varieties [2008]
• Corn's Roots Dig Deeper Into South America [2008]
• FSU Anthropologist Finds Earliest Evidence Of Maize Farming In Mexico (7,300 YA) [2007]
• Practice Of Farming Reaches Back Farther Than Thought (Panama -- 7,800YA) [2007]
• Mummy's Amazing American Maize [2007]
• Ancient Andean Maize Makers: Finds Push Back Farming, Trade In Highland Peru [2006]
• Ears of plenty (the story of wheat / The story of man's staple food) [2005]
• The many mysteries of Rosslyn Chapel (Another 'DNA of Jesus' story) [2005]
• 120 Researchers Use Database to Unlock Corn's Genetic Code [2005]
• Mother Of Us All, Or Sister? Olmecs A Puzzle [2005]
• Maize Reveals Traces Of Old Breeding Project [2004]
• Transgenes Invade Mexico -- So What? [2004]
• Farmers Genetically Modified Corn 4,000 Years Ago [2003]
• Ancient Corncobs Unlock Riddle [2003]

[SunkenCiv]

Maize in Pre-Columbian India
http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/maize.html

maize in ancient India: transpacific links (cont.)
http://www.andes.missouri.edu/Personal/DMartinez/Diffusion/msg00104.html

The Intriguing Carvings of Rosslyn Chapel (maize, among other things)
http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/intriguing-carvings-rosslyn-chapel-001675

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Help me out. I see corn, but no hole.

[left that other site]

You got the gist!(Or is it the Grist?)

Also the subtly flipped bird!

I see you worked your way through the maize of Symbolism! hehehe

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Two minutes after I posted my query, I spotted the flipped bird. Too late to take the query back.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Why post a 15 year old article?

[left that other site]

LOL!

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

An a-maize-ing article.

[left that other site]

Indeed. But a wee bit corny, nonetheless.

[SunkenCiv]

Why read? Why ask?

[Little Ray]

Dunno ‘bout arrow heads in dinosaur bones, but here is what looks like a bullet hole in an auroch’s skull...