Who came first, Chinese or Columbus?

Herald Today ^ | May 14, 2005 | Dana Sanchez

[SteveH]

Who came first, Chinese or Columbus?

DANA SANCHEZ

Herald Staff Writer

SARASOTA - A local company could help rewrite history if it can prove, using DNA testing, that Chinese explorers landed in the New World about 70 years before Columbus.

But it's going to take money - up to $2 million in research funding - to test a hypothesis that hasn't been popular.

Sarasota-based DNAPrint genomics plans to make a presentation Monday at the U.S. Library of Congress Symposium in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 600th anniversary of Chinese Admiral Zheng He's first voyage.

Zheng He was a Ming Dynasty explorer who undertook expeditions between 1405 and 1433 with a fleet of 200 ships and 28,000 crew members.

Among the speakers at the symposium will be Gavin Menzies, author of a controversial book published in 2003 titled "1421: The Year China Discovered America."

DNAPrint genomics hopes to use DNA samples from Native Americans and its technology for measuring genetic ancestry to try to answer the question.

"Gavin Menzies has been harshly criticized," said Tony Frudakis, founder of DNAPrint genomics. "Many in the academic community don't believe him. We don't much care. We're not on one side or the other. We thought we could bring something to this discussion."

The company uses genome research to provide consumer products such as DNA testing for family heritage and forensic tools for analyzing crime scene evidence.

During drug development research over the past two years, the company noticed Native Americans showed substantial east Asian ancestry through genetic signatures, Frudakis said.

No one knows for sure how indigenous people got here, said Philip Levy, an assistant professor of history at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Some scholars propose multiple waves of migration from Asia to North America across the Bering Strait dating back 20,000 years.

"I don't think anybody thinks that Columbus was the first European," Levy said. "He was not. History is constantly being rewritten."

But whether the Chinese came or not, textual and archaeological evidence point to a massive European arrival as the agent for change in the Americas, Levy said.

"I'm very leery of any research agenda that would try to jeopardize indigenous claims to being the first people here," Levy said.

DNAPrint hopes to garner enough interest at the symposium to generate research funding.

"There's not much commercial value to answering this question except maybe in the drug development scenario," Frudakis said. "There's no more than a historical interest here."

At the same time, he said, it would be a worthwhile project to invest time in, "if we have the funding."

DNA research on the migration of indigenous people is an important area of need, Levy said.

"The DNA project itself is a compelling one," Levy said. "I would never want to discourage the research taking place."

But DNAPrint is not an academic institution.

"We're a company," Frudakis said. "We have to get to profitability as soon as we can."

DNAPrint is publicly traded on the OTC bulletin board under the symbol DNAP.

The company is worth about $10 million.

Friday's stock was trading at 15 cents per share, with close to a billion shares outstanding.

The company will vote on doing a reverse stock split at its next stockholders' meeting in June, Frudakis said.

Dana Sanchez, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 745-7080, ext. 4500 or at dsanchez@HeraldToday.com.

[CGVet58]

True That.

whole brouhaha just confirms the declining standard of education here... if the Chinese did get here first and "discovered" America, it was then hidden until the 1492 real "discovery".

[CGVet58]

all about chipping away at Western Civ dominance; this is just another slander in a long line of "blame Whitey"-isms.

[theFIRMbss]

I'd bet with these guys.
They didn't have a culture
of expansion, though.

[skinkinthegrass]

Muslims discovered America!!!...Because Zheng He was a Muslim Enuch...He was a black vegetarian transvestite.

LOL! :D

[SunkenCiv]

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[uglybiker]

Injuns.

Only now we'll have to call 'em In Juins.

[Kenny Bunk]

The ChiCOMs will now lay claim to the North/South AmericaI

I sure hope not. Everyone knows these territories are part of The Greater Albania.

[Kenny Bunk]

Ping-o

[sauron]

Has nobody taken note of the ODD fact that the ALLEGED Chinese map shows the EAST COASTS OF THE AMERICAS?

[SunkenCiv]

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