Explorer From China Who 'Beat Columbus To America'

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 3-4-2002 | Elizabeth Grice

[Tench_Coxe]

One of the older buildings at Chichen Itza, which I have seen, is called 'The Nunnery'. The frieze that runs above the doorways has several pictoglyphs, and the postures in them bear a striking resemblance to the same postures depicted in Hindu art. This is all anecdotal, and means nothing, but I have read speculation that Asians had reached Central America and had carried on limited commerce. It would be fascinating if there was more evidence found.

[Cleburne]

Couldn't be from the Chinese fellow- a few years is far to short for such thourough cultural integration. Same goes for the post above. Would have to be an earlier group of explorers: perhaps some that never made it home to report?

[blam]

Yup. I've seen that. I used to spend two weeks each Christmas roaming around the Yuchatan. Here is an interesting site if you make it back down there: Coba It hasn't been cleared out yet. Very interesting site and somewhat off the tourist trail. Also, the El Bocadito is a reasonable place to stay. It was a Club Med when I was there last time.

[Tench_Coxe]

I've been meaning to get back down there. I'd like to visit Palenque and Tikal when I do. Thanks for the link to the Coba site. I'll look it over.

[tallhappy]

...the eunuch admiral, Zheng He, was there first.

Maybe.

He went a lot of places.

He was a muslim and he is the basis for Sinbad the Sailor.

There is probably a group of people on the east coast of Africa who are descended from a ship wreck of Zheng's fleet.

His accomplishments say a lot about the stupidity of the Chinese emperors since. After his voyages they banned such sea travel and destroyed his ships and any ships that could travel the world.

[#3Fan]

Yup. But, I'm behind in my reading.

Check out the story of coins found by pipe diggers 100 feet below the surface in Illinois in 125 million year old clay. Very strange if true.

[blam]

"perhaps some that never made it home to report?"

Think about it. A lot of people never made a report back home. One thing that every explorer who ever did report back home could report the same thing, "We Found People."

[Centurion2000]

This being so perhaps the Chinese have squatter's rights on the U.S.!!!!

So did the American Indians and look what happened to them.

[blam]

"Check out the story of coins found by pipe diggers 100 feet below the surface in Illinois in 125 million year old clay. "

I do wish they would not describe things in that manner, for example, my garden is planted in 1.2 billion year old dirt. (See what I mean) Now, I really do have some 7,000 year old wood.

[JudyB1938]

I just love it when somebody comes up with something "new"! Anybody who has read PALE INK: THE CHINESE CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS & SEAS; two ancient records of Chinese exploration in America, by Henrietta Mertz (a translation from Chinese writings) already knew who was here first.

There's another one I haven't read: The Classic of Mountains and Seas by Anne Birrell.

Plus, there's another book written by a Chinese missionary who documents a lot of it. I can't remember his name - my son in Maine has the book.

That's why I find it so amusing when people say the Olmnec heads are negroid. As far as I am concerned, they have Asian features.

Here's something about Henrietta Mertz:

Very often the researches of educated amateurs uncover more information and understanding than the work of specialists limited by unproved theories that have hardened into 'fact.' For instance, Henrietta Mertz' little-known but perceptive book Pale Ink examines texts of some ancient Chinese voyagers, and by careful analysis shows them to provide exact descriptions of the topography of western America, especially California and Mexico. She identifies Quetzalcoatl with one of the early navigators.

These Chinese writings are the precis of previously condensed versions of yet earlier works written by the very persons who set sail in various expeditions -- from hundreds of years B.C. to the early centuries A.D. -- and reached the Pacific shores of the Americas. The original accounts have disappeared because every now and then the Emperors of China would order a drastic reduction of the vast accumulation of literature. Those items worth preserving were reduced to the bare essentials; in the process the genuine travelogs were so constricted that the meaning was lost to later generations who assumed that the reports of unfamiliar landscapes and strange peoples were mere fables, figments of someone's imagination.

[crystalk]

Coba a favorite of mine. But did the Bocadito finally take over the VA aka Club Med? They were a k apart...

[crystalk]

Chinese definitely in W hemisphere in antiquity and again in about 5th century AD. Later is dubious.

Zheng sailed west and definitely was in Arab world and E Africa, but no evidence he ever entered the Atlantic or Mediterranean. Or sailed East, across Pacific to America.

[leadhead]

Ancient Irish legends have always told of "St. Brendans Fair Isle", far off to the West.

And Columbus' last European port was Galway, Ireland where he picked up an Irish navigator who had already been to the "New World". The Irishman turned out to have been the first one to reach and step on the shore with the landing party.

And, I don't want to hear that he was just looking for a pub!

Back to the topic, I know all that stuff about the Chinaman is true because I saw it in the Prince Valiant comic strip a year or two ago.

[Aquatic]

Sounds like a lotta Commie revisionism to me!

I didn't know Zheng He was a commie back in 14th century. Thanks for the scoop.

[muawiyah]

And you missed the point. These are not just any brown birches, but brown birches that grow straight, and tall, and with a single trunk.

In brief, they are different than other brown birches - a lot different!

[Verginius Rufus]

Are the birches the same species? This is the kind of thing that DNA testing might be able to resolve. I don't deny the possibility that Chinese may have reached the Americas before Columbus, but I'd like to see some more definite evidence. Why would they come to Indiana? The Ming emperors were not especially fond of basketball, were they?

[blam]

"Coba a favorite of mine. But did the Bocadito finally take over the VA aka Club Med? They were a k apart..."

Maybe I'm making a mistake. I just made that assumption. It may still be the Club Med? Do you know for sure? It's been a while since I've been down there.

[blam]

Good morning JudyB. This is Luzia, the oldest dated (11,500 years old) human skeleton ever found in the Americas (Brazil). Now, there is a new one Arlington Springs Woman (Santa Rosa Island, Calif.) who has tenetively been dated at 13,000 years old who may take the top slot as earliest 'in the Americas' shortly. (I don't see any Asian features on Luzia)

[blam]

Calico: A 200,000 Year Old Site In The Americas?

[twigs]

There is a lot of evidence that Columbus was far from the first who got here. He was fortunate to have landed a few decades after the printing press was up and running. Although there are a lot of hoaxes regarding early voyages, not all of them are. Remember that Brazil was accidently discovered while their boat was sailing down the western coast of Africa! The only question I've had is that when Columbus' men arrived here, European diseases quickly decimated the local population. While I firmly believe that earlier explorers got here as well, I've wondered why disease was not a larger problem. Or was it?