1. Movement of planets and life on earth
The ancient societies in both the old and the new world were obsessed with the notion that heavenly bodies influence lives here on Earth. Astrology was practiced in the old world and even down into the Christian era. The following is a quote from Thomas Aquinas:
"The majority of men...are governed by their passions, which are dependent upon bodily appetities; in these the influence of the stars is clearly felt. Few indeed are the wise who are capable of resisting their animal instincts. Astrologers, consequently, are able to fortell the truth in the majority of cases, especially when they undertake general predictions." (A history of Astrology, Derek and Julia Parker, Andre Deutsch, 1983, p.94)
Despite reports of clearly superstitious natives by priests during the conquest of America, the Europe those priests left was swamped in astrological thinking just like the savages that they met in the New world.
"But there was certainly a kind of astrology in use in Mexico before Columbus, even if it was based on a system unlike anything in Europe: Toltec astronomy, for instance, divided the world into five direction' - north, south, east, west, and centre, the first four ruled by the Bull, Lion, Eagle and Man. (These conincide somewhat with the European fixed signs of the sodiac, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius..." (Parker, p.18)
This idea of a connection between man and the planets took a marked turn in Native American thinking. The careful observations that were made by the priest-astronomers had direct applications to religion, politics, and other facets of life in pre-Columbian America. The calendar made use of the motions of certain heavenly bodies, particularly Venus and Jupiter. The priests cleverly used it as a sacred tool, to time events, and to control gods and people.
The Aztec calendar is very likely based on the movements of observable objects, such as the planet Venus. Certain parts of the Aztec calendar reflect the periodicity of Venus' orbit as seen from Earth.
2. Alchemy
The word alchemy some think comes from the word "Al Kemi", meaning "the Egyptian Art", since Ancient Egyptians called their land "Kemi" and were widely regarded as powerful magicians throughout the ancient world. Could the word "Kemi" has something to do with the mud from the Nile? If it does, could that have a connection to the Samoan "kimi", a concoction of fermented coconut in seawater?
3. Was the development of ancient Egypt independent?
The following BBC report mentions a recent archeological finding that shows that people who lived far north in Europe also build pyramids. I've also read somewhere that the Egyptian story of Osiris and other mythical deities that are found in Egyptian hieroglyphs were started from earlier religious traditions found in other areas.
Europe's first pyramid? Bosnia's leading Muslim daily Dnevni Avaz writes excitedly about "a sensational discovery" of "the first European pyramid" in the central town of Visoko, just north of Sarajevo. Excavations at a hill site above the town have been going on for several months and initial analyses "have confirmed the original claim that this is Europe's first pyramid and a monumental building, similar in dimensions to the Egyptian pyramids. The pyramid is 100 metres high and there is evidence that it contains rooms and a monumental causeway ... The plateau is built of stone blocks, which indicates the presence at the time of a highly developed civilisation," the daily explains. "Archaeological excavations near the surface have uncovered a part of a wall and fragments of steps," it reveals. "Visocica hill could not have been shaped like this by nature," geologist Nada Nukic tells the daily. "This is already far too more than we have anticipated, but we expect a lot more from further analysis," she concludes. (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4377290.stm)
The design of the New World pyramids also closely resembles Egyptian pyramids.
"The position of the front of the Pyramid of the Sun, 15 degrees 30' east of astronomical north, is such that the Sun sets exactly in alignment with it on the day it reaches its zenith, that is, when there is no shadow at noon. It is interesting to compare the Pyramid of the Sun - one of the greatest archaeological monuments of America, built around the year 100 B.C. - with the Cheops Pyramid, the largest in Egypt, built in the year 2650 B.C. The base of the Cheops Pyramid measures 247.33 yards on each side, whereas the Pyramid of the Sun measures 246.66, the difference being two-thirds of a yard!" (Martin Brennan, The Hidden Maya, p.137)
4. A small world indeed
The recent bird flu scare of 2005 once again brought into light how small our world is, and how interrelated we all are. Something that happens in one location of the earth is suddenly a threat to others across thousands of miles away. Migrating birds are suspected to be the carrier of the bird flu, which in a matter of weeks appeared at locations a quarter of the globe away from its suspected origin. Also, within the last 200 years, there have been several volcanic eruptions that had global effects.
5. Polynesian origins (Su et. al.)
Polynesian origins - Insights from the Y chromosome. By Bing Su, Li Jin, Peter Underhill, Jeremy Martinson, Nilmani Saha, Stephen T. McGarvey, Mark D. Shriver, Jiayou Chu, Peter Oefner, Ranajit Chakraborty, and Ranjan Deka.
Source: http://hpgl.stanford.edu/publications/PNAS_2000_v97_p8225.pdf
"The question surrounding the colonization of Polynesia has remained controversial. Two hypotheses, one postulating Taiwan as the putative homeland and the other asserting a Melanesian origin of the Polynesian people, have received considerable attention. In this work, we present haplotype data based on the distribution of 19 biallelic polymorphisms on the Y chromosome in a sample of 551 male individuals from 36 populations living in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Suprisingly, nearly none of the Taiwanese Y haplotypes were found in Micronesia and Polynesia. Likewise, a Melanesian-specific haplotype was not found among the Polynesians. However, all of the Polynesian, Micronesian, and Taiwanese haplotypes are present in the extant Southeast Asian populations. Evidently, the Y-chromosome data do not lend support to either of the prevailing hypotheses. Rather, we postulate that Southeast Asia provided a genetic source for two indipendent migrations, one toward Taiwan and the other toward Polynesia through island Southeast Asia."
6. About the Ancient Horse
"In his 1807 expedition to collect 'Mammoth' (American mastodon) fossils at Big Bone Lick, William Clark also collected the fossils of several other large mammals. Among these, reported Clark, were "leg and foot bones of the Horses". Neither Thomas Jefferson, who received these fossils, nor Caspar Wistar, the anatomist who evaluated them, commented on the horse fossils. Their lack of comment is interesting given the conventional wisdom was that the first horses to appear in the Americas were brought there by the Spanish Conquistadors. Subsequent accounts of fossil horses in the Americas were generally dismissed until 1848, when Richard Owen described a fossil horse from South America. He named the fossils Equus curvidens." (http://www.acnatsci.org/museum/jefferson/otherFossils/equus.html)
"With over 200 individuals of western horse recovered from Rancho La Brea, paleontologists have determined that this species had a strong resemblance to the modern East African zebra and the extinct South African quagga even though it wasn't closely related. Scientific studies on the western horse suggest that the species underwent a small, yet significant reduction in body size near the end of the last Ice Age. This change in body size may be the result of changing conditions in both climate and vegetation." (http://www.tarpits.org/education/guide/flora/horse.html)
7. Recent findings in Samoa
- September 2005
The local paper (Samoa News) recently reported the findings now being scrutinized by experts of artifacts in the village of Fatumafuti on the island of Tutuila. These are dated to about 1000 years old. They included a human skeleton, various fish bones, and other shellfish remains.
- July 17, 2006 (Source: Samoa News)
Ancient Samoan village being excavated in East District's Aganoa, a very small village in the eastern district. The archaeologists are excavating this ancient village so that they can answer questions about how ancestral Samoans made stone tools and pottery, how they fished, how they built their homes, and how they prepared their food.
The archaeologists and are already skilled at identifying ancient tools such as adzes and coconut graters that look remarkably similar to the metal ones used today.
This is the fifth consecutive year that Dr. Frederic Pearl of Texas A&M University at Galveston has conducted archaeological research in American Samoa.
In previous years, he has conducted research in conjunction with the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office and the National Park of American Samoa. He led archaeological investigations at Massacre Bay in 2001 and 2002, and in the mountains within the National Park above Vatia in 2003 and 2004, as well as at the east end of the island above Onenoa.
This year, he is once again working along the coast, at Aganoa. For this time around, Dr. Pearl is joined by fellow professor Dr. Suzanne Eckert, and six students from Texas A&M University.
Their travel expenses were paid for by the National Geographic Society Committee for Exploration and Research and Texas A&M University at Galveston and College Station.
In 1998, when the new water line was being put in along the road to Tula, archaeologists working for ASPA encountered an ancient settlement buried beneath the modern village site of Aganoa. The key clue that indicated the presence of an ancient village was the abundance of pottery found at the site.
Although pottery is found in Fiji dating from about 3000 years ago until today, most archaeologists believe that Samoans have not made pottery since at least 400 A.D.
Aganoa was selected from the dozens of possible study sites because of this, and excellent preservation of other rare stone and shell artifacts, like fishhooks and stone adzes.
These studies are going exceptionally well, and are expected to make a major contribution to our understanding of the lives of the earliest Polynesians.
8. totini (sock)
"On the arrival of the Europeans to the east coast of American they heard the local Indians speak of 'moccocine' being the skin stiched foot wear. The Mongolian word for their foot wear is 'managocine' which translated into English means 'Our foot wear'." (Dorsha Unkow)
The Samoan word for sock is 'totini'. Where did that word come from? The Samoans were half-naked when the Europeans met them in the late 16th century.
9. "Pre-European Pacific Migration of Plants"
Sam Cox December, 2000
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~samcox/Pacific.html
10. Peter Marsh's "Polynesian Pathways"
I had some of Peters notes he send me posted on this page, but I felt that it would be best if you read them directly from his website.
11. Charting the Polynesian Language
It was reported that a researcher from New Zealand is investigating the Pacific and South American languages using a method that he used to link the English language to farmers in Turkey 9000 years ago. Dr. Russell Gray uses mathematics and computer tools that biologists used for tracing genes and species family trees to chart language dispersal. His group will attempt to find out the timing of expansions of Mesoamerican languages that existed 6000 years ago.
12. Ongoing research of Lapita-age pottery settlement
A press release reported that the French government gave the University of the South Pacific (Institute of Applied Science) money to do research on early Fijian settlement at Bourewa site near Natadola in the southwest of Viti Levu. "The research team which will be led by Professor Patrick Nunn of the Department of Geography will likely comprise students and staff from USP, the Fiji Museum, the Australian National University, the University of Otago, Kyoto University, University Laval (Canada), and the University Franaise du Pacifique."
According to the press release, "The main purpose of this research was to accurately map the main human settlement at Bourewa and to continue its excavation. The settlement here was marked by abundant Lapita-age pottery and the remarkable discovery of a sculpted pottery face, believed to indicate the close affinity of the first settlers at Bourewa with Lapita settlements in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. For this reason, the Bourewa site is thought likely to be the very first or 'founder' settlement in the Fiji islands. The main settlement at Bourewa, on the coast about two km northwest of Natadola, was previously found to have been established as early as 1260 BC, and the excavations in 2004 found no evidence of an earlier date. What was more exciting was the size of the Bourewa settlement, and the discovery of a number of new Lapita-era settlements nearby. At its fullest extent, the Lapita settlement at Bourewa extended around 280 meters along the coastal flat and at least 70 meters inland, making it probable that it hosted perhaps 80 dwellings and perhaps about 300-350 people at its fullest extent. The radiocarbon dates from this settlement show that it was established as much as 1260 BC and abandoned probably about 500-600 BC for unknown reasons."
14. Malay words for old
| Malay | Samoan | |
| aged | tua | matua |
| ancestor | - | tua'a |
| ancient | purba | anamua |
| former | lama | mavae |
| past | dulu | mavae atu, te'a |
| oldest | - | ulua'i |
14. White people on Yucatan peninsula Nephites?
On March 28, 2005, Dietrich Kempski from Germany wrote me this interesting note, "A German Lutheran professor for religion was at BYU for 6 months looking for evidence of BoM people in Central America. His result was, ALL IS TRUE. He found in a library in Germany later an old report from a Dutch writer who was on the ships with Columbus and others whos reports have been written by a priest named Grotius that they found bright skinned people on Yucatan peninsula with rituals like the Jews, and they named themselves Nephitalea or similar. But, soon after their arrival they died out."
15. Associated Press, Dec. 16, 2005 - Ancient city discovered
CHICAGO - An excavation project on the Syrian-Iraqi border has uncovered an ancient settlement wiped out by invaders 5,500 years ago. Discovered in northeastern Syria, the ruined city of Hamoukar appears to have been a large city by 4,500 B.C., said archaeologists Clemens Reichel and Salam al-Quntar, who co-directed Syrian-American excavations on the site.
16. 1000-year Cycles; What if
If we start the clock with the arrivals of the Lehi family in the Americas (about 600 BC), according to the 1000-year pattern of Native American chronology, something very significant should happen during the period around the year 2400 AD. If we assume that Jesus was born midway in the first 1000 years of the Nephites in America, is it possible that something significant, such as the second coming of Jesus, could happen midway into this 1000-year period that started when the Spaniards arrived in the Americas? A calendar originated from Mesoamerica predicts the end of the world to happen in the year 2012; a year midway between the first appearance of the Europeans in the Americas (1500) and the year 2400.
Knight and Lomas (1) refer to a period of 480 years that's based on the orbit of the planet Venus. It's a multiple of 40 years, which is the periodic orbit of Venus. According to them, it was an important number in early religious traditions including maybe the Hebrews. If we subtract 480 from 600 (the year Lehi left Jerusalem), we arrive at the year 120 BC. So, what's the deal with the year 120 BC? Could it be that on year 120 BC, a counter started? Our friendly Venus would have returned 3 times, and on its third visit, the baby Jesus was born? The Nephite nation was decimated about 500 years from the birth of Christ. Was that another 480-year period from the birth of Jesus? Two of these 480-year periods take us to around 1500 AD when the Spaniards arrived in the New World. Interestingly, 480 years from the Spanish arrival would be around 1980's. One Venus year from, say, 1980 is the year 2020, which is very close to the date predicted in the Mesoamerican calendar - 2012.
The year 2012 in the Mayan calendar may simply be a transistion point like the last day of December in the mordern calendar.
What do you think? Now, this is just something to think about, so don't throw any rocks my way. Next page, please.
17. Article: Researchers: east Polynesia settled later
Click Here to read an article by Jan TenBruggencate that appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser, which explains current exceptable theories about the settlement of Polynesia. These theories explain the settlement of the eastern islands from the west around 400-800 AD.
18. French Polynesia signs MOA with Hawaii's Bishop Museum
It was reported that the "French Polynesia's government signed a memorandum of agreement with the Hawaii Bishop Museum, with the main aim of working more closely in matters related to preservation of culture and heritage, the government announced. The pact, signed by French Polynesia's President Oscar Temaru and Hawaii Bishop Museum Chairman William Brown, also aims at boosting ties between French Polynesia and the U.S. establishment in terms of scientific and research cooperation, applied to museology, natural environment, culture and even tourism, the government release said. In recent years, a team of archaeologists from the Hawaii Bishop Museum carried out a field research on ancient 'marae' (sacred places) on the island of Raiatea and Huiahine. Meanwhile, French Polynesia's government is also planning to officially open, in the next few days, a house dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of traditional medicine, where traditional healers will be allowed to practice on a quasi-official basis.The traditional medicine house will be called 'Pu Ora'," which, as I understand it, means "living cave."
19. (Source: BBC News)
Unique book goes on display
The world's oldest multiple-page book - in the lost Etruscan language - has gone on display in Bulgaria's National History Museum in Sofia.
It contains six bound sheets of 24 carat gold, with illustrations of a horse-rider, a mermaid, a harp and soldiers. The small manuscript, which is more than two-and-a-half millennia old, was discovered 60 years ago in a tomb uncovered during digging for a canal along the Strouma river in south-western Bulgaria. It has now been donated to the museum by its finder, on condition of anonymity. Reports say the unidentified donor is now 87 years old and lives in Macedonia.
The authenticity of the book has been confirmed by two experts in Sofia and London, museum director Bojidar Dimitrov said quoted by AFP. The six sheets are believed to be the oldest comprehensive work involving multiple pages, said Elka Penkova, who heads the museum's archaeological department. There are around 30 similar pages known in the world, Ms Penkova said, "but they are not linked together in a book".
The Etruscans - one of Europe's most mysterious ancient peoples - are believed to have migrated from Lydia, in modern western Turkey, settling in northern and central Italy nearly 3,000 years ago. They were wiped out by the conquering Romans in the fourth century BC, leaving few written records.
20. (Source: BBC News)
Reed boat sets off on ocean trip
By Mark Pivac
BBC News
A team of explorers has set sail from the US for Spain in a 12-metre-long (40ft) reed boat, hoping to spend about two months sailing across the Atlantic. They are trying to prove that Stone Age people crossed the ocean thousands of years before Christopher Columbus in the 15th Century. Aymara Indians in Bolivia, who still use reed boats, built the new vessel.
It takes its inspiration from prehistoric European cave paintings dating back more than 10,000 years. Surrounded by the modern New York skyline, the dozen-strong team put to sea in the seemingly flimsy boat made of reeds.
The German biologist leading the expedition, Dominique Gorlitz, argues that traces of cocaine and nicotine found a few years ago in the stomach of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses II, were native to the Americas, so must have travelled to Africa by sea. He says he is also hoping to overturn current thinking that says the prevailing Atlantic winds would have allowed ancient mariners to sail west to the Americas, but would have prevented them from returning home.
21. Race vs Looks
On September 10, 2007, the CNN tv network had a story about a neo-nazi gang who harassed other Jews and non-Jews. The curious thing about the story is that the gang were Jews. Most, if not all of them were recent immigrants from Russia. They were part of efforts to bring Jews from the former Soviet Union to Israel. There was strong reactions, including a call from a member of the Israeli parliment to revoke the citizenship of those involved. This may simply be actions by some mis-guided youngsters, but it reveals a sad fact about our inclination to separate into groups based on physical apperance.
22. New finding alters Aztec history
(Source: Reuters)
A Reuters story dated December 27, 2007, by Miguel Angel Gutierrez, documented some archeological finds in central Mexico alters the suspected date of the start of Aztec civilization. According to the article, the discovery of the "800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital ... could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought." And also, the "pyramid, found last month as part of an investigation begun in August, could have been built in 1100 or 1200, signaling the Aztecs began to develop their civilization in the mountains of central Mexico earlier than believed."
23. Extras...
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the eye (which) looks (toward) heaven
translation in GREEK : (to) mati (pou) kita (ton) ourano
is very similar with Polynesian Mata-Kite-Rani
(Nikos - June 1, 2006)
Samoan: Mata-ile-lagi (g is pronounced ng) - The modern (Magellan) crew that circumnavigated the Earth counted over 500 other ocean going ships. The network of travel options was then known by the world commerce peoples if not by historians. (Dean Youngkeit - May 31, 2006)
24. Please click this link to see more random notes...
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