OUT OF AFRICA ATLANTIS?

[This story came about as a response to an old friend’s observation that, as a result of his personal research, it was his view that proto-humans were supplanted by refugees from the sunken continent of Atlantis, and that the Atlantean race had been Negroid.]

---in response, I'd like to make three personal observations relative to your view as to the Atlantean race:

Firstly: I might have earlier mentioned that in our rattling around, Marnie and I have enjoyed two extended stays of two months each in Virginia Beach, availing ourselves of the Edgar Cayce library (ARE - Association for Research and Enlightenment) - part of the time was spent in accessing sections devoted to research on Atlantis (and its alleged Pacific pre-cursor, Lemuria). One room alone contained several hundred books on this reference - many old and rare copies which are under lock and strict humidity control, and visitors, unless well known to staff, are never left unattended. As you might know, those who are strongly 'tuned' into the Cayce frequency (not us, gentle reader - we're not 'tuned' to anything beyond the eternal moment) have a strong meme concerning Atlantis (many of Cayce's 'life' readings involved his clients' prior 'experiences' in Atlantis) and one can overhear the true Cayce adherents comparing notes with one another about their experiences together way back then. Most of the literature was not at all of the ‘woo-woo’ kind, but recorded findings - complete with photos in the more recent tomes - of archeological excursions throughout the Yucatan and Central America, Bimini, the Caymans, etc.

Even if we neither believed nor disbelieved about the existence of Atlantis itself, we did come to believe that there had been - and still is - a most enduring belief held by many others over much time (including old Plato, eh?)

Secondly: a few years ago Marnie and I visited the La Venta open-air museum in Villahermosa to see the Olmec artifacts. The Olmec culture was quite advanced, having glyphic script and a numbering system, crafted jade and all those famous, beautifully carved, huge Negroid featured heads, stelae, massive altars and figures of jaguars, monkeys, deer and serpents. Some of the basalt stone carvings weigh over 20 tons - and over time had sunk below the surface of the ground at the original La Venta site. Even the pyramid had sunk into the ground, and the whole site itself had been only accidentally discovered by the Mexican Pemex Oil well drillers when they were using ground-sonar procedures to survey for potential well heads. The artifacts after discovery were later excavated and moved to the Villahermosa museum which we visited.

Our guide there was fluently bilingual and well grounded in conventional archeology. He conveyed to us the official conclusions as to probable dating of the relics (approx 1200BC), method of sculpting (string impregnated with graphite), source of material (a quarry near Catemaco, 120 km away from La Venta), probable method of material conveyance (rollers and down-stream rafts to the Gulf, thence barging to site) - all the conventional information.

The guide, in his patter along the paths, had made a couple of “Sino” comments – references to similarities in Olmec/Chinese beliefs such as the man®jaguar metamorphosis - and, sensing there was another story behind that, we good-naturedly pushed him a bit. Finally he said "Ok then, follow me!" and led us off the path and showed us what was on the back of one of the larger stelae. Thereon, partially covered in moss, was the carving (in half round) of an old Chinese teacher (peak hat/slant eyes/thin beard) sitting in yogic full lotus position on an elevated pad, talking and gesturing down to an attentive, young obviously-Chinese student reclining in semi-lotus position on a lower, thinner, pad) - Now this carving was old, a very old piece of work, and I for one was immediately aghast. I blurted out to the guide "What in hell is this, Señor??" He replied "damned if I know - we can't fit in what we see here with what we think we know, so we just don't normally show it to visitors. It's just another anomaly."

[By the way, it is still beyond my ken as to how the Olmec could carve stone with string.]

Thirdly: More recently Marnie and I visited the site of Tula, some 40km NW of Mexico city. According to conventional time-lines, the god-king Quetzalcoatl moved his Toltec capital from the huge Teotihuacan site located 25km NE of Mexico city to Tula in 958AD.

After some 20 years there, and following internal dissention he departed to the East, saying “I shall return!” as he took many of his followers via Cholula to Chichen-Itza in the Yucatan. There he morphed into the god-king Kukulcan and triggered renaissance of the Mayan culture – the 'Late Classic' epoch.

Now, at the Tula site mentioned above, on the main pyramid - the Temple of the Morning Star - stand several colossal statues called "Los Atlantes", all facing to the east, as if they were sentinels still awaiting the return of Quetzalcoatl.

[The depth and endurance of this Atlantean myth can be appreciated thru the Aztec King Montezuma's tragic inability - in 1520 - to decide whether the Spanish conquistador, Cortes, was - or was not - ole Q finally returning from the East after 540 years as he'd promised]

There are many similarities between the Tula and Chichen-Itza sites – each a stepped pyramid surrounded by pillars (stone "warriors", Chac-mools, sculpted friezes of serpents, jaguars and eagles, etc) so likely - as in most myths which endure - there is an embedded core of historical meaning.

At least ole King Montezuma must have thought so.

[So there you have it, good friend: Anyone who travels through Chiapis and Guatemala notes immediately that the indigenous Maya have oriental characteristics; anyone viewing the Olmec faces senses that Nubian or Negroid faces were their models. What with the great passage of unrecorded time, the questions as to which race came to the New World first and from whence and which was ‘superior’ initially, and whether or not these peoples merged, may never be “proven”, except to the satisfaction of our personal subjective minds. To the best of our knowledge, though, nowhere else are the images of both precursor races carved on one artifact except on that stela in Villahermosa, and if you get the chance to go there, be sure to see it yourself.]

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