Editing Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories (section)

== Claims of African and West Asian contact ==
=== Claims of African contact ===
{{See also|Olmec alternative origin speculations}}
[[File:San Lorenzo Monument 4.jpg|right|thumb|Several [[Olmec colossal heads]] have features that some diffusionists link to African contact]]
Proposed claims for an African presence in [[Mesoamerica]] stem from attributes of the [[Olmec]] culture, the claimed transfer of African plants to the Americas,<ref>John L. Sorenson, Carl L. Johannessen, Scientific Evidence for Pre-Columbian Transoceanic Voyages, Sino-Platonic Papers, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, no.133, 2004</ref> and interpretations of European and Arabic historical accounts.

The Olmec culture existed in what is now southern Mexico from roughly 1200 BCE to 400 BCE. The idea that the Olmecs are related to Africans was first suggested by José Melgar, who discovered the first [[Olmec colossal heads|colossal head]] at Hueyapan (now [[Tres Zapotes]]) in 1862.<ref>Stirling, p. 2, who cites Melgar, Jose (1869) "Antigüedades mexicanas, notable escultura antigua", in ''Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística'', época 2, vol. 1, pp. 292–297, Mexico, as well as Melgar, Jose (1871) "Estudio sobre la antigüedad y el origen de la Cabeza Colosal de tipo etiópico que existe en Hueyapan del cantón de los Tuxtlas" in ''Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística'', época 2, vol. 3, pp. 104–109; Mexico.</ref> More recently, [[Ivan Van Sertima]] speculated an African influence on Mesoamerican culture in his book ''They Came Before Columbus'' (1976). His claims included the attribution of [[Mesoamerican pyramids]], calendar technology, [[mummification]], and mythology to the arrival of Africans by boat on currents running from Western Africa to the Americas. Heavily inspired by [[Leo Wiener]] (see below), Van Sertima suggested that the [[Aztec]] god [[Quetzalcoatl]] represented an African visitor. His conclusions have been severely criticized by mainstream academics and considered [[pseudoarchaeology]].<ref>"[http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/vansertima.pdf CA Forum on Anthropology in Public: Robbing Native Cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101051651/http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/vansertima.pdf |date=November 1, 2020 }}", ''Current Anthropology'', Vol. 38, no. 3 (June 1997), 419–441.</ref>

[[Leo Wiener]]'s ''Africa and the Discovery of America'' suggests similarities between the [[Mandinka people]] of West Africa and native Mesoamerican religious symbols such as the winged serpent and the sun disk, or [[Quetzalcoatl]], and words that have [[Mandé]] roots and share similar meanings across both cultures, such as "kore", "gadwal", and "qubila" (in Arabic) or "kofila" (in Mandinka).<ref>Leo Wiener, ''Africa and the Discovery of America'' (Philadelphia: Inness and Sons, 1922), Vol. 3, p. 259.</ref><ref>Leo Wiener, "Africa and the Discovery of America", ''American Anthropologist'', New Series, Vol. 23, No. 1 (January–March 1921), pp. 83–94.</ref>

Malian sources describe what some consider to be visits to the New World by a fleet from the [[Mali Empire]] in 1311, led by [[Abu Bakr II]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1068950.stm|title=Africa's 'greatest explorer'|author=Joan Baxter |date=December 13, 2000 |work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=February 12, 2008}}</ref> According to the only known primary-source-based copy of Christopher Columbus's journal (transcribed by [[Bartolomé de las Casas]]), the purpose of [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus#Third voyage|Columbus's third voyage]] was to test both (1) the claims of King [[John II of Portugal]] that "canoes had been found which set out from the coast of Guinea [West Africa] and sailed to the west with merchandise" and (2) the claims of the native inhabitants of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola that "there had come to Española from the south and south-east, a black people who have the tops of their spears made of a metal which they call ''guanin'', of which he had sent samples to the Sovereigns to have them assayed, when it was found that of 32 parts, 18 were of gold, 6 of silver and 8 of copper".<ref>{{cite book|last=Morison|first=Samuel Eliot|title=Journals & Other Documents on the Life & Voyages of Christopher Columbus|year=1963|publisher=The Heritage Press|location=New York|pages=262, 263}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Thacher|first=John Boyd|title=Christopher Columbus: his life, his work, his remains, as revealed by original printed and manuscript records, together with an essay on Peter Martyr of Anghera and Bartolomé De Las Casas, the first Historians of America|url=https://archive.org/details/christophercolum02thac|year=1903|publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons|location=New York|pages=379, 380}}</ref><ref name="LasCasas1906">{{cite book |last1=Las Casas |first1=Bartolomé de |editor1-last=Olson |editor1-first=Julius E. |editor2-last=Bourne |editor2-first=Edward Gaylord |title=The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503: The Voyages of the Northmen |year=1906 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |volume=1 |page=327 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P7EBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA327 |language=en |chapter=Las Casas on the Third Voyage}}</ref>

Brazilian researcher [[Niede Guidon]], who led the excavations of the [[Pedra Furada]] sites, "said she believed that humans...might have come not overland from Asia but by boat from Africa", with the journey taking place 100,000 years ago, well before the accepted dates for the earliest human migrations that led to the prehistoric settlement of the Americas. [[Michael R. Waters]], a [[Geoarchaeology|geoarchaeologist]] at [[Texas A&M University]], noted the absence of genetic evidence in modern populations to support Guidon's claim.<ref>Romero, Simon (March 27, 2014). "[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/world/americas/discoveries-challenge-beliefs-on-humans-arrival-in-the-americas.html?_r=0 Discoveries Challenge Beliefs on Humans' Arrival in the Americas]". ''The New York Times''. Retrieved December 4, 2014.</ref>

=== Claims of Arab contact ===
Early Chinese accounts of Muslim expeditions state that Muslim sailors reached a region called Mulan Pi ("magnolia skin") ({{zh|t=木蘭皮|p=Mùlán Pí|w=Mu-lan-p'i}}). Mulan Pi is mentioned in ''[[Lingwai Daida]]'' (1178) by [[Zhou Qufei]] and ''[[Zhu fan zhi|Zhufan Zhi]]'' (1225) by [[Chao Jukua]], together referred to as the "[[Sung Document]]". Mulan Pi is normally identified as Spain and Morocco of the [[Almoravid dynasty]] (Al-Murabitun),<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WVPFCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA135 |title=Making the New World Their Own: Chinese Encounters with Jesuit Science in the Age of Discovery|author= Qiong Zhang |publisher=Brill |pages=134–135 |isbn=978-9004284388 |date=June 5, 2015}}</ref> though some fringe theories hold that it is instead some part of the Americas.<ref name=Needham /><ref name=Li />

One supporter of the interpretation of Mulan Pi as part of the Americas was historian [[Hui-lin Li]] in 1961,<ref name=Needham>{{Cite book|title=The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China|volume=3|author=[[Joseph Needham]] & Colin A. Ronan|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1986|isbn=978-0-521-31560-9|pages=119–20}}</ref><ref name=Li>{{Cite journal|author=Hui-lin Li|title=Mu-lan-p'i: A Case for Pre-Columbian Transatlantic Travel by Arab Ships|journal=[[Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies]]|volume=23|year=1960–1961|pages=114–126|doi=10.2307/2718572|author2=Li, Hui-lin|jstor=2718572}}</ref> and while [[Joseph Needham]] was also open to the possibility, he doubted that Arab ships at the time would have been able to withstand a return journey over such a long distance across the Atlantic Ocean, pointing out that a return journey would have been impossible without knowledge of prevailing winds and currents.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China|volume=3|author=[[Joseph Needham]] & Colin A. Ronan|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1986|isbn=978-0-521-31560-9|page=120}}</ref>

[[File:Al Masudi's Map of the World.JPG|thumb|Al-Mas'udi's atlas of the world includes a continent west (or south) of the [[Old World]]]]
According to [[Muslim]] historian [[Al-Masudi|Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Mas'udi]] (871–957), [[Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad]] sailed over the Atlantic Ocean and discovered a previously unknown land (''{{transliteration|ar|Arḍ Majhūlah}}'', {{langx|ar|أرض مجهولة}}) in 889 and returned with a shipload of valuable treasures.<ref>Tabish Khair (2006). ''Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing'', p. 12. Signal Books. {{ISBN|1-904955-11-8}}</ref><ref>[[Ali al-Masudi]] (940). ''Muruj Adh-Dhahab'' (''The Book of Golden Meadows''), Vol. 1, p. 268.</ref> The passage has been alternatively interpreted to imply that Ali al-Masudi regarded the story of Khashkhash to be a fanciful tale.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

=== Claims of ancient Phoenician contact ===
{{Main article|Theory of Phoenician discovery of the Americas}}
In 1996, [[Mark McMenamin]] proposed that [[Phoenicia]]n sailors discovered the [[New World]] c.&nbsp;350&nbsp;BC.<ref name="Scott">Scott, J. M. 2005. ''Geography in Early Judaism and Christianity.'' Cambridge University Press, pp. 182–183.</ref> The Phoenician state of [[Carthage]] minted gold [[stater]]s in 350&nbsp;BC bearing a pattern in the reverse exergue of the coins, which McMenamin initially interpreted as a map of the Mediterranean with the Americas shown to the west across the Atlantic.<ref name="Scott"/><ref>[[Mark McMenamin|McMenamin, M. A.]] 1997. The Phoenician World Map. ''Mercator's World'' 2(3): 46–51.</ref> McMenamin later demonstrated that these coins found in America were modern forgeries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McMenamin |first1=Mark A. |author-link1=Mark McMenamin |title=Phoenicians, Fakes and Barry Fell: Solving the Mystery of Carthaginian Coins Found in America |date=2000 |publisher=Meanma Press |isbn=978-1-893882-01-0 |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=42FlAAAACAAJ |access-date=February 8, 2020 |language=en |quote=The putative Carthaginian coins must now be removed from the body admissible evidence favoring a pre-Columbian transatlantic crossing. It gives me some chagrin to admit this, as I had earlier come out mildly in support of the authenticity of these coins (McMenamin 1999b, 2000a, 2000b). Weak evidence (involving measurements of die axis; the Arkansas coin has a die axis [33 degrees] differing from the Alabama type coins [12 to 20 degrees]) in support of the authenticity of these coins (McMenamin 2000b) is superseded by the strong evidence in the current work.}}</ref>

=== Claims of ancient Judaic contact ===
[[File:Bat Creek Exam 5-28-10.JPG|right|thumb|The [[Bat Creek inscription]]]]
The [[Bat Creek inscription]] and [[Los Lunas Decalogue Stone]] have led some to suggest the possibility that [[Jews|Jewish]] seafarers may have traveled to America after they fled from the [[Roman Empire]] at the time of the [[Jewish–Roman Wars]] in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE.<ref>{{cite journal|last=McCulloch |first=J. Huston |title=Did Judean Refugees Escape to Tennessee? |journal=Biblical Archaeology Review |volume=19 |date=July–August 1993 |pages=46–53, 82–83}}</ref>

However, American archaeologists Robert C. Mainfort Jr. and Mary L. Kwas argued in ''American Antiquity'' (2004) that the Bat Creek inscription was copied from an illustration in an 1870 [[Freemasonry|Masonic]] reference book and introduced by the Smithsonian field assistant who found it during excavation activities.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mainfort |first1=Robert C. |last2=Kwas |first2=Mary L. |title=The Bat Creek Stone Revisited: A Fraud Exposed |journal=American Antiquity |date=2004 |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=761–769 |jstor=4128448 |doi=10.2307/4128448|s2cid=161826727 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=McCulloch |first=Huston |title=The Bat Creek Stone |url= https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/mcculloch.2/arch/batcrk.html |work=OSU Arts and Sciences |publisher=Ohio State University |access-date=July 31, 2019}}</ref>

As for the Decalogue Stone, there are mistakes which suggest that it was carved by one or more novices who either overlooked or misunderstood some details on a source Decalogue from which they copied it. Since there is no other evidence or archaeological context in the vicinity, it is most likely that the legend at the nearby university is true—that the stone was carved by two anthropology students whose signatures can be seen inscribed in the rock below the Decalogue, "Eva and Hobe 3-13-30."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ungar-Sargon |first1=Batya |title=The Mystery Stone |url= https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/125339/the-mystery-stone |work=Tablet Magazine |date=February 27, 2013 |access-date=July 31, 2019}}</ref>

Scholar [[Cyrus H. Gordon]] believed that [[Phoenicia]]ns and other Semitic-speaking groups had crossed the Atlantic in antiquity, ultimately arriving in both North and South America.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/09/obituaries/09GORD.html |work=The New York Times |first=Eric |last=Pace |title=Cyrus Gordon, Scholar of Ancient Languages, Dies at 92 |date=April 9, 2001}}</ref> This opinion was based on his own work on the Bat Creek inscription.<ref>{{cite journal | first1=Robert C. Jr. |last1=Mainfort |first2=Mary L. |last2=Kwas |title=The Bat Creek Stone: Judeans in Tennessee? |journal=Tennessee Anthropologist |volume=XVI |issue=1 |date=Spring 1991 |url= http://ramtops.co.uk/bat1.html |via=Ramtops.co.uk |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070816103039/http://ramtops.co.uk/bat1.html |archive-date=August 16, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Similar ideas were also held by [[John Philip Cohane]]; Cohane even claimed that many geographical placenames in the United States have a Semitic origin.<ref>{{cite book |first=Cyrus Herzl |last=Gordon |title=Before Columbus: Links Between the Old World and Ancient America |publisher=Crown |date=1971 |page=138}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Weigand |first=Phil C. |date=1978 |title=Review of ''In Search of Noah's Ark'' by Dave Balsiger, Charles E. Sellier; ''Remote Kingdoms'' by Tertius Chandler; ''The Key'' by John Philip Cohane; ''Gods of the Cataclysm: A Revolutionary Investigation of Man and His Gods Before and After the Great Cataclysm'' by Hugh Fox |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=80 |issue=3 |pages=731–733 |doi=10.1525/aa.1978.80.3.02a00760|doi-access=free }}</ref>