Editing Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories (section)

=== 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>