Visit... [link=http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/ancientamerica.htm]Black Civilizations of Ancient America[/link] ###
by Clyde A. Winters http://homepages.luc.edu/~cwinter/olmec5.htm
The Olmec were a cosmopolitan people of African origin. As a result we find many other nationalities living in the Olmec cities in addition to Africans, from many parts of the Old World. Alexander von Wuthenau in has recorded the iconographic evidence for the European and Chinese people that traded with the Olmec people.
When the Mande/Olmec arrived in Mexico the local people continued to practice their culture. The Olmec people did not attempt to conquer the local people they built their sites in protected area. As time went on the local people would have become engaged in trade with the Mande and other time adopt many elements of their culture. This would explain the Mayan adoption of the Mande term for writing.
African related artifacts have been discovered at archaeological sites; this artifactual evidence include Mande inscriptions and red-and-black pottery. African writing on Olmec artifacts is the most obvious African artifact found by arcaheologist. Drucker in 1955 found two inscribed celts at LaVenta in offering #4. These celts written in African writing, found in a controlled excavation talk about Pe, a leading sprititual leader that was buried at LaVenta offering #4.
The red-and-black ware used by the Proto-Mande in the Saharan Highlands was also used by the Olmec. Examples of this pottery style include the so-called Blackware red pigmnet of Las Bocas and Tlatilco. Many of these vessels are inscribed with Olmec writing.
The Olmec spoke a variety of the Mande language closely related to the Malinke-Bambara group, which is still spoken in West Africa today. Many scholars refuse to admit that Africans early settled America.
But the evidence of African skeletons found at many Olmec sites, and their trading partners from the Old World found by Dr. Andrzej Wiercinski prove the cosmopolitan nature of Olmec society. Many African skeletons have been found in Mexico. Carlo Marquez (1956, pp.179-180) claimed that these skeletons indicated marked pronathousness and prominent cheek bones.
Wiercinski found African skeletons at the Olmec sites of Monte Alban and Tlatilco. Morley, Brainerd and Sharer (1989) said that Monte Alban was a colonial Olmec center (p.12). Diehl and Coe (1996) admitted that the inspiration of Olmec Horizon A, common to San Lorenzo's iniitial phase has been found at Tlatilco. Moreover, the pottery fron this site is engraved with Olmec signs.
Rossum has criticied the work of Wiercinski because he found that not only blacks, but whites were also present in ancient America. To support this view he (1) claims that Wiercinski was wrong because he found that Negro/Black people lived in Shang China, and 2) that he compared ancient skeletons to modern Old World people.
First, it was not surprising that Wiercinski found affinities between African/Negro and ancient Chinese populations, because everyone knows that many Negro/African/Oceanic skeletons have been found in ancient China see: Kwang-chih Chang, (1976,1977, p.76,1987, pp.64,68) The Archaeology of ancient China. These Blacks were spread throughout Kwangsi, Kwantung, Szechwan, Yunnan and Pearl River delta. Moreover skeletons from Liu-Chiang and Dawenkou were also Negro. Moreover, the Dawenkou skeletons show skull deformation and extraction of teeth customs, analogous to customs among Blacks in Polynesia and Africa.
Secondly, Rossum argues that Wiercinski was wrong about Blacks in ancient America because a comparison of modern native American skeletal material and the ancient Olmec skeletal material indicate no admixture. The study of Vargas and Rossum are flawed. They are flawed because the skeletal reference collection they used in their comparison of Olmec skeletal remains and modern Amerindian propulations because the Mexicans have been mixing with African and European populations since the 1500's. This has left many components of these Old World people within and among Mexican Amerindians.
Wiercinski on the otherhand, compared his SRC to an unmixed European and African sample. This comparison avoided the use of skeletal material that is clearly mixed with Africans and Europeans, in much the same way as the Afro-American people he discussed in his essay who have acquired "white" features since mixing with whites due to the slave trade.
The major evidence of the African origing of the Olmecs come from their writing. The writing system used by the Olmec and later adopted by the Maya, was first used by Mande speaking people in North Africa and is called Libyco Berber ( eventhough it can not be read in Taurag). The first scholar to recognize the african origin of the Olmec writing was Leo Wiener, in Africa and the Discovery of America.
The Proto- Olmec or Manding people formerly lived in North Africa in the Saharan Highlands : and Fezzan.(see C. A. Winters, "The Migration routes of the Proto Mande", 27(1), (1986) pp.77-98) . Here the ancestors of the Olmecs left their oldest inscription written in the Manding script (which some people call Libyco Berber, eventhough they can not be readin Berber) : was found at Oued Mertoutek and dated by Wulsin in , Papers of the peabody Museum of American Arcaheology and Ethnology (Vol.19(1), 1940), to 3000 B.C. This indicates that the Manding hand writing 2000 years before they settled the Gulf of Mexico.
Dr. Wiener, highlighted the fact that the writing on the Tuxtla statuette was identical to writing used by the Mande speaking people. Using the evidence of cognate scripts and language I was able to decipher the Olmec writing in 1979.
The Olmec left this writing on inscribed celts recovered during archaeological excavation at such sites as LaVenta, by Drucker for example. The Olmec also used the black-and-red ware which all archaeologist agree originated in Saharan Africa. This provides artifactual evidence for African-Olmecs.
The Olmecs probably founded writing in the Mexico. Dr. Coe, in "Olmec Jaguar and Olmec Kings" (1968), suggested that the beliefs of the Maya were of Olmec origin and that the pre Maya were Olmecs (1968,p.103). This agreed with Brainerd and Sharer's, The ancient Maya (1983,p.65) concept of colonial Olmec at Maya sites. Moreover, this view is supported by the appearance of jaguar stucco mask pyramids (probably built by the Olmecs) under Mayan pyramids e.g., Cerros Structure 5-C-2nd, Uxaxacatun pyramid and structure 5D-22 at Tikal. This would conform to Schele and Freidel's belief that the monumental structures of the Maya were derived from Olmec prototypes.
Terrence Kaufman has proposed that the Olmec spoke a Mexe Zoquean speech. My research as discussed in the articles mentioned above indicate that the Olmec people spoke a variation of the Malinke Bambara language and not a Zoquean language.
An Olmec origin for many pre-Classic Maya, would explain the cover-up of the jaguar stucco mask pyramids with classic Maya pyramids at these sites. It would also explain Schele and Freidel's (1990,p.56) claim that the first king of Palenque was the Olmec leader U-Kix-chan; and that the ancient Maya adopted many Olmec social institutions and olmec symbolic imagery.
There is a clear prevalence of an African substratum for the origin of writing among the Maya. All the experts agree that the Olmec people probably gave writing to the Maya. Mayanist agree that the the Proto Maya term for "write" is <*c'ihb'> and probably *c'ib'.
Yucatec c'i:b' Chorti c'ihb'a Mam c'i:b'at
Lacandon c'ib' Chol c'hb'an Teco c'i:b'a
Itza c'ib' Chontal c'ib' Ixil c'ib'
Mopan c'ib' Tzeltalan c'b'
Thus we have Proto Mayan *c'ihb' and *c'ib'. This /c/ in Mayan is often pronounced like the hard Spainish /c/ and has a /s/ sound.
C.H. Brown in "Hieroglyphic literacy in ancient Mayaland: inferences from linguistics data", , 32 (4), (1991, pp.489 495) argues that *c'ihb may be the ancient Mayan term for writing but, it can not be Proto mayan because writing did not appear among the Maya until 600 B.C. This was 1500 years after the break up of the Proto Maya . This view is supported by Mayan traditions recorded by Landa and discussed by B. Stross in "Maya Hierogyphic writing and Mixe Zoquean", 24(1), (1982 , pp.73 134) all point to the extra Maya origin of writing.
This word for 'write' is probably of Olmec/Manding origin. The Proto Manding term for writing is: *se'be', *safa^.
Malinke se'be' Serere safe
Bambara se'be' Susu se'be
Dioula se'we' Samo se'be
Sarakole safa W. Malinke safa
Landa in makes it clear that the Yucatec Maya claimed that they got writing from a group of foreigners called Tutul Xiu (Tozzer,1941). The term Tutul Xiu, can be translated in Manding as Tutu l ,"Very good Subjects of the Order", Xi u, "The Shi" , or The Shis (who) are very good supporters of the cult order". In this passage the l, is a suffix of augmentation and the u, is the plural element. The Shi, is probably related to the Manding term "Si", which was also an ethnonym.
The fact that the Yucatec term for writing is "c'i:b'" and the Olmec/ Malinke Bambara term for writing "se'be'", are analogous in sound support a Manding origin for the Mayan term for writing. Moreover this confirms the earlier findings by Wiener of a Malinke Bambara substratum in the culture and religious terms of the Maya and Aztec people.
In addition to the Mande speaking Olmec or Xi people influcing the Mayan languages they also influenced the Otomi language of Mexico.
The Otomi language also shows affinity to the Mande languages.
Otomi Mande
to that to
min grab mina
ka, ki cut te'ge'
ku brother koro
nee mouth ne
sine 'lip' sine 'sucking part of the mouth'
ne language ne
sui night su
t?i son/daughter ti
da eye do
ta/ye man tye/ kye
The Otomi and Mande languages also demonstrate similar grammatical features: Otomi ho' ka' ra' 'ngu "he makes the houses" Mande a kee nu ' he makes the family habitation. The Otomi use /bi/ to form the complete action. This agrees with the Mande verb to be: bi. For example: Otomi bi du 'he died', bi zo-gi ' he left it' Mande a bi sa ' he is dead'. In Otomi find da' , to form the incompleted action, e.g., ci 'eat' daci 'he will eat'. This agrees with the Mande affix da/la used to form the factitive or transitive value e.g., la bo 'to take this place' This indicates agreement between the Mande and Otomi languages.
In conclusion the affinity between Olmec and African skeletons, artifactual evidence from Olmec sites, of Olmec/Manding and Mayan signs support the view that the Mande speaking Olmecs gave the Maya writing. These Olmecs as discussed in earlier postings came from Saharan/ North Africa before 1000 B.C. This would explain the agreement beween Mayan *c'ihb' and Olmec/Manding *se'be'. This along with the obvious total affinity of the Olmec symbols and the symbols used by the Manding people at Oued Mertoutek in 3000 B.C., and later around the Nigerbend which Wiener used to compare with the Tuxtla symbols, all support the fact that the Olmec were Manding speaking Meso Americans.
The fact that the Olmecs were predominately African in no way demeans the abilities of native Americans. In fact, the Olmecs left behind a rich culture/ civilizations that has made the later civilizations of the Zapotecs and Maya some of the greatest civilizations in World History.
Sources C.H. Brown, Hieroglyphic literacy in ancient Mayaland, , 32 (4), (1991) pp.489-495.
K. Hau, "Pre Islamic writing in West Africa", K. Hau, "African Writing in the New World", ,t.40 ser.B no.1, (1978) pp.28 48.
R. A. Diehl and M.D. Coe, "Olmec Archaeology". In , (Ed.) Jill Guthrie (pp.11-25), The Art Museum, Princeton University Press, 1996.
T. Kaufman and W.M. Norman, "An outline of Cholan phonology, morphology, and vocabulary. In , (Ed.) by J.S. Justeson and L. Campbell (pp.77-166). Albany : Institute of Mesoamerican Studies.
C. Marquez, Estudios arqueologicas y ethnograficas>. Mexico, 1956.
S.G. Morley, G.W. Brainerd and R.J. Sharer. . Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.
C.A. Winters, "The influence of the Mande scripts on American ancient writing systems", , t.39, Ser.B no.2, (1977) pp.405 431.
C. A. Winters, "Manding writing in the New World Part 1", Journal of African Civilization , 1 (1), (1979) pp.81 97.
C.A. Winters, "Appendix B: The Jade Celts from La Venta". In , by A. von Wuthenau (pp.235 237). 2nd Edition, Mexico, 1980.
C.A. Winters, "The Ancient manding Script". In , (ed) by Ivan Van Sertima (pp.208 214), New Brunswick, Transaction Books, 1983.
C.A. Winters, "The African influence on Indian Agriculture", Journal of African Civilization 3(1), (1981) pp.100-110.
C. A. Winters, "The Indus Valley Writing and related scripts of the 3rd millennium BC", 2(1), (1985) pp.13 20.
M. Delafosse, "Vai leur langue et leur systeme d'ecriture", 10, (1899).
Peter van Rossum, Olmec skeletons African? No, just poor scholarship,
http://copan.bioz.unibas.ch/meso/rossum.html, (1996).
Vargas G., Luis Alberto, (1974) "Caracteres Craneanos Discontinuos en la Poblacion de Tlatilco, Mexico" Anales de Antropologia vol. 11, pp. 307-328.
Wiercinski, Andrzcj
1969 "Afinidades Raciales de Algunas Poblaciones Antiguas de Mexico." Anales de INAH, 7a epoca, tomo II, pp. 123-143.
1970 "Inter and Intrapopulational Racial Differentiation of Tlatilco, Cerro de las Mesas, Teotihuacan, Monte Alban and Yucatan Maya." Proceedings of the 39th International Congress of Americanists.
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