“Xu said the Olmec religion shared numerous
beliefs with the Shang in areas of ancestral worship, human sacrifice and
animal totems, as well as worship of the sun god and rain”.
Pam McKeown
University of Central Oklahoma researcher,
Dr. Mike Xu, has provided some further compelling connections between the
Olmecs and the ancient Chinese.
In the following
article about it, by Pam McKeown, I would consider the dates given to be,
however, somewhat inflated and requiring downward revision.
UCO
Researcher Links Ancient Chinese Civilization to Americas
EDMOND - Language symbols found by a University of Central Oklahoma researcher
in the area of the "Olmec" civilization bear a striking resemblance
to those of ancient Chinese symbols, several nationally recognized Chinese
historians have determined.
The Olmec civilization, with its achievements in religion, art and
social ideology, is recognized as the "mother culture" of
Mesoamerica. The civilization mysteriously emerged in southern Mexico in 1200
B.C. and then, about 300 B.C., just as mysteriously disappeared. For years,
scholars have been mystified as to the civilization's origin.
But Dr. Mike Xu, assistant professor of foreign languages/humanities and
philosophy at UCO believes he has found found a major clue in cracking the
Olmec mystery: the language connection.
Recently, he took photographs of 146 symbols found in Olmec-related
regions to several Chinese officials including Dr. Han Ping Chen of the China
Social Science Academy, Historical Research Institute; Dr. Chen-yuan Ma,
director of the Shanghai Museum and member of the China Authentication
Committee of Cultural Relics; and Quigzheng Wang, vice director of the Shanghai
Museum, professor of history at Fudan University and vice chairman of the China
Ancient Ceramics Research Society.
"Of 146 symbols presented to me, many are 100 percent identical to
ancient Chinese characters," said Chen, who decodes ancient symbols at
China's Social Science Academy. "Some can be easily recognized by Chinese
first-graders in elementary schools, for Chinese grade school textbooks contain
many ancient Chinese pictographic characters such as those Xu has
presented."
By comparing history, writing, religion, architecture and astrology in
the Olmec world with those of ancient China's Shang Dynasty, Xu found numerous
linkages between the two civilizations.
"The sudden emergence of the Olmec culture coincided with the
downfall of the Shang Dynasty and the disappearance of a large number of
refugees in the year 1122 B.C.," Xu said. "Shang writings exist in
the Olmec region. The most significant and frequently used symbols in both the
'old' and the 'new' worlds corresponded to their social conditions and
agricultural environments, and included unique writings of the same
origin."
Xu said the Olmec religion shared numerous beliefs with the Shang in
areas of ancestral worship, human sacrifice and animal totems, as well as
worship of the sun god and rain.
"Their sharing of eagle, dragon/serpent and tiger/jaguar symbols,
as well as their worshiping of cleft-head motifs, is very significant and
distinctive."
The Olmecs and the Shangs also shared the same knowledge of astronomy
and astrology, Xu added. Using Polaris as the point of "truth north"
is evidenced by the Olmecs' burial mounds pointing precisely 8 degrees west of
north, a practice that piggybacks on the ancient Chinese practice.
Their sharing of the eight-trigram motif in their
calender-making also is obvious, he said.
Disputing the traditional notion that the Olmecs had no written language
or history, Xu points the origin of the Olmec civilization to the Shang Dynasty
of bronze-age China, based upon a writing system - a factor that is of
"paramount importance" in linking cultures, he said. Chinese scholars
have verified that the symbols are similar to inscriptions found on the oracle
bone and bronzeware of China 3,000 years ago.
Ming Zhang, deputy secretary of the Chinese Society for Studying Pacific
Region History, said, "After careful study and consultation, our
specialists consider these symbols to belong to the Chinese language system,
discovered repeatedly in ancient Chinese Yanshao culture, Ma Jia Yao culture,
Da Xi culture, Xiao He Yan culture to Shang Dynasty's pottery, oracle bone and
bronzeware inscriptions.
"Most of them are still being used today and
are recognizable," he added. "A few, which cannot be decoded, can
still be found in some special dictionaries."
Pam McKeown
is director of news services at the University of Central Oklahoma.
Archive ID:
658092
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