Färder över atlanten före Columbus

The recent article by Mark McMenamin in the November 1996 issue of The Numismatist has renewed interest in the theory that the Phoenicians or their western brethren, the Carthaginians, discovered America, nearly two thousand years before Columbus. If such a discovery did take place, it would be interesting to speculate as to how and when it occurred, then to test our hypothesis against all the available information on the topic and see how it holds up. Of all ancient peoples, the Phoenicians were the only ones with the skills and the sea-going capability required for a trans- Atlantic crossing. By 600 BC, they were building ships that could carry 50 to 100 tons, making them comparable in size and tonnage to the Portuguese caravels of the 15th century.

The practice of mummification, itself, provides another link between Egypt and the pre-Columbian civilizations of the New World. At the turn of the century, Sir G. Elliot Smith, a prominent Australian neuroanatomist, found parallels in the specific methods used to embalm the dead. For example, he proposed that jade, pearl and gold, which were deemed capable of protecting the corpses from decomposition, were an integral part of the mummification process. In his 1974 book entitled Ancient Egyptians and Chinese in America, R. A. Jairazbhoy found 21 such parallels between the myths and religious practices of ancient Egypt and those of Mexico. Astronomy provides another interesting parallel: the Mayas' calendar incorporated a 365-day solar calendar like the Egyptians' and a 260- day lunar calendar like that of Mesopotamia, which were linked by means of a scale spanning 52 solar years or 73 lunar years.

Contact between the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean and the nascent cultures of pre-Columbian America would explain why nicotine and cocaine have been detected in the hair shaft of Egyptian mummies in Germany when both tobacco and coca are native American plants that were not grown anywhere else before Columbus. It would also explain why a ball court in the Mayan city of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan has a running motif of lotus blossoms, a flower unknown in the area, but sacred to the ancient Egyptians and a traditional design in Egyptian art. A stone carving discovered at Copan, Honduras, seems to depict an elephant, an animal unknown in the New World at the time. An Olmec relief carving features a bearded figure, wearing the upturned shoes typical of the eastern Mediterranean, yet the Olmecs and the other native peoples of the Americas had sparse facial hair and were apparently in the habit of plucking what little bit they had. An incense burner unearthed in Guatemala is in the shape of a bearded face with strikingly Semitic features.