More Men Across the Seas

Pre-Columbian American Contacts

Real or Imaginary

4-00 A.D. to 1492.

A New Horizons Paper.

February 1986.

Copyright: New Horizons Research Foundation. 1986 .

ATLATLS, BOWS AND ARROWS.

There can hardly be a c h i l d i n the western world who does not think of N. American Indians as equipped with bows and arrows, except only when as Plains Indians they rode horses and bore firearms. However, strangely enough, i t may have been at a r e l a t i v e l y late date (admittedly pre-Columbian by at le a s t a millenium, but within the Christian era) that the bow which was invented i n the Old World became a favoured weapon i n America.

The Pallaeo Indians may have brought the spear-thrower (known i n American archaeology by i t s Aztec name a t l a t l ) with them from the Old World, where they were used by Magdalenian people perhaps as early as 1 5 i 0 0 0 B.C. Spear-throwers of bone or antler are found i n Magdalenian t o o l k i t s . I t i s possible that P a l a e o l i t h i c men had wooden spear throwers even e a r l i e r . I f so, none has survived. In France, the home of the Magdalenians, no spear-throwers are found at the end of the Magdalenian era, i . e . about 1 0 , 0 0 0 B.C., which suggests that i n Western Europe they were being replaced by bows and arrows. This i s l a r g e l y borne out by the evidence of paintings made by people of Mesolithic culture i n eastern Spain. These paintings show hunters singly or i n groups, with bows in t h e i r hands, chasing animals or shooting arrows at them. This form of art i s often called Capsian and has obvious a f f i n i t i e s with the drawings made by Af r i c a n Bushmen. No exact date can be assigned to the Spanish pictures. The culture as a whole may have lasted from about 8000 to 3 0 0 0 B.C. The invention of the bow i s therefore usually dated at some time p r i o r to 5 0 0 0 B.C.

What i s certain i s that wherever i t became known the bow l a r g e l y replaced the spear f o r the hunting of game. In America there i s no evidence of the bow before the late Archaic stage. The occurrence of very small p r o j e c t i l e points at some sites i n the l a s t centuries B.C. suggests that i t may have come into use i n North America i n that period. In the Southwest remains of bows and arrows are f i r s t found i n association with the f i r s t houses of the t h i r d phase of Basketmaker c u l t i r e . These houses are dated at ^75 A.D. by the tree ring patterns i n t h e i r timbers.

During the f i r s t millenium A.D. the Maya appear not to have used the bow i n warfare. I t s m i l i t a r y use i n Mayaland was introduced by the Toltecs some time aft e r 9 8 7 A.D. In Mexico the Aztecs derived the bow from the Toltecs who probably adopted i t from Chichmec invaders from the north. Some writers believe t h i s happened as late as the twelfth century. Bishop Diego de Landa, writing his Account of the Things of Yucatan i n the sixteenth century mentions the popularity of

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toy bows and arrows with a l l the Mayan small boys. The bow seems c l e a r l y to have been brought from the Old World by PalXaeo-Indians. I t may have been an independent Anarican i n v e n t i o n . However i n America i t spread from n o r t h to south, which suggests i t came from A s i a . P o s s i b l y northwestern Indians or Eskimos got the idea from S i b e r i a , or from the A l e u t s . The bow never completely replaced the a t l a t l i n war i n pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. Both Aztec and Mayan armies used a t l a t l s as w e l l as bows. Indeed, according to Bernal Diaz, one of the companions of Cortes, the j a v e l i n s launched from spearthrowers gave some nasty wounds. Both Aztec arrows and j a v e l i n s had t h e i r stems made of reed which s p l i t on s t r i k i n g chain m a i l . This was not e n t i r e l y a disadvantage because one or other of laminated s t r i p s was apt to continue i t s t r a j e c t o r y and penetrate the f l e s h . • The Spaniards found that cotton armour as worn by the Aztec s o l d i e r s was a c t u a l l y b e t t e r at d e f l e c t i n g m i s s i l e s of that k i n d . As the a t l a t l and j a v e l i n remained i n f a c t the c h i e f weapon of the Aztecs, the p u b l i c armouries were c a l l e d 'houses of d a r t s ' and i n the care of wardens who issued weapons both f o r a c t u a l warfare and f o r the sham b a t t l e s which were fought every twenty days as a p a r t of m i l i t a r y t r a i n i n g . The bow hoever was always the more popular weapon f o r hunting, except i n areas where the blowgun was used. This s t i l l remained true i n North America i n the days of the white s e t t l e r s , u n t i l the breechloading gun and c a r t r i d g e ammunition became a v a i l a b l e to the Indians. The muzzle-loading gun was awkward to r e l o a d ( e s p e c i a l l y on horseback). In f a c t the bow d i d not become obsolete f o r b u f f a l o hunting u n t i l the advent of the repeating r i f l e . I t i s s a i d that i n the American War of Independence, George Washington s e r i o u s l y considered whether the Co n t i n e n t a l Army should include the bow among the weaponry. The l e t h a l i t y of the b e t t e r n a t i v e American bows and arrows i s shown by an Indian s k u l l found at Buena V i s t a Lake i n the San Joaquin v a l l e y , C a l i f o r n i a . He was k i l l e d by an arrow of which f i v e inches of s h a f t remains. This p o r t i o n of the arrow c o n s t i t u t e d the f o r e s h a f t made of hard wood and a small l e n g t h of the main shaft (of reed) to which the f o r e s h a f t was s p l i c e d . The s k u l l and arrow fragment are charred as i f the deal man f e l l i n t o a f i r e . I t i s presumed that the arrowhead was a stone one. I t had entered the o r b i t of the eye and emerged behind the jaw c u t t i n g the c a r o t i d a r t e r y and the j u g u l a r v e i n . Between 1912 and 1916 Dr. Saxton T. Pope of the U n i v e r s i t y of C a l i f o r n i a Medical School c a r r i e d out extensive research on American and other n a t i v e bows. He found that, with the b e t t e r of the weapons, arrows could pass r i g h t through the bodies of l a r g e animals such as deer or g r i z z l e y bear.

Dr. Pope's intere s t i n native archery was inspired by the advent i n 1911 of the l a s t surviving Yana Indian. The Yana tr i b e s had l i v e d i n the t e r r i t o r y around Oroville, a town about seventy miles northeast of Sacramento. On the morning of 29 August 1911 an unkempt Indian, wearing only a few scraps of cloth, and i n a state of terror and exhaustion, was found on the outskirts of Or o v i l l e . He could speak no English. The s h e r r i f f entrusted him to the care of the Anthropological Museum of the University of Ca l i f o r n i a , where he l i v e d u n t i l 1916, when he was hospitalized f o r tuberculosis and died. This man was I s h i , the l a s t of the Yahi t r i b e of the Yanas. He was born about 1862. As a r e s u l t ' o f continued f i g h t i n g between the Yahis and the white s e t t l e r s , the tribe was reduced to a handful of persons and i n 1872 they retreated into the wild and adopted an extremely stealthy mode of l i f e with utmost concealment i e s t they be found by whites. In 1908 only Ishi survived. In 1911 hunger drove him into O r o v i l l e .

Ishi proved to be extremely teachable, acquiring white man's dress and table manners and a vocabulary of some 600 English words. For the anthropologists he demonstrated how a perfect needle-shaped point could be chipped out of obsidian with t h i r t y minutes work. He also made f i s h i n g tackle and harpoons and wove ropes out of fibres or sinews of deer. He also made Yahi bows and arrows, and this stimulated Dr. Pope's investigations.

As regards arrows, Dr. Pope found that aboriginal arrows were a l l made from reeds or straight limbs of shrubs such as hazel, dogwood, service-berry, or the arrow-wood plant (Pluchea s e r v i c i a ) . Almost a l l arrows have just three feathers. Except i n ̂ outh America, where parrot feathers were favoured, American Indians preferred eagle, hawks, buzzard, goose, heron, f l i c k e r , or woodpecker feathers. By experiment he found that the obsidian point with a cutting edge had more penetrative power into animal tissue than any other type, even the st e e l arrowhead. The best aboriginal arrow was the Yahi one made by I s h i .

Among bows, Dr. Pope concluded that the English longbow was the best a l l round weapon. Curiously enough no exis t i n g specimen of this famous weapon could be found and Dr. Pope had to use replicas constructed as follows. Henry V l l l ' s warship, the "Mary Rose" was sunk i n 15̂ 5 and not raised u n t i l 1982. We now know she carried 168 yew staves and 3000 arrows, many of the staves retaining about h a l f of th e i r o r i g i n a l strength, i . e . e l a s t i c i t y . However, before Dr. Pope's time divers had found aboard her two yew staves i n good preservation, i n length about 6 foot 5 inches, being about 5 and a ha l f inches circumference at the midpoint. Dr, Pope selected a fine grade of Oregon yew, well-seasoned, and made a bow the exact dimensions of the "Mary Rose" longbow. I t s performance was disappointing u n t i l i t s length

was reduced to 5 foot 8 inches. This was not necessarily cheating} we know from old archery manuals that bows were cut to s u i t the height of the archer who used them. The average bow was the height of a man; the arrow was about 28 inches. Dr. Pope's best model was able to shoot an I s h i arrow 2^-5 y ards. A Turkish bow achieved a longer f l i g h t , 281 yards, but only with an exceptionally l i g h t arrow. The Yana bow, made by I s h i , cast the I s h i arrow 2 0 5 yards, and was f o r c e f u l enough to k i l l deer or bear.

WHEELED TOYS.

Though i t was never put to a p r a c t i c a l use the wheel was known in Mexico. Great interest was stimulated some years ago by the discovery i n Mexican graves of what appeared to be toys. These were small hollow clay animals, mostly dogs, with clay wheels. Their occurrence i n graves makes i t u n l i k e l y that they were merely toys; instead, they may have been cult objects. Now wheeled toys occurred widely ranging i n space and time i n Europe and A s i a . In Bronze Age times they were made in Europe and the Near East. In the Han period the Chinese fashioned them from bronze i n the form of birds. The use of bronze suggests a ceremonial function. No progress has been made in determining the o r i g i n of t h i s type of object; Europe, Asia, or America i t s e l f .

CHINA, BUDDHISM, AND MESOAMERICA.

The f i n e s t of a l l Mayan wood carvings i s a figure found i n Tabasco, though i t s actual s i t e i s unfortunately unknown. With great c u r l i n g moustaches and folded arms, i t has a s t r i k i n g l y Chinese appearance. I t i s ascribed to the Early Chinese Period, and was therefore made between about 3 0 0 and 600 A.D.

A seventh century Chinese h i s t o r i a n L i Yen who wrote on the seventh century A.D.said that he had met a Buddhist p r i e s t Hwai Shan who claimed to have returned from a country which he c a l l e d Fu-Sang, and which was ^ 0 , 0 0 0 l i to the east of China. A l i i s a t h i r d of a mile, so that i f the p r i e s t ' s estimate were r e l i a b l e Fu-Sang could be America. Scholars who have considered this story point to disturbing features i n the report of Fu-Sang which was alleged to have mulberry trees a thousand feet high, and silkworms seven feet long. They believe that the account may have some h i s t o r i c a l content but refers actually to a voyage to Kamchatka or some of the Aleutian Islands.

Very respectable scholars such as Dr. Ekholm and Dr. Heine-Geldern of the American Museum of Natural History have l i s t e d a remarkable number of p a r a l l e l s between Mesoamerican art and those of ancient India, China and Mesopotamia. They suggest that these p a r a l l e l s are most numerous i n the western part of the Maya area, i . e . the present day states of Chiapas, Tabasco and Campeche, and exhibit

maximum in t e n s i t y at the Toltec c i t i e s of Tula and Chichen Itza. The A s i a t i c influences to which these resemblances are ascribed may, i t i s thought, have reached Mesoamerica by 7 0 0 A.D.

In both Mayan and Hindu-Buddhist lotus representations the rhizome, which i s usually out of sight being buried i n s o i l or mud, i s shown often winding along the f u l l length of a f r i e z e . Human figures occur within the meanders and are shown grasping the rhizome. In both a r t i s i t i c schools water monsters or f i s h also occur. Another theme common to India and Mayaland i s the exalted personage holding a lotus sceptre and seated i n an almost i d e n t i c a l posture with one leg bent, and the other hanging over the throne. There i s a p a r a l l e l i s m also with respect to the throne i t s e l f which consisted of a l i o n or t i g e r i n the Indian representations and a jaguar i n the Mayan ones.

Another peculiar resemblance i s that of the 'diving gods' i n Indonesia and i n Mexico.

The p o s s i b i l i t y of Buddhists i n the P a c i f i c has been reasonably argued on the basis of known h i s t o r i c a l f a c t s . Persecution of Buddhists i n India i n the fourth and f i f t h centuries A.D. led them to take refuge i n Burma and China. From Burma Buddhism spread down through Malaysia to Java where temples were b u i l t i n the seventh century. However i n Burma though the Buddhists were not o f f o c i a l l y persecuted they became harassed by r i o t i n g and disturbances. I t has therefore been suggested that about 7 0 0 A.D. some Buddhists took to sea to look f o r a new refuge.

ST. BRENDAN AND THE IRISH.

St. Brendan was born about ^ 8 0 A.D. at Tralee i n County Kerry i n Ireland. He c e r t a i n l y t r a v e l l e d extensively, going to Wales, Brittany, and to Iena i n the Scottish Hebrides. I t i s l i k e l y that he was at one stage absent from Ireland f o r many years. In accounts of the l i f e of St. Brendan, such as appear i n the tenth century Book of Lismore i t i s said that he received an angelic v i s i o n i n which he was f a r to the west, a s a i n t l y retreat beyond the sea which God had granted him. In a f l o t i l l a consisting of three curraghs he sought f r u i t l e s s l y f o r f i v e years and then returned to Ireland where he b u i l t himself a wooden ship and set o f f again. On t h i s voyage they encountered an island occupied by 'sea-cats' (possibly walruses) and a second islan d inhabited by 'dark pigmies' (possibly Eskimos). On a t h i r d island a hermit told them the way to t h e i r destination. When they reached i t , i t was "odorous, flower-smooth and blessed". The text gives no more d e t a i l s . The return journey i s not described.

Early i n the tenth century there appeared a Latin prose narrative, the Navigatio Brendani --. Voyage of Brendan --which became very popular and was translated into numerous

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The water lily motif in India (left column) and at Chichen Itza, ). ucatan (rig/tf co/wnn). ^ / < e r /?. Heine-Geldem and G. F. Ekholm illustrated by J. lmbelloni.

Diving gods. Left: Sculpture from Veracruz, Mexico. After G. F. Ekholm, illustrated by J. lmbelloni. Right: Balinese manuscript.

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(('ourttsi/ Oilurd I'ninrsity /Vcss)

Personages holding lotus scepters or stalls and seated in almost identical |><'-iti<>n>- one leg tucked under, the other hanging over side of throne.

I.cjl: kliasaipana, India.

Ri^/i/: I'alciKjue. Mexico. After 11. A. Laviichery.

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Personages seated on Iim-r throne.

/ . . • / / : S i . . I I C s c u l p t u r e . M a l n d i a . I n d i a . A\ln /,'. lUmllm \<i. illu-lr.:.v./ l,y (.. / . /•.'/,/„,/,„.

Ili^lil: S c u l | i l u r e d - l a h , P a l a c e l l o u - c Pal . - inj i ie . M , \ i , . , . •//'/,•/• . / . / ' . . ! / „ , / , / , / „ , .

European languages. According to the Navigatio, a monk named Barinthus told Brendan that he had made a westward voyage to the "Land Promised to the Saints". Barinthus' journey seems to have been e s s e n t i a l l y a miraculous transportation, so that he had no s a i l i n g directions. Brendan set out i n a curragh with seventeen companions. The places v i s i t e d with possible i d e n t i f i c a t i o n s may be l i s t e d as follows.

After 52 days they found a deserted building on a northern island which was rocky with t a l l c l i f f s and only one beach (St. Kilda i n the Hebrides?) They wintered on the "Island of Sheep" where they received h o s p i t a l i t y from a single resident -a kind of monkish kitchen manager. There i s an actual Island of Sheep- Streymoy - i n the Faroes, and I r i s h monks and crofters settled there i n the seventh century, and l i k e St. Brendan, encountered whales. In one amusing episode the worthy voyagers landed on a small island and kindled f i r e to cook t h e i r supper; the island, being i n fact a whale, slipped from under them. I t was a very mannerly whale because i t invited them to return provided they could do without hot suppers* Some years l a t e r on t h e i r way back they encountered the whale again. Its name was Jasonius and i t considerately gave back t h e i r cooking pot l e f t with i t at the previous encounter!.

Not f a r from the Island of Sheep was the "Paradise of Birds", an i s l a n d crowded with avians. (The Faroes again, probably Vagar). They came to a huge cry s t a l column i n the sea with an overhanging canopy, and which stretched down under the sea (obviously an iceberg). Eight days north of the iceberg they reached a rugged, slag-covered island. Giants, who could be heard working at forges, emerged and threw burning slag at them. In t h i s region of the sea they also sighted a high mountain which belched smoke. (The episode of the giants can reasonably be taken as a poetic description of Hekla or another Icelandic volcano. The smoking mountain might r e f e r to Beerenberg or Jan Mayen land).

In making these i d e n t i f i c a t i o n s , which are due to Geoffrey Ashe, i t i s not suggested that the narrative i s other than mythical. However i t embodies lore current i n the ninth century among I r i s h seamen and monks, and may be based on actual voyagings i n waters north of the B r i t i s h I s l e s . Between 570 and 670, I r i s h monks founded communities in the Orkneys, Shetland, and Faroes. About 795 a group of I r i s h monks reached Iceland. None of the places described l a t e r i n the Navigatio can be r e l i a b l y i d e n t i f i e d , although Mr. Ashe v a l i a n t l y does what he can; these parts of the narrative are e s s e n t i a l l y romance. However, to continue; aft e r many months of tossing on the waves they landed on an island with an I r i s h monastery, whose occupants had been miraculously kept a l i v e f o r eighty years.

They next came to an island well covered with vegetation; but i t s spring water s t u p i f i e d those who drank i t . Turning north again, f o r three days they were becalmed i n a sea that was a "thick curdled mass" (Sargasso Sea?). Their best l a n d f a l l was at the 'Island of Strong Men' which was covered with flowers and possessed huge purple f r u i t s c a l l e d scaltae. The inhabitant who dressed i n purple or white robes, were very f r i e n d l y and much given to hymn singing. S a i l i n g on f o r f i f t e e n days St. Brendan came to a lush green island, with many springs and grapevines, and a wonderfully fragrant a i r . On one occasion the crew noticed that the sea was so clear, that the seabed could be seen and shoals of great fishes l i k e flocks of sheep. Mr. Ashe suggests Long Island or Grand Cayman which are both low l y i n g and very l e v e l , as possible i d e n t i f i c a t i o n s f o r the Island of Strong Men, which the Navigatio describes as very f l a t Jamaica would answer the description of the grapevine island, and the clear water and large f i s h are found only i n the Bahamas St. Michael i n the Azores has volcanic springs whose water i s reputed to be dangerous to drink.

Eventually, a f t e r returning to Ireland and c a l l i n g at the Island of Sheep, Brendan sailed to the south f o r f o r t y days and then into a blanket of thick cloud. When they came out they were at the Land of Promise. Afte r forty days of walking they came to a r i v e r , where they were met by an angel i n the guise of a handsome young man, who t o l d Brendan that, having made his pilgrimage to the boundary of Paradise, he should now return. The Land of Promise would, i n due time, be made known to Christians as a place of refuge i n time of trouble. Brendan seems to have had an uneventful journey back to Ireland.

The Earthly Paradise was, of course, the garden of Eden. T r a d i t i o n a l l y t h i s had four r i v e r s flowing out of i t , two of them being the T i g r i s and the Euphrates. This places i t i n Mesopotamia, which f o r Europeans was i n the east. Brendan's undoubtedly mythical discovery of the Paradise would appear to be a b i t of l i t e r a r y mythology based on the idea (the same as that of Columbus) that the east could be reached by s a i l i n g west around the curve of the earth.

The Navigatio can be us e f u l l y compared with an I r i s h romance of the eighth century, called Maelduin or The Voyage of Maeldune. I t belongs to the group of Imrama, i . e . Navigations resembling the c l a s s i c a l tales of Jason and his Argonauts or Odysseus, and describes the wanderings of Maelduin i n search of his father's murderer. There are many s i m i l a r i t i e s to the Navigatio Brendani However some of the episodes i n Brendan's saga are from other sources; the whale encounter occurs also i n Sindbad the S a i l o r .

IRISHINAMERICA ?

Iceland was discovered by Irishmen. The author of the Icelandic Landnamabok writing about 1130 says that before i t was peopled from Norway there were men called Papar ( i . e . men of the Pope, I r i s h clergymen) who l e f t b e l l s , croziers, and I r i s h books. This t a l l i e s with the I r i s h reconnaissance of of Iceland (Thule) which Dicuel, an I r i s h ninth century writer says occurred i n 795 • I t appears that I r i s h c l e r i c s , l i k e those of Wales, claimed on account of the early foundation of t h e i r church to be en t i t l e d to s e l f government and independent of the Bishops of Rome. Consequently they took i t gravely amiss when the Synod of Whitby i n 66k declared them subordinate to the Pope's authority. In the next hundred years a thousand or so I r i s h monks b u i l t curraghs and went to Iceland, and were joined there by I r i s h refugees from Viking raids on the Faroe Islands. However the peace of t h e i r monastic c e l l s i n Iceland was shattered by the a r r i v a l of s e t t l e r s from Norway from 87^ onwards. Within a few years the I r i s h Caldees ("Companions of God" as they calle d themselves) had a l l l e f t f o r unrecorded destinations. Some must have perished at sea, and others returned to Ireland. However some allusions i n the Icelandic sagas suggest the p o s s i b i l i t y that some Caldees missed Greenland and made l a n d f a l l i n America.

The Landnamabok (Book of Lartitakings, describing the Norse settlement i n Iceland) t e l l s of A r i , who " d r i f t e d over the ocean to Hvitramanna" Land which some c a l l Ireland the Great, and l i e s away vest i n the ocean near "Vinland the Good". A r i was baptized there (obviously by Irish) and held i n great esteem by the natives. The Eyrbyggia Saga (Story of the Eyrdwellers — the s e t t l e r s i n one p a r t i c u l a r region of Iceland) t e l l s of one Bjorn who having blotted his copybook by a romantic in d i s c r e t i o n s a i l e d eastward from Iceland and never returned. But, around the year 1030 a certain Gudleif Gunnlangson s a i l i n g to Iceland from Dublin was driven o f f course and anchored i n an unknown harbour. He was seized by natives who spoke a language that he took to be I r i s h . His anxiety as to his fate was relieved when an old white-haired man approached on horseback. He spoke to Gudleif i n Norse and to l d him to leave otherwise the natives would k i l l him. He would not give his name but Gueleif recognized him as Bjorn. The Eyrdwellers were refugees from the Norse settlement at Dublin which the I r i s h captured i n the battle of Clontarf i n 10^1, which i s why this story i s found in t h e i r saga, and explains why Gudleif could recognize I r i s h .

F i n a l l y , there i s a passage i n E i r i k s Saga Rautha (The Saga of E r i c the Red) i n which E r i c and his companions landing on what i s undoubtedly the Canadian coast learned from captive natives of men i n white who carried poles with pieces of cloth attached and shouted loudly. The Norsemen took t h i s to r e f e r to an I r i s h e c c l e s i a s t i c a l procession.

There i s a d i f f i c u l t y i n t o t a l l y accepting these stories, unless we suppose that these I r i s h monks abandoned celibacy. Perhaps l i k e the daughters of Lot i n the Bible story they s a c r i f i c e d t h e i r p r i n c i p l e s f o r a higher good -- i n t h e i r case not the preservation of the human race but f o r sake of a r e l i g i o u s mission to the heathen of North America. Circumstances a l t e r cases and many a re l i g i o u s community when subjected to change has received an appropriate revelation, or reinterpreted t h e i r previous reading of the divine w i l l .

VIKINGS AND VINLAND.

As much perhaps as i s needed, has been written about the Vikings i n America. A short summary of what i s known and speculated w i l l therefore s u f f i c e .

About 900 Gimhjorn Ulfsson sighted land to the west of Iceland. In 1982 E r i k the Red was outlawed from Iceland f o r a three year term and decided to look f o r Gunnbjorn's land. He found i t and spent three years reconnoitering and spending time on i t s southwestern coasts. He named i t Greenland and sought to re c r u i t pioneers to colonize i t . In 986 he returned there from Iceland with twenty f i v e ships, other s e t t l e r s and domestic animals and chickens. Among the s e t t l e r s was Herj u l f who had a son Bjarni, a sea captain and trader who when Herjulf l e f t Iceland was away on a year's trading i n Norway. When i n late 986 Bjarni returned to Iceland to spend the winter with his father and found him gone, he set s a i l f o r Greenland but seems to have navigated too much to the south missing Greenland e n t i r e l y . Then north winds and fog came on, and f o r some days they were l o s t . The weather cleared and afte r a day's s a i l i n g they saw ' a land that was not mountainous and was covered with woods with 'small knolls on i t ' . B j a rni decided this was not Greenland and they ' l e f t the land on the port side'. They sa i l e d on and encountered a land that was f l a t and covered with forest. They sa i l e d out to sea before a southwesterly breeze u n t i l they saw a t h i r d land, high and mountainous, with ice upon i t . Keeping t h e i r course along the coast they found that i t was an is l a n d . S a i l i n g on they came to a fourth land which proved to be Greenland.

About the year 1000 L e i f Erikson, " L e i f the Lucky", the son of E r i c the Red sa i l e d to f i n d Bjarni's lands. The expedition came f i r s t to Bjarni's t h i r d land, the mountainous one with g l a c i e r s , which they called Helluland, (Stoneland), and proceeded to a second land, l e v e l and wooded, whose description agrees with Bjarni's second land. The explorers called t h i s Markland (Forestland) and remarked on the fine long beaches of white sand - Furdurstrandir - "marvel strands". S a i l i n g before a northeast wind, i n two days they reached land again.

To the north of t h i s land there was an island. They went ashore b r i e f l y and then sailed into the sound between the island and the north facing shore of the mainland. Here they ran aground. Finding salmon i n the r i v e r s and good pasturage f o r t h e i r livestock they b u i l t wood houses, and wintered there. They ca l l e d t h i s land Vinland.

Much discussion i n modern times has hung on the proper translation and significance of the 'Vin' element. L e i f Erikson's Saga says that one of the expedition had found "grapes." One theory holds that Vinland therefore means Wineland. Recent advocates of t h i s view therefore assign r e l a t i v e l y southern locations such as Martha's Vineyard to the settlement. Another theory maintains that 'vin' i s the old Norse word f o r grassy meadows, and Vinland meant the 'Grassy Land'. In regard to the 'grapes' some advocates of the 'grassland' translation argue that the Saga writers took the reference to grapes and wine from legendary additions to the story made by a German writer Adam of Bremen, who wrote about IO75 A.D. Be that as i t may, i t can also be reasonably argued that the "grapes" found by L e i f ' s party were wild berries probably squashberries (Viburnam pauciflorum) which are succulent and can be used to make a wine. Country people everwhere have always made wine out of almost anything vegetable.

L e i f Erikson's expedition returned to Greenland i n the spring. His brother Thorvald took a company to winter i n Vinland. When the summer came they explored the country and encountered natives, men with skin boats. Thorvald was k i l l e d by an arrow shot by one of the natives, whom the Norsemen called Skraelings. There i s nothing to indicate whether they were Eskimos or Indians. The expedition returned to Greenland. In the graveyard on a farm i n Greenland belonging to Thorvald's brother Thorstein was found an arrowhead. Now i n the Copenhagen Museum, i t may be the one that k i l l e d Thorvald. The next summer Thorfinn K a r l s f n i took an expedition to Vinland. They found L e i f Erikson's houses and made a settlement. Thorfinn's son Snorre was born there - perhaps the f i r s t white American. This expedition returned to Greenland, but was followed by another - that of Helgi and Finnbogi. There was much dissension between the colonists and h a l f of them returned to Greenland, the other h a l f remaining i n Vinland.

There i s no documentary evidence of how the Vinland colony fared. There are some f l e e t i n g references hinting at i t s sur v i v a l . In the annals of Greenland i t i s said that i n 1025 Pope John XIX ordered the Archbishop of Hamburg to organize the Church i n Greenland and "the adjacent islands". This phrase may have included Vinland. More e x p l i c i t l y

the Icelandic annals say that i n 1121 Erik, Bishop of Greenland, went i n search of Vinland. Modern scholarship almost unanimously agrees as to the factual truth of the Vinland story and i d e n t i f i e s i t with the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows on Epaves Bay near the northernmost t i p of the I s l e of Newfoundland, which has "been archaelogically studied, and conforms to a very reasonable degree with a l l that the sagas say about Vinland. With t h i s interpretation Bjarni's second land i s Labrador; the Wonder Strands are the beaches near Cape Porcupine; Bjarni's t h i r d island i s B a f f i n Land, or more pr e c i s e l y the H a l l Peninsula.

L e i f and E r i k and the other Viking explorers of the North A t l a n t i c , including perhaps St. Brendan, were aided by good weather. Seafarers, l i k e those of the Bronze Age, enjoyed a warm and dry period from about 400 A.D. u n t i l 1000 A.D., a f t e r which the climate deteriorated. By 1200 the northern hemisphere had entered what climatologists c a l l the " L i t t l e Ice Age", a wet and cold period climaxing about 1600 and l a s t i n g u n t i l 1900 or so. This may have been a factor i n h i b i t i n g A t l a n t i c voyaging, and contributing to the decline of the Greenland settlements which else might have served as a point of departure f o r America. Incidentally i t may be remarked that recent paleoclimatological research on the Greenland Icecap has vindicated Erik's naming of the land and his implied description of i t as green and habitable. Doubted by many historians, t h i s now appears to have been f a c t u a l . The l a s t news from the Greenland colonists reached Europe i n 1448 and told of them being attacked by barbarians. There i s no record of any new v i s i t to Greenland u n t i l 1721 when the King of Denmark financed an expedition led by Hans Egede, a Norwegian missionary seeking to reunite any surviving Christian Greenlanders to the Church, p a r t i c u l a r l y i t s Lutheran denomination. No l i v i n g s e t t l e r s were found. Their exact fate or fates are not c e r t a i n l y known and have occasioned much theorizing, including interesting speculations by the Norwegian explorers F r i d t j o f f Nanses (author of In Northern Mists, 1911) and Vilhjalmur Stefansson (author of Unsolved Mysteries of the A r c t i c , 1938) .

POST COLUMBIAN STORIES.

As every schoolboy knows "In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sa i l e d the ocean blue". In 1493 Pope Alexander VI better known as Rodrigo Borgia, the head of that i l k , took time out from other pursuits, doubtless unedifying, to release a B u l l dividing newly discovered lands at a l i n e 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands between Spain and Portugal.

Spain had the best of i t , which i s not surprizing, the Borgias being of Spanish extraction. In 1^94 the Portuguese, i n the Treaty of Tord e s i l l a s extracted a concession from the Spanish which moved the l i n e of demarcation to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verdes. The rationale of the Pope's o r i g i n a l decree was to ensure the bringing of savages into the Christian Church. Naturally i t was much resented by other maritime powers, whether new l i k e B r i t a i n and France, or ancient l i k e Genoa or Venice, and led in j t l me to claims of pre-Columbian voyages. These stories, i f not t o t a l l y f i c t i o n a l , were very slenderly based. Thus, F. Marcolino of Venice published i n 1558 The Discovery of the Islands of F r i s l a n d i a , Eslanda, Engrove landa, Estotilanda, made under the North Pole by the two Zeno brothers, Nicolo and Antonio. According to the narrative the brothers were shipwrecked i n 1380 on F r i s l a n d i a , described as an i s l e i n the North.Sea,

ft not f a r from the Dutch coast?{but not the F r i s i a n Islands, or Frisia . ) On the shore they met an ancient and much-travelled fisherman, who told them how he had been blown westward to Estotiland, where the people read L a t i n . He went on to a place named Drogeo where he was chased by cannibals and thence to a t h i r d land replete with c i t i e s and temples. Because Zechmi, the r u l e r of F r i s l a n d i a took a fancy to the Zenos, he s a i l e d with them to Estotiland and Drogeo. The author of t h i s travelogue claimed to be a descendent of the Zenos, who besides leaving a manuscript had bequeathed a map. The map, of course, proves the narrative to be f a n c i f u l . F r i s l a n d i s shown as being i n mid-Atlantic and almost as big as Iceland. I c a r i a , Estland, and Estotiland are also too large to have been overlooked i n post-Columbian times. This, of course, has not i n h i b i t e d modern attempts to i d e n t i f y the countries v i s i t e d with North American s i t e s . There may of course be a residual grain of/truth i n the story; perhaps one or more Zenos may have been cast ashore on Greenland and have got back, the rest being romance.

QUETZACOATL.

In the year 1518 an adventurer Hernan (Fernando) Cortes, a scion of an old but not very r i c h family of Medellin, i n Estramadura, Spain, who had been a s o l d i e r with Velasquez, the conqueror and f i r s t governor of Cuba, organized an expedition to the newly discovered lands of Mesoamerica, which conveyed hints of wealth waiting to be acquired. He landed i n what i s now Tabasco province of Mexico, i n Yucatan, actually by Cozumel island. Reports of his landing soon reached Montezuma, the "Chief Speaker" of the Mexica, or Aztecs, whose c a p i t a l was at Mexico (now Mexico City), and who enjoyed a considerable,even i f not absolute,hegemony over many nearby states and t r i b e s . Montezuma was deeply distressed at the news. By a strange coincidence that year was the year. Ce-acatl, that i s One-reed. Some centuries before, so legend told, a great god or god-man, Quetzacoatl,

had l e f t the sacred c i t y of Tula and departed across the ocean. He was white and "bearded and said he would return to claim his kingdom i n a year One-reed. The Aztecs were intensely superstitious and the prophecy was reinforced by a series of bad omens and auguries that year. Consequently Montezuma's dread and anxiety l e s t the bearded white strangers be the forerunners and agents of the god, paralyzed his every action and inhibited any normal response to a t i n y band of invaders. The consequences were f a t a l f o r himself and h i s kingdom.

Not long a f t e r the Conquest speculation developed as to who the legendary Quetzalcoatl had been. St. Thomas was an early favourite but more secular figures have been postulated. S i r Humphrey Gilber t , the Elizabethan soldier, navigator and colonist ( S i r Walter Raleigh's half-brother) wondered i f the bearded white god had not been "Prince Madoc" a twelfth century Welshman. This was, of course, a ploy to f a c i l i t a t e the establishment of B r i t i s h claims to some of the New World. In the event, the mythology of Madoc grew to immense proportions, i n s p i r i n g a considerable l i t e r a t u r e and actual expeditions. We are therefore reserving i t for a separate study which relates e s s e n t i a l l y not to American a n t i q u i t i e s but to the development of both antiquarinism and p a t r i o t i c sentiment i n the component nations of Great B r i t a i n from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

In more recent times, other hypotheses attached themselves to the Quetzalcoatl figure. The Mormons, but not the Mormons alone, have i d e n t i f i e d him with the resurrected Jesus. Like the Franciscan bishops of Mexico i n the l a t e r sixteenth century they were impressed by the prevalence i n the r e l i g i o u s art of Mexico of crosses i n various styles and forms, and associated these symbols with C h r i s t i a n i t y . More recently s t i l l Professor Cyrus H. Gordon, Chairman of the Department of Mediterranean studies, author (1971) of Before Columbus, looked to an e a r l i e r period f o r the o r i g i n of the myth. He predicates that as long ago as Sumerian and Babylonian times there were trading relations by way of t r a n s a t l a n t i c sea voyages between Mesoamerica and Mesopotamia. On h i s side i s the paifcoclimatic fact that there was a good weather period from (say) 3000 B.C. to 500 B.C.but unfortunately l i t t l e else can be adduced i n favour of Dr. Gordon's arguments. For those who are interested we have appended a discussion of the Quetzacoatl problem i n the form of an e a r l i e r New Horizons paper. This neglects the problem of New World crosses, which we do not think i s an acute one, but discusses pre-Columbian beards at adequate length as well as setting the Quetzalcoatl myths and legends i n a h i s t o r i c a l setting.

ISOLATED ARTIFACTS.

We have, of policy, neglected a l l speculations "based on iso l a t e d a r t c i f a c t s , e.g. "elephant slabs", "leaden crosses", Roman busts, etc. because these single occurrences are almost invariably ascribable with a high degree of c r e d i b i l i t y to post-Columbian importation or manufacture. Such a r t i c l e s include the numerous in s c r i p t i o n s found i n Minnesota, etc. and ascribed to Vikings wandering, somewhat implausibly, overland, and the "Beardmore r e l i c s " which include a sword which, i t i s said, i s of Viking workmanship. We have also, at r i s k of being called "spoilsports" not concerned ourselves with the innumerable scratchings found on North American rocks, and ascribed au choix to Phoenicians, Vikings, or pre-Christian Celts. We do not, however, necessarily, reject the megaliths at the Patee farm i n New Hampshire as being of modern o r i g i n . We merely forego the opportunity of discussing i t nowl I t could prove to be a problem of p a r t i c u l a r d i f f i c u l t y .

I t might however be cowardly not to mention the "Newport Tower" at Newport, Rhose Island. This i s a c i r c u l a r structure some twenty feet high of a loose stone or "cob-wall" construction but cemented or mortared. Now a t o u r i s t attraction, the tower owes i t s celeb r i t y to Thomas C. Webb, secretary of the Rhode Island H i s t o r i c a l Society, and Professor Carl Rafn, secretary of the Danish Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, who ascribed i t to Vikings. However, being large and set on a h i l l top i t seems beyond reason that i t should not havefoeen commented upon by the founders of the Rhode Island Colony, who included very wide awake and l i t e r a t e men l i k e Governor Roger Williams-In fact a l a t e r Governor, Benedict Arnold (not the Benedict Arnold of the American Revolution but of the same family) who owned the land on which the tower stands, referred twice i n h i s w i l l to "my stone b u i l t windmill". I t i s also known that there i s a similar m i l l at Arnold's birthplace i n England. The other presumed connection between Rhode Island and the Vikings i s very tenuous — i t rests on a piece of coal found i n Greenland. I t was anthracite or "steam coal" which i s found i n Rhode Island but not i n Iceland, Greenland, or any place on the northeastern seaboard of America. The i n t e r e s t i n g thing about the piece of anthracite however i s that i t was found i n the house of Thorfinn K a r l s e f n i whom we know to have gone from Greenland to Vinland and back I

i l ft.. 1... . I t. 1 1

New Horizons Journal of the New Horizons Research Foundation

incorporating

Transactions of the Toronto Society for Psychical Research

April 1975 Vol. 2, No. 1

Editorial

Fifteen Years of Psychokinesis A. R. G. Owen

Fracture Surface Physics indicating Teleneural Interaction

Wilbur Franklin

"Philip's" Story Continued Iris M. Owen

Qualitative Time-domain Analysis of Acoustic Envelopes of Psychokineric Table Ruppings

Joel L. Whitton

A Phantom Motorcyclist: the Genesis of an Apparition Vicki Branden

Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Athens? A. R. G. Owen

The Moving Coffins of Barbados Iris At. Owen

NEW HORIZONS RESEARCH FOUNDATION

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Published occasionally. Copyright 1975 by New Horizons.

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t i I. I t. t. i i

Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Athens?

A. R. G. OWEN, M.A., Ph.D.

ABSTRACT: The archaic Greek statue claimed by Dr. Cyrus Gordon as a bearded feathered serpent reminiscent of Quetzalcoatl is considered in the context of classical archaelogy. It appears to constitute at best very feeble evidence for prehistoric contact between Greece and Mesoamerica.

Dr. Cyrus Gordon, in a recent book Before Columbus (1971), writing from the point of view of authority on ancient Semitic languages and a keen student of early Mediterranean history, has summarized much of the evidence linking the Old World and North and South America. It is not proposed to review the book here. Suffice it to say that the book is ex­tremely stimulating, and may well open up new areas of research into Pre-Columbian problems. This note arises from issues raised by Professor Gordon in his chapter The Plumed Serpent".

One of the most esteemed and widely honored deities in Pre-Conquest Mexico was Quetzalcoatl, whose name can be interpreted as meaning "feathered serpent". On occasion he was represented as a snake with a ruff of feathers. There is also a tradition of Quetzalcoatl as a bearded man with a fair complexion. Dr. Gordon therefore draws attention to a piece of statuary belonging to the so-called archaic period of ancient Athens. The figure is that of an amiable-looking monster. He is comprised of four male torsos. Three of these have retained their heads which are bearded and wear rather genial expressions. The torsos are joined to a coiled tail. It is difficult to see from the photographs given by Dr. Gordon whether the tail is a single very convoluted one, or three or four tails coiled around one another. There are no feathers on the heads, which seem to have a normal archaic Greek coiffure, or around the necks. The headless torso, however, has some fragments still attaching, which seem definitely to represent plumage. Some loose fragments, which also represent plumage, have been placed on the chest of the headed torso on the right. This would seem to have been done in the course of reconstruction.

Dr. Gordon cites this piece of statuary as representing three feathered serpents who are also bearded white men. He feels that this is evidence for diffusion of ideas from the Mediterranean to Mesoamerica and says "There are too many details involved to be attributed to accident", and suggests that it is difficult to suppose that the same combination — beard­ed white men who are at the same time feathered serpents — developed independently at the ends of the earth in isolation. Dr. Gordon appears

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to be assuming that the cult of Quetzalcoatl in northern Mesoamerica arose from contact with Mediterranean traders, bearded white men, landing on the shores of Mexico and Yucatan. If we accept this as ex­plaining the occurrence of a Mexican white bearded deity, how are we to account for the other or alternate aspects of the cult — the serpent and its plumage? Is it to be assumed that the bearded feathered serpent from archaic Athens represented an artistic or mythological theme which was transmitted entire to Mesoamerica? This we shall consider; mean­while, it may be noted that Dr. Cordon's argument seems actually to proceed otherwise. He remarks that there was a Babylonian tradition that all arts and sciences were attributed to a culture-hero called Oannes, who came out of the sea. Oannes was a kind of merman, half man and half fish. Dr. Cordon ascribes the origin of this legend to the dependence of Sumerian arts and crafts on foreign imports. It seems therefore that he is suggesting that the Mesoamerican attributes of Quetzalcoatl arose as a result of contact with Mediterranean traders, their fair-skinned bearded faces contributing one element, while their imports into Mexico and their technological innovations encouraged an Oannes-type myth. Within this context of ideas, what is the significance of the Greek mon­ster? Are we to assume that the Greeks had received, perhaps from Babylon, the idea of a culture-hero from the sea, who like Oannes, was a biological hybrid? To substantiate this we would have to prove that the Athenian statue represented a being of exactly that mythological origin. At the same time, we should perhaps consider the possibility of diffusion, in reverse, from Mexico to Athens. Did the traders bring back from America the notion of a bearded white deity who was a feathered serpent? This would imply a certain degree of reflexivity in the process of origin of the concept, but it could conceivably have been a two-way process.

To approach any solution of the problem we need to consider not only Mediterranean and Mexican mythology, but the actual artistic representa­tions of Quetzalcoatl in Mesoamerica, and of monsters in Greek statuary. The statue to which Dr. Gordon refers is in a museum in Athens. It filled the angle of a pediment over the facade of a temple on the Acropolis in the archaic period prior to the burning of the city by the Persians in 480 B.C. (Gardner, 1897). The invaders demolished all the temples and overthrew the statues. When the Athenians returned, they built new temples without mortar, so that the statues, which were in poros, a soft limestone from the Piraean peninsula, were not sacrificed to lime-kilns, but used as filler for the new terracing of the Acropolis where they re­mained until excavated in 1885-89. Statuary from several temple pedi­ments were recovered, and showed great similarity in choice of subject and treatment. Many pediments were devoted to the exploits of Hercules and showed him tackling various monsters, such as the Hydra or Triton.

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Selection of these themes may have been due in part to the popularity of Hercules, but also may have been occasioned by the difficulty of fitting statuary into the tapering triangular shape of pediments. Monsters with human torsos whose rumps tail off into snakes or fish-shaped extremities were admirable for satisfying the exigencies of the space available.

Our commentator, E. A. Gardner, (from whom we have quoted) says that all these pieces of statuary show a love for uncouth and monstrous shapes, far removed from the usual conception of Greek art. The tails are treated so as to make the most of their scaly decoration. However, the heads of the monsters are always represented as human. The forms of the bodies are massive but not unnatural in their proportions. The faces are fleshy and heavy but vigorous and with life-like expressions. They are, says Gardner, like naturalistic studies from life, and are not conven­tionalized, like most Greek sculpture. The example chosen by Dr. Gordon is described by Gardner as the last and finest of the limestone pediment groups. On one half of the pediment Hercules fought the snake Echidna, while on the other half, Hercules' father, Zeus, combatted the Typhon. In mythology Echidna was half woman and half snake. By Typhon she was the mother of a whole menagerie of monsters — Cerberus, the Chime­ra, Orthus, the dragon of Colchis, the Sphynx, The Hydra, the Gorgon, and the dragon who guarded the apples of the Hcsperides. Typhon is the personage with whose representation we are concerned. He is sometimes equated with Typhoeus. Typhon was reputed the largest of all monsters (Graves, 1955). From the thighs downward his body was coiled serpents. His arms had innu arable serpent's heads in place of hands. He had a donkey's head as well as wings, and fire and flaming rocks issued from his mouth. He was reputed to be the father of the north wind and other inclement blasts but not of the mild breezes, such as Zephyr. He was also equated with hurricanes, as well as with the hot Sirocco from Africa. Typhon was the son of Gaea, the earth goddess, and Tartarus, a god of the underworld. He hurled mountains at Zeus, who deflected them with thunderbolts. When Typhon took refuge in Sicily, Zeus threw Mount Etna on top of him. The fires of Etna were attributed to Typhon's breath.

Clearly any artist seeking to represent Typhon had a great deal of matter to work with. However, simplified portrayals were in order. One representation of Typhon, under the name of Typhoeus, depicted him with two scaly snake-like legs, a normal human torso, and head adomed with beard and moustache. The hands are human, except that the fingers are snakes. (Morris and Morris, 1965). This, in its elements, though not in its style, agrees with Athenian representation, except that the torsos of the latter have normal human hands and genial faces. It would seem, therefore, that the statuary in question cannot be considered an isolated oddity, necessarily requiring explanation in terms of knowledge of Quetzalcoatl, but derives from an antecedent in Greek mythology, which

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is itself not an isolated theme. The Greek myth-makers were fond of monsters, and a surprising number of them, as well as Typhon, were described as having serpent tails — the Giants, the Echidna, the Chimera, and Cecrops. The hero or demigod Erechtheus, who was revered on the Acropolis, also had a snake's tail. The tritons and the Hippocampus, who were sea-creatures, had fish-tails, which certainly suggests a connection with the Oannes myth; however, these beings were in no sense culture-heros. It would, in fact, seem that serpent tails played a role in Greek myth independent of fish tails, and it would be rash to equate the two, Indeed Greek mythology and folk myth, from which in part it derived, is, like most mythologies and folklore, replete with serpent motifs. Snakes almost universally tend to be associated with the earth because they live on the ground, and are seen emerging from or going into crannies and crevices. As most of the monsters in Greek mythology had Gaea — the Earth mother — somewhere in their ancestry, it would be natural for them to share her attributes. The case for snakes as worldwide objects of both fear and reverence among primitive peoples could be argued at great length, but the fact is so well-known as to render this hardly necessary.

It would seem that snake-worship and the appearance of snakes in religious art is both too spontaneous and too ancient to require that its appearance in different parts of the world be explained by cultural diffu­sion. If a common origin for snake-cults in the Old and New Worlds is desired, it could (if such an explanation is necessary) be regarded plausibly as a heritage which the American Indians brought with them from Asia in the Old Stone Age. Positive evidence that Palaeolithic men had a certain degree of preoccupation with snakes is provided by the recently discovered Dome of Serpents in a cave at Rouffignac in central France. On the clay roof are traced hundreds of intertwining serpents. The work is ascribed to the Aurignacian era. In a cave at Baume Latrone in Southern France a serpent ten feet long is depicted. It might possibly represent a mythical giant snake because the accompanying figures of mammoths are much smaller. (Morris and Morris, 1965).

To treat the Athenian Typhon impartially in the present context, we need however also to examine the Mesoamerican representations of Quetzalcoatl. In Aztec times Coatlicue was much honoured. She is inter­preted both as a moon goddess and as Earth. Her most famous represen­tation is the great statue in the National Museum of Mexico which shows her in a skirt of serpents. The god Quetzalcoatl was bom after she was fertilized by the Sun through the medium of either a feather or an emerald. Thus, the god Quetzalcoatl (or Huitzilopochtli, according to an Aztec identification) was, like Typhon, the son of an earth goddess with serpent attributes. There was also a parallelism in that Quetzalcoatl in his manifestation as Ehecatl was a wind god. The mythology of Quetzal-

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coatl, which presumably grew up over a period of the order of 1500 years in the cultures of Teotihuacan, of the Toltecs, and then finally, of the Aztecs, became very complex. In a creation myth in the form of a serpent he subdued an earth monster, tearing her into two parts, one of which became heaven and the other the earth. In another persona, as "Precious Tree", he helped prop up the heavens. As Ehecatl he acted as messenger of the gods, visiting heaven to fetch back the art of music. Generally, like the Greek Hermes, Quetzalcoatl was the messenger of the gods and pat­ron of highways. It was he who learned the secret of planting maize seeds and transmitted the art to men. He was also equated with the planet Venus, which takes 584 days to complete its orbital revolution. Now, five times 584 days is equal to 2920 days, which is almost eight solar years. The Venus cycle and the solar year thus came into coincidence every eight years. Also, every 104 years they coincide with the repetition of the practical solar calendar which was based on two kinds of month, which only synchronized every 52 years. Thus, Quetzalcoatl, as Venus, under­went cycles of return.

In addition, by identification with Venus, Quetzalcoatl symbolized renewal, resurrection, and spiritual fife. Venus, as morning star, disap­pears in the brightness of the sun's light and then is reborn as the evening star. As the sun rises in the east Quetzalcoatl was associated with the eastern of the four quarters of the world, and so with the east.

The origin of Quetzalcoatl's feathers is not fully understood. The Quetzal is a bird of brilliantly green plumage found in Guatemala, the Maya country, and the name is Mayan. The Quetzal is still respected; its name is given to the Guatemalan dollar. Coatl which means serpent is a compound of co, the Mayan word for snake, and ail a word for water in Nahua, the family of languages which included Nahuatl, the speech of the Aztecs. The brilliance of the quetzal bird's plumage symbolized everything that was splendid, including the royal and the divine. As the bird lives in the high branches, far from earth, it may have become an appropriate symbol for a radiant god of air and sunlight. The degree and mode of association of Quetzalcoatl, the god, with water and the sea is somewhat obscure. On the so-called Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl in the Citadel of Teotihuacan, the god is portrayed as a serpent with a ruff of feathers at his neck. The local Mexican guides suggest that the rippling form of the serpent body imitates the meanderings of a river, and sym­bolizes water in its fertilizing aspect. On the pyramid, in juxtaposition to the serpent are reliefs in the shape of fishes, and these may be taken to refer to water, but whether to fresh water or the sea is not easily to be decided, especially as the pyramid is shared with Tlaloc the rain god. In addition, as elsewhere in Teotihuacan, and in many other places, the conch shell is associated with Quetzalcoatl. If such a shell is cut through transversely the section is star-shaped, and it has been suggested that this

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equates the shell with Quetzalcoatl as Venus (Nicholson, 1965). The more usual interpretation is that it symbolizes the whirlwind, and thus Quetzalcoatl as Ehecatl.

Besides the god there were also men sumamed Quetzalcoatl. Priests and princes appear at various times to have assumed or been awarded this honorific name. The most celebrated bearer of this title seems to have been the origin of the belief in a bearded god who departed across the sea and who would return. Though diverse myths accumulated about him, he seems definitely to have been a historic person, and the son of one Mixcoatl — "Cloud Serpent", an epithet for the Milky Way, which also was associated in myth with the god Quetzalcoatl. Mixcoatl was a leader of the Toltecs, a nation which filled the power vacuum caused by the fall of Teotihuacan. Entering Central Mexico about 980 A.D. the Toltecs established a kingdom. Mixcoati's son was Topiltzin (High Prince"), also called Ce Acatl ("One Reed"), the name of the year in which he was born, which was either 935 A.D. or 947 A.D. (Coe, n.d.). In addition, he was entitled Quetzalcoatl, presumably as leader of the cult of the god. He appears to have played an important part in the founding of Tula, the Toltec capital. The legends are very confused, but indicate that dissensions broke out between his followers, and those of another military-religious cult devoted to another god, Tezcat-lipoca. As a result, Quetzaleoatl-Topiltzin retired from Tula. Going south through the valley of Mexico and then westward, when he reached the Gulf of Mexico he boarded a raft made of serpents (or one covered in snake skins). Some say that he set off for an unknown destination declar­ing that one day he would return. But other accounts maintain that he went to Tlapallan — "whither the sun called him". This place is, of course, mythical. Called Tlillan-Tlapallan, it was the land of the black and the red — colours, which in combination, signified wisdom. One of the three paradises recognized in later Mexican mythology, Tlapallan was the celestial home of initiates of the cult of the god Quetzalcoatl. Another variant of the legend of Topiltzin's departure says that he immolated himself on a funeral pyre from whence his ashes ascended to the sky to become the planet Venus.

The Mayan account is that a Mexican conqueror called Kukulcan ("Feathered Serpent"), arrived from the sea in 987 A.D. In Mayan legend he is described as a wise and just ruler. He is said to have returned to Mexico and been adopted there as one of their gods and called Quetzal­coatl. There certainly was a conquest of Yucatan by Toltec invaders. Murals in the Temple of the Warriors at Chichen Itza, a Mayan city largely rebuilt in the Toltec style, show them approaching in war canoes. Mayan accounts of the conquest are somewhat confused with those of a later conquest by the Itza, a people whose leader also took the name of Kukulcan, and who seem to have initiated Toltec ideas in their further

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development of Chichen Itza (Coe, n.d.). No support for the theory of transatlantic contact can be got from the story of Votan, the legendary founder of Palenque, because all that is said of this hero is consistent with him having come from Mexico. Also, there is a legend that he came from Tula, which suggests clearly that he was a leader of Toltec emigres (Coe, 1966).

Topiltzin, the historical Quetzalcoatl, was described as bearded and fair-skinned, The legend of his departure, mixed with the various attri­butes of Quetzalcoatl the god, seems to be the only source of the fair-sldnned bearded man from the sea. As such, it is too late, by 1500 years, to relate to archaic Greece. The description of fair-skinned, in any case, does not necessarily have to be understood factually, because it may be merely a mythological attribute arising from the god Quetzaleoatl's solar affinities. The subject of beards in Mesoamerica is a difficult one. We know that Moctezuma had a "short black beard, well-shaped and thin" (Diaz, ed. 1963). This seems good evidence that beards were by no means so absent from the New World as is usually supposed. It is there­fore less necessary to regard the dozen or so artistic representations found in Mesoamerica of men with beards as a mystery requiring explanation in terms of immigration from the Old World. Occasionally false beards appear to have been used; a stele at Tepalaxco in Veracruz shows homage being rendered to a notable personage who appears to be adomed with a false beard (Irwin 1964). The a priori argument that Amerindians could not have been bearded because they were Mongoloids and the latter do not have beards can be faulted by scanning any book on oriental art. Japanese examples are inadmissable because of possible intermarriage with the Hairy Ainu, but beards and moustaches are found in Chinese art of periods prior to the development of European contacts. If beards, though naturally occuring in the New World, were rare or usually sparse or (as is likely) more pronounced in older rather than younger men, it is logical to suppose that they were associated with the ideas of age, maturity, wisdom and dignity, and also perhaps, with fertility and virility. It would be natural therefore for monarchs and dignitaries to cultivate their beards or, where growth was lacking, to don false ones for public occasions. Attributes of leaders tend to equate with those ascribed to the gods, and Quetzalcoatl-Topiltzin's reputed beard may have been genuine, like Moctezuma's, or honorific, awarded to him posthumously in view of his fame as a man and dignity as a god.

If we review the most famous representations of Quetzalcoatl we find no true correspondence with a bearded man with feathers who is half serpent, or even the combination bearded-feathered-serpent. The one instance which can be cited of the latter type is that of Quetzalcoatl as a serpent which occurs on the base of the main temple at Xochicalco. From the snake's lower jaw there hang three fronds which could be in-

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terpreted as a beard, but it could be argued that they are feathers. At Teotihuacan the Quetzalcoatls are merely serpents with feathered ruffs, and quite innocent of beards. At Chichen Itza they are just serpents, without beards or feathers. There are also S-shaped "serpent columns" or with plumage delineated but without heads or beards.

Among the human representations of Quetzalcoatl we can cite the Huastec statue of about 1000 A.D. showing him Janus fashion as Lord of Life and Death. In both guises the god is human and clean-shaven, as well as devoid of feathers. The famous statue of Quetzalcoatl as Ehecatl, god of the wind, associated with the circular Matlatzinca-Aztec Pyramid at Calixtlahuaca shows the god as a fully human "featherless biped" except for a duck-bill mask covering his mouth. The duck-bill is somewhat myterious but clearly nothing to do with Typhon or Greece. In the National Museum of Mexico there is a stele of Quetzalcoatl as Ehecatl wearing a breastplate of conch shells and a conical cap. He is human and beardless, but has a curious structure projecting each side of the base of his nose. This is not a beard nor even a moustache; it is a nose-plug. Some other statues are ambiguous since it is not surely known whether they represent Quetzalcoatl or priests or initiates of the god. Such is the charming statue the "Huastec Adolescent", sometimes cited as the young god Quetzalcoatl, but which on the reliable authority of Dr. Ignacio Bemal (1968) more probably represents a young priest. It is totally anthropomorphic. So also are the famous Atlantides of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl as the Morning Star of Tula — statues that once supported the temple roof on their heads. They have feathered head­dresses, reminiscent of North American Indians, but are clean-shaven. Irene Nicholson (1965) indicates a stucco head from Tabasco as pre-classic Mayan and possibly a portrait of Kukulcan. Even if the dating and identification are correct, it does not take us far because though possessing somewhat European features and equipped with a trim beard the head is completely human, and there is no body available for com­ment.

Representations of Quetzalcoatl as part man and part serpent do occur but seem to have been relatively uncommon or of restricted provenance. An Aztec carving, dated between 1200 and 1500 A.D., shows Quetzalcoatl as a head growing from a mass of coiled plumage. The god has a peculiar appendage growing from his chin, spadelike in shape, but showing nothing in the nature of hair, it develops into a serpent. But this is doubt­ful evidence as it is of such late workmanship and represents the Aztec tendency to elaborate philosophical symbolism. Only in the Maya country do we find feathered serpents with human faces as illustrated in Victor van Hagen's book (1960, p. 33). But these presumptive Kukuleans are not only beardless, their feathers are indubitably Mayan and cannot easily be mistaken for traders from Greece, Rome or Carthage, or even

i - !- i . i . i . . . i n.

for Phoenicians or other inhabitants of the ancient Levant. In short: there seem to be no facts available which at all weaken the conclusion of Hedrick (1971) that in respect of Quetzalcoatl" there is no evidence whatsoever — whether or not Kukulcan was indeed Quetzalcoatl — that the man was from any other land but Mexico".

REFERENCES

BERNAL, I. 1968. The National Museum of Mexico. Thames and Hud­son, London.

COE, M. D. n.d. Mexico. Thames and Hudson, London.

COE, M. D. 1968. The Maya. Thames and Hudson, London.

DIAZ, Bemal. ed. 1963. The Conquest of New Spain. Penguin Books, Baltimore.

GARDNER, E. A. 1897. A Handbook of Greek Sculpture. MacMillan, London.

GORDON, C. H. 1971. Before Columbus, Links between the Old World and Ancient America. Crown Publishers, New York.

GRAVES, R. 1955. The Greek Myths. Penguin Books, Rickmansworth, Middlesex. 2 Vols.

HEDRICK, B. C. 1971. "Quetzalcoatl: European or Indigene?" in Man across the Sea. (ed. C. C. Riley at al) University of Texas Press, Austin.

IRWIN, C. 1964. Fair Gods and Stone Faces. W. H. Allen, London. MORRIS, R. and MORRIS, D. 1965. Men and Snakes. Hutchinson,

London.

NICHOLSON, I. 1965. Mexican and Central American Mythology. Ham-lyn, Toronto.

OSBORNE, H. 1968. South American Mythology. Hamlyn, Toronto. Von HAGEN, V. W. 1960. World of the Maya. New American Library,

Toronto and New York.

New Horizons Research Foundation. 1 October 1972.

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