he Westward Spread Of Inca and Egyptian Culture, History


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he Westward Spread Of Inca and Egyptian Culture

he Westward Spread Of Inca and Egyptian Culture The second half of the twentieth century has seen many changes in concerning the mode of colonization of the islands of Micronesia, and the Empire, with it's striking similarities to Egypt. In the past, it has been Asians had worked their way through the Pacific, over a period of thousands was believed that each island group had formed independently, and that the while they were of the same race, had totally different cultures. Since however, these views have been changing. It is now accepted by many Egyptians sailed as far west as South America, in their huge reed boats. who owe many of their technological advancements to these Egyptian the west, colonizing Easter Island, Hawaii, and the other Pacific islands. The most common misconception about these early travels is that they on boats or ships. This is definitely not the case. In fact, the on rafts; the Incas used balsa logs ( Kon-Tiki 21), the Egyptians reeds (Ra 3). One striking piece of evidence for Egyptian-Inca contact is reed rafts on Lake Titicaca that are exactly like rafts used on Lake Chad 3). Of course, this could be merely coincidence, but much more evidence support the theory of ancient contacts between Egyptians and Pre-Colombian The most positive, though hardly concrete, item is the legends of the translates as white man in English) people of Lake Titicaca in South *I*Viracocha*/I* are said to have been the first builders of the reed boats "came forth in a flotilla of reed boats,... appearing to the local Indians were ignorant of sun worship, architecture, and agriculture" (Ra 30). were the same size and specification of the boats used by Egyptians, and crewed them began, among other things, building pyramids and statues, many still stand throughout Central and South America (Ra 3). In fact, the most of evidence linking the Egyptians and early Americans is a small stone in Mexico, bearing features that are decidedly similar to those of Egyptian statue was carbon dated 800 BC (Begley, et al 28), long before Europeans have contacted Central and South Americans. The Aztecs and Mayas of Central America also provide contact. The starting date of the Maya calendar is 12, 3113 BC. This is the first dynasty of the Pharaohs. If these Indians had already been in Hemisphere for 15,000 years, why was it only after the Egyptians started that they did, and used such similar methods. Mayan and Aztec texts also became civilized only after a man, claiming descent from the sun arrived Mexico, with a complement of astronomers, architects and priests. The man/god Quetzalcoatl, and the Mayans called him Kukulkan. Both names "Plumed Serpent" (Ra 258). A plumed serpent decorates some of the Egypt, as well as Papyrus scripts. This mixture of birds and snakes is Mexico, and Peru. In addition, Peruvian and Egyptian art depicts the sun king's voyages. It is not, however these supernatural men who are the technological advancements in the area (Ra 259). Instead, normal men, who wore sandals and robes, and attributed with this. They taught the primitive natives to write, build, the sun. They also built schools primarily teaching history. Native Central America, and the Inca empire, from Bolivia to Peru agree that men Portraits found in Olmec ruins in Mexico bear decidedly black skin, rounded faces, and broad noses, versus the angular faces of the natives. Moreover, there are paintings and statues bearing Semitic including hooked noses, goatees, and sharp facial features. Some are A good deal of 'circumstantial' evidence also points to includes the fact that both cultures demonstrate traditions of royal blood lines, and hieroglyphic writings. Both societies also embalmed the same way, and performed cranial surgery (Geographic 47). One noted with the University of California documented sixty features, all of an unique to only the Egyptian and Inca empires (Ra 24). These include, in aforementioned ceremonies, paper-making with reeds, the use of adobe beards for religious leaders, and circumcision of males. Perhaps the most shared by both civilizations is the practice of, "expeditions in search of highly valuable for their red shells or for the red dye extracted from the Nonetheless, in order to further theories of Egyptian-Inca establish a means whereby such contact could have occurred. The voyages to South America has been proved by Thor Heyerdahl. In 1970, he hodgepodge team of various nationalities built a large reed raft in Egypt, designs and Peruvian Indians to provide technical advice. They hauled the across the continent, and sailed to a landfall in Barbados, in the used in constructing this raft were those that ancient Egyptians would have expedition was a complete success, proving that with their technology, could certainly have traveled to the Americas (Ra Poscript). As far as the overland journey from a landing point in the Spanish explorer Francisco Pizzaro provided proof that it wasn't an distance. Indeed, he sailed from the Mediterranean to South America, and overland, with his crew, to the Inca empire in Peru, and then returned to fast as Hernan Cortes hacked through Mexico to the Aztec empire (Ra Despite all this evidence, though, it has not been Egyptians sailed to South America. There is an entire ocean, and two separating the cultures. It would have been a remarkable feat to have distance. But one must keep in mind that the Egyptians were the builders and crossing the vast distances may have been a similarly worthy As pointed out by Thor Heyerdahl, there is a much stronger colonization of the Pacific Islands. The single most obvious indicators of the sweet potato and bottle gourd. The common sweet potato, Ipomoea to South America. It was brought into North America by natives, and wasn't Europe until the sixteenth century. Yet it is prolific throughout all of islands. Its distribution among these scattered islands could only have by human intervention. On Easter Island, huge sweet potato plantations for hundreds of years. Like the sweet potato, the bottle gourd, native America, is found throughout the Pacific. Even more striking is the between the names given to these vegetables by the different cultures. called kumara, and the bottle gourd is known as kimi in by the traditional languages in Peru (Kon-Tiki 102-103). There are also legends, on both sides of the Pacific that contact between the peoples of the Polynesian islands and the Inca culture. contend that a race "from the North" who lived on Lake Titicaca fled to the rafts made of balsa. Their leader's name was Kon-Tiki (Kon-Tiki 19). Furthermore, the Polynesians contend that they are descendants of a group that had come "from a land in the east which was scorched by the sun" (Kon-Tiki legendary group- Tiki; who was said to be a direct scion of the sun god. he was both god and chief. It was Tiki who brought my ancestors to these we live now. Before that, we lived in a big country beyond the sea " Many who oppose the theory of Inca colonization of the the vast distances between Peru and the Pacific islands as evidence against of their migration. This, as Heyerdahl points out, is in error. The the Tuamoto island chain is 4,000 miles. However, after a raft or sailboat 1,000 miles over the sea surface, it will have reached the Tuamotos. This Humbolt Current, which flows up from Antarctica, along the coast of South due west, towards Asia. In Thor Heyerdahl's 101 day crossing from Peru to Tuamotos, the ocean displaced his raft, the Kon-Tiki, 3,000 miles, actually responsible for only one thousand miles of displacement. west-to-east journey, the sea distance to be covered is 7,000 miles. That 700-day journey just to overcome the current. However, any craft would have to tack several hundred miles in order to avoid the trade winds. Heyerdahl included, feel that such a voyage would be impossible (Early Man would serve to explain the failure of a return route to Peru and negates an to the eastern-most. The distances between the islands are also frequently Easter Island, source of the oldest remnants of civilization is the Asia as all the islands, suggesting a migration from South America, which miles from Easter Island, while the nearest island is 2,000 miles west, and to mainland Asia (Kon-Tiki 127). Nonetheless this tiny, dry the oldest statues and pyramids in the Pacific islands. The famous discovered on the island are found elsewhere, but only on the islands Americas. In addition, the details and skill levels shown in the statues decreases as distance from America increases (Kon-Tiki 133-136). This all points towards a westward spread of culture, rather than the traditional eastward Once again, legend offers evidence for the westward involving Easter Island. The first Europeans to visit the island, were "mysterious white men on shore,... with long flowing beards" characterized by their light skin, red hair, and artificially-lengthened have first come to Polynesia around 400 AD The Polynesians contend that known as the "big-ears," led by the sun-god Kon-Tiki, came from the east, statues that bear an incredible likeness to them. They continued west, Hawaii to New Zealand, and intermingled with and dominated the scattered lived on the islands (Kon-Tiki 139). The statues on Easter Island similar to the statues found around Lake Titicaca. Decorating the statues are tufts of red hair, long ears, and a belt carved around the stomach. on every statue in the ruins around Lake Titicaca, and are the emblem of (Kon-Tiki 140). These remarkable similarities suggest a common The traditional names of the islands also serve as migration, as Heyerdahl points out. One of Easter Island's native names is which means "Great Rapa." To the west is an island of the same size, with Iti, which means "Little Rapa." As it is common tendency for a second referred to as Little__, or New__, this suggests that it is a satellite of the natives contend they came from the East. The other aboriginal name for is Mata-Kite-Rani, which means "the eye that looks toward heaven." significant mountains on Easter Island, compared to say, Tahiti or Hawaii Rani, which means Heaven, has two meanings: literal Heaven, and the Polynesians' ancestors. Finally, Mata-Rani means the eye of heaven, name for "a spot on the Pacific coast of Peru [directly] opposite Easter the foot of Kon-Tiki's [the god/leader of the Peruvians cum Polynesians] The third native name of Easter Island, Te-Pito-te-Henua, islands," which suggests it was an important part of the Polynesian eastern shore, near the supposed landing site of the original 'long-ears' known as the "golden navel," and considered the symbolic navel of the on greater significance because tradition refers to the discovery of the of the islands. As the navel is where the umbilical cord ties a fetus to seems to suggest that Easter Island was the last link to the The final factor in considering the westward migration such journeys. Once again, Thor Heyerdahl provided absolute evidence for of this voyage with his Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947. He and five other Norwegians and a Swede, sailed from Callo, Peru, to an island near Tahiti. expedition, twenty-five years later, only traditional tools, food and with the exception of running lights and meteorological equipment (Kon-Tiki It has now been over half a century since Heyerdahl first westward migration theories. As time goes by, more evidence has served to ideas. There are still indecipherable hieroglyphs in Peru and Polynesian are ever unraveled, they may well present new evidence, either for or The similarities between these carvings and glyphs on the west coast of sparked debates on connections between these areas, either directly or via There are also numerous references towards white men, with refer to them as having come with the reed-boatmen. Some members of the fled Lake Titicaca with Kon-Tiki were white. The Spanish conquistadors and red-haired white men in Peru and on Easter Island (Ra 260). Perhaps men's ancestors were Vikings-it is generally accepted that Leif Erikson far south as New England, and some legends of North American Natives have reference to explorers that fit Norse characteristics ( Early Man 130). Explanations for the similarities in these three distant intervention, extra-terrestrial intervention, or an as-yet undiscovered humans, perhaps from Atlantis, that brought the societies together. theories, once considered outlandishly radical, are now considered tame by The possibilities are certainly endless, but in light of the evidence so of westward migration seem the most logical explanation for the Egyptian and Inca cultures, and the colonization of the Pacific Bibliography: Begley, Sharon; Chidega, Farai; et al. "Out of Egypt, Greece." ..... Western Civilization , Volume One. Conneticut: Dushkin, .....1995. Heyerdahl, Thor. Early Man and The Ocean . New York: Doubleday, 1979. ---. Kon-Tiki . New York: Pocket Books, 1973. ---. The Ra Expeditions . New York: Doubleday, 1970. ---. "The Voyage of Ra II." National Geographic . Jan. 1971: 44-71.

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