-
- Did Africans Discover
the New World?
-
-
- Geologist Mark McMenamin,
whose interpretation of an ancient
coin design may map new understandings of antiquity.
-
-
- If Mark McMenamin is correct, neither
Columbus nor the Vikings were the first non-natives to set foot
on the Americas. McMenamin, the Mount Holyoke geologist who last
year led an expedition that discovered the oldest animal fossil
found to date, may have made another discovery--one that sheds
radical new light on present conceptions of the Classical world
and on the discovery of the New World.
-
- Working with computer-enhanced images
of gold coins minted in the North African city of Carthage between
350 and 320 BC, McMenamin has interpreted a series of designs
appearing on these coins, the meaning of which has long puzzled
scholars. McMenamin believes the designs represent a map of the
ancient world, including the area surrounding the Mediterranean
Sea and the land mass representing the Americas.
- If this is true, these coins not only
represent the oldest maps found to date, but would also indicate
that Carthaginian explorers had sailed to the New World.
-
- In fact, it was his interest in the Carthaginians
as explorers that led McMenamin to study the coins. The Carthaginians
were closely linked to the Phoenicians of the Middle East in
terms of culture, language, and naval enterprise. Both peoples
are widely credited with significant sailing exploits through
the Mediterranean, to the British Isles, and along the coast
of Africa.
-
- In one of the coins studied by McMenamin,
a horse stands atop a number of symbols at the bottom of the
coin. For many years, scholars interpreted these symbols as letters
in Phoenician script. When that theory was discounted in the
1960s, it left scholars baffled. Working over the past few months,
McMenamin was able to interpret the design as a representation
of the Mediterranean, surrounded by the land masses of Europe
and Africa, with, to the upper left, the British Isles. To the
far left of the representation of the Mediterranean is what the
geologist believes is a depiction of the Americas.
-
- A number of classical texts bolster this
theory. For example, in the first century bc, Diodorus of Sicily
wrote "...in the deep off Africa is an island of considerable
size...fruitful, much of it mountainous.... Through it flow navigable
rivers....The Phoenicians had discovered it by accident after
having planted many colonies throughout Africa."
-
- "I was just the lucky person who
had the geologic and geographic expertise to view these coins
in a new light," McMenamin notes. "I have been interested
in the Carthaginians as the greatest explorers in the history
of the world."
-
- This Phoenician copy of a
half-dollar-size coin from ancient Syracuse may provide definitive
evidence supporting Professor Mark McMenamin's theory that the
ancient Phoenicians were the first Old World explorers in the
New World. The coin's Punic (Phoenician) horse is flanked by
an uprooted palm tree representing Phoenicia. McMenamin wonders
if the dangling roots may indicate the travelers' intent to "transplant"
Phoenician culture to the New World.
-
- McMenamin's interest in Carthage led him
to master the Phoenician language. He has published two pamphlets
on his work regarding the Carthaginian coins. One is written
in ancient Phoenician, representing probably the first new work
in that language in 1500 years.
-
- He has submitted a paper on his theory
to The Numismatist, a leading journal in the study of coins,
and will seek to gain access to a number of coins currently held
in European collections. At the very least, McMenamin hopes his
theory will focus new scholarly attention on ancient Carthaginian
culture and may well reveal that it was Africans, not Europeans,
who discovered the New World.
-
-
- This detail of a
gold coin shows what McMenamin believes is a map of the Mediterranean
- area, surrounded
by Europe, Britain, Africa, and (at left) the Americas. The image
appears
- on coins minted in
Carthage between 350 and 320 BC.
-
- Give us your
thoughts and opinions!
-
- Mark A. S. McMenamin, PhD, Professor
of Geology. Mark McMenamin is an expert on the evolution of complex
forms of life and the geological events associated with the emergence
of these new life forms. In 1995, Professor McMenamin was credited
with discovering the oldest known animal fossil. Found in Mexico
during an expedition, the fossil is thought to be 600 million
years old and would place the evolution of animal life much earlier
than previously thought. An article describing the fossil has
been accepted by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
and in October 1995 was widely reported throughout the country
and around the world. Professor McMenamin is also the author
of Hypersea: Life on Land. Since 1984 McMenamin has been a member
of the Mount Holyoke College faculty. He received his Ph.D. in
Geology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in
1984 and his B.S. from Stanford University in 1979. He is the
author of numerous scholarly articles and has received several
grants and awards. In 1988 McMenamin received a Presidential
Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation,
and in 1992 and 1996 he was named a Sigma Xi National Lecturer.
-
-
- Beyond Words Village
- Give us your
thoughts and opinions!
-
-
- This article was
published courtesy of Mark McMenamin.
- Copyright ©
1999 Mark McMenamin.
- Revised: October
7, 2003, All rights reserved.
-
-
- |
KINGDOM | ABOUT US | BOOKS | SCULPTURES | MUSIC |
- | SHOPPING CART | CUSTOMER SERVICE |
| GLOSSARY OF TERMS | OPEN OUR EYES | NEWSLETTERS |
- | BEYOND
WORDS
| YOUR EYES |
- |
KNOWLEDGE LINKS | NEW BEGINNINGS | WHAT'S
GOING ON
|
-
- ©A.B.N.
Enterprises, 1999-2008, all rights reserved. The words
- African
By Nature are registered trademarks of A.B.N. Enterprises.
- Copyright
-
