Anthony Aveni and others considered the Dresden Codex staggeringly accurate for Venus’s orbit around the sun—an error of 0.08 days in more than 481 years!
There are important comparisons that can be made between Olmec and Mayan astronomy on the one hand and Shang and Han dynasty astronomy for the same era. According to Needham, Han dynasty astronomers also used a lunar cycle for their calendars—calendars of twenty-nine and thirty alternating days, the same system used by the Olmec and Maya. Han astronomers had also worked out the period of Venus’s orbit around the sun as 584 days and meridian passage of the sun as 780 days (true figures 583.9 and 799.9). They had gone further in establishing Jupiter’s orbit as 398 days and Saturn’s as 378.
Needham also compared other interesting mathematical formulas in the Han and Maya calculations, using all the while two constants, referred to by the Han as chi-mu, representing a planetary cycle; and day, month, and year cycles, thung-mu.
With the Han value for the lengths of lunation, the smallest number of lunations which would give a round number of days was eighty-one (i.e., 2392 days) and when this was combined with the lunar eclipse cycle of one hundred and thirty-five months, the former multiplied by five and the latter by three, both give four hundred and five lunations of 11906 days. This is the shortest period of whole days in which the eclipses cycle could be completed and is identical with the Tzolkin of the Mayas.
In short, the astronomy of the Olmec and the Maya coincides with that of the Shang and Han dynasties of China. The pyramids are also so similar that one must have copied the other.
Did the Chinese copy the Maya? This could be argued but it is not supported by DNA evidence. No indigenous American DNA has yet been found in Chinese people. There is, however, as Dr. Tony Frudakis stated in his speech at the Library of Congress Zheng He Symposium in May 2005, “substantial and statistically significant East Asian admixture in the DNA of Indigenous American peoples of twenty, thirty and sometimes forty percent.”9
Moreover, as far as I know, there is no evidence of indigenous American peoples in or near Chinese tomb pyramids.
There is, however, copious evidence of Mongolian Chinese people at Olmec and Mayan tomb pyramids in the form of Shang dynasty writing at La Venta and other Olmec sites; a buried Mongolian general at the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán; East Asian admixture in the genes of Campeche Maya (Uxmal); Chinese faces and figurines at Monte Albán; graffiti showing Chinese faces at Tikal; Pacal’s death mask at Palenque; and Chinese ceramics in cenotes at Chichen Itza and adjacent Maya ports.
So I say that the Olmec and Mayan pyramids were built using Chinese expertise—from Chinese people who were present at the building of thousands of pyramids in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize and who remained over many centuries to assist in developing astronomy. There was a very large number of Chinese in Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala from 1400 B.C. to 1000 A.D.
CHAPTER 10
Pyramid Builders of South America
The next logical step after our examination of pyramids and the pyramid builders of Mexico and Central America was to move along down the line to seek further similarities with ancient explorers in South America.
Aside from the pyramids themselves, there are smaller signs closer to the ground from which we can track proof of commerce and transportation of people and their ideas. For example, spondulix shells (spondulix means a form of money) thousands of years old, originating on the coast of Ecuador, have been found in graves at Tikal—evidence of trade between Ecuador and Guatemala. Small copper axes originating in South America and identified as currency have been found in graves at Copan in modern Honduras, not far from the Guatemalan border. We received photographs of giant Olmec heads found at Monte Alto, near La Democracia, on the Pacific slope south of Guatemala City, as well as other photos of a large lion that appeared similar to Chinese works, found at El Baúl, also near La Democracia.
All in all it seemed there had been trade between Ecuador and Tikal, and furthermore (as discussed in earlier chapters) between Tikal and Teotihuacán, north of Mexico City. I wondered if the Ecuadorean people who were trading with Tikal were pyramid builders similar to those in the north. Was there “a pyramid belt” across Central and South America?
In search of answers, we flew to South America to find out the age and type of pyramids in South America.
Whatever contact there was between South America’s Andean coast and Central America, one has to note the extraordinary geography of South America, from northern Peru down to southern Chile. The Andes straddle the equator, and as they continue south they widen. Thus the coastal plain that is a hundred miles wide in Ecuador gets narrower and narrower until in Chile it is sometimes only twenty miles wide. A grassland plateau emerges between the peaks where the Andes massif broadens, some 11,500 feet high. Innumerable small rivers run westward from this plateau down to the Pacific Ocean, like the legs of a centipede. East of the Andes, a wide, hot, low plain stretches to the Atlantic. As moist winds spread westward, they deluge the Brazilian rain forest, then dump the residue on the Andes peaks, where, due to the mountains’ height, it falls as snow. Between September and April the winds freshen and snow reaches the high slopes of the western Andes. With summer this snow melts, sending water cascading down the centipede-like rivers into the Pacific, through a bone-dry strip of desert along the coast.
The dry desert coast is a result of the Pacific’s cold Humboldt Current, which flows northward from the Antarctic up to the Chilean and Peruvian coasts. The combination of this cold current and a persistent high-pressure system in the central Pacific prevents rainfall—indeed, there was no word for rain in either the Quechua or Aymara languages of Chile and Peru. In winter, however, the coast is covered by a fine mist that burns off in the morning sun. The Chinese name for this mist is Peru.
As the Humboldt Current rises to the ocean surface it brings millions of tons of plankton from its depths. Small fish feed on the plankton, attracting larger fish, which in turn attract sea lions. The rich water yields three-quarters of a ton of fish per acre, almost a thousand times the world average.
Birds gorge themselves on the fish: Millions nest ashore, providing an endless supply of guano fertilizer. So the ancient peoples living along the Pacific coast of southern Ecuador, Peru, and northern Chile had an endless bounty of fish, crustaceans, birds, and sea lions for food. Their rural valleys were full of water for a quarter of the year and they had plenty of good fertilizer. So it is not surprising that this stretch of coast has produced rich human civilizations since the dawn of time. The land has as much to offer as the Nile, Euphrates, Ganges, or the rivers of China or of Central America.
These rich civilizations produced art of great beauty and trade goods of considerable value. They would have been considered valued trading partners for the sophisticated Chinese.
Marcella and I first traveled to the Andean coast in 1997 and crossed the Andes by bus at Tambo Quemado, Bolivia. Then we descended to the Pacific near Arica, and headed southward into Chile. In 2003 we visited the glaciers of southern Chile. In 2006 we traveled south from Lima to Paracas. So we have traveled the whole Pacific coast of South America, from Ecuador to the Strait of Magellan, over the course of three journeys.
Our plan on our most recent trip was to head south and stop at five great archaeological sites on the way down through Peru to Chile. We planned to stop for a couple of days at the pyramids of Túcume, near Chiclayo, then at the pyramids of the sun and moon near Trujillo, at the huge ruined city of Chan Chan, at the pyramids of Sechín near Casma, then Paramonga, and finally the great pyramid of Pachacamac, south of Lima.
TÚCUME
The local people living in the narrow coastal plain of northern Peru call the dozens of pyramids that surround La Reya Mountain “Purgatorio”—Purgatory. Here the famous site of Túcume encompasses twenty-six major pyramids and platforms in a site of 540 acres.
This group of pyramids is in the fertile Lambayeque Valley, the lar
gest valley on Peru’s northern Pacific coast. Father Cabello de Balboa, a Spanish priest and writer who moved to Peru in the mid-1500s, said that Túcume was founded by Cala, a grandson of the legendary Naymlap, who founded the Lambayeque royal dynasty in around 1000 A.D. Cala is said to have gone to Túcume to “start new families and settlements, bringing many people with him.” It would seem this was around 1000–1100 A.D., when the old regional center at Batán Grande to the south of the Chancay River was burned and abandoned.
NAYMLAP AND CALA
Folk legend says that Naymlap arrived in a fleet of balsa-wood ships, along with an entourage of courtiers, servants, and women.1 He established quarters close to shore and built a temple called either Chota or Chotuna. Naymlap and his people prayed to an idol made of green stone he had brought with him. It was known as the god Yampallec, apparently the origin of the valley’s name, Lambayeque.
Naymlap’s name and image appear in ceremonial artifacts over time, including knives and funeral masks. Naymlap’s name appears to come from the Muchik language, meaning “water bird.” Figures of a plumed figure are often found on artifacts in the region. Local legend said he had at least three children, one of whom was Cala, the traditional founder of Túcume.
Evidence of Naymlap’s and Cala’s work is seen all around the Lambayeque valley. A large irrigation canal, the Taymi, brings water from the Chancay River (Ciudad Chancay means “City of Chinese Silk” in Spanish). There are numerous smaller tributaries leading off the Taymi Canal, resulting in very fertile land around the pyramids.
Huaca 1 is a stepped pyramid with a long, narrow access ramp. The pyramid boasts two huge plazas, the biggest of which is 689 by 259 feet. On top of Huaca 1 are a series of rooms at different levels with access ramps and stairways—probably living quarters of the Lambayeque elite.
Huaca Larga, or the long pyramid, is the longest adobe structure known.
Huaca Balsas nearby is little more that a derelict pyramid today, heavily damaged by El Niño floods and by looting. However, it has a beautiful frieze known as the “Mound of the Rafts,” which shows a bird-man and a mystical bird leading a boat with crew ashore.
Much of the complex was built of baked mud bricks—millions of them in the tenth century A.D., before the site was conquered by the Chimu in 1375 and absorbed into the Inca Empire in 1470. Spanish conquistadors led by Pizarro arrived in the region in 1532. There are twenty-six large adobe pyramids located at the site, which covers about 540 acres. Eroded by centuries of flooding, the monuments are a shadow of their former glory. It is very difficult to reach any conclusions, save that the site and pyramids are enormous—a colossal endeavor.
The area around Túcume is delightful, featuring sugarcane and Peru plum trees. Museums display some of the riches extracted from the tombs, but many of the items excavated in graves at Túcume are now displayed in Lima, six hundred miles to the south.
From the tomb excavations we know that the Moche people who lived at Túcume grew corn, beans, chili peppers, potatoes, and squash and dined on ducks, llamas, guinea pigs, and fish. To this day cattle are brought down from the mountains in winter to graze on grass that grows in the mist created by the cold Humboldt Current. The most surprising aspect of the tombs when excavated in 2001 was the size of the bodies—between five foot, nine inches and six foot tall, nearly a foot taller than the average Moche—a dominant elite, perhaps from Naymlap’s family? Some of the mummies had suffered from Asian viruses and diseases that must have been carried by sea, as discussed earlier.
From Túcume, we traveled about 150 miles south along the Pacific to visit the Moche pyramids, the Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna, near Trujillo. We arrived in time to see a cold, misty dawn, no surprise. As at Túcume, the mist is produced by the Humboldt Current, and it burns off usually around three hours after sunrise.
One saw immediately that the Huaca del Sol has been badly damaged over time. The conquistadors actually redirected the flow of the Moche River to wash away part of the pyramid so they could reach the tombs below. Even so, the pyramid remains the largest man-made structure in pre-Columbian South America, reaching nearly 155 feet, as large as the Cholula pyramid. In 1990, nearly 65,000 square feet of remarkable mural paintings were found at the Huaca de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon), several hundred yards away. The yellow, white, red, and black paint is in good condition and vividly depicts the feline deities similar to those of the jaguar we have seen all over Central America.
The pyramids are in such bad shape other than these friezes that it is difficult to make much sense of the site. However, we do know that in 1638, Father Antonio de la Calancha wrote he had found a huaca in Trujillo thirty-six years earlier that featured armed horsemen carrying swords and lances.2 A reproduction shown on the next page features the carved swords of soldiers who could be Japanese, Mongolian, or, some say, Korean.
Reproduction of Oriental horsemen as described by Father Antonio de la Calancha.
Whatever those figures might be, the fertile plain that we visited, comprising the rich provinces of La Libertad and Ancash, includes one hundred villages and small towns that bear Chinese names and were there when the Spanish arrived.3 The names not only appear to be Chinese—they have coherent meanings in Chinese. Chawán, in the district of La Pampa, in the province of Pallasca, means in Chinese “land prepared for sowing.” Chankán (Chau cán), in the district of Cahvamayo, means “to harden metals.” Was there a mine there before the Spanish came? Cha-Man (Chamán) means “covered in sand”; Chang-Ten (Chantén) is “crop lands” or “best quality”; Chaolán (Chaulán) means “prepare for combustion.” Chu Chan, a hill in the district of Huancaverica, is Chinese for “dawn.” Chulín (Chu-Lin) means “wood or forest.” “Hong” (Hon or Jon) is Chinese for “red”—meaning red clay earth? Hupá (Jupa), cultivated lands in Huasta district, signifies a legume plant. Ko-Lan (Colán), a very old town at the bottom of a ravine, is Chinese for “difficult passage”—very apt considering the topography of the place. Lay-Chy (Laychí) is a sweet Chinese fruit. Lahán (Laján) means “clamor.”
Lin-Chi (Linché) in Chinese means “snake.” The village is on the big, steep, rocky valley of the district of Chincha Baja. Mong-Tan (Montán) is on the summit of a mountain range from where the torrent of Montán flows. Mongtán in Chinese means “big stream.” Pay-Han (Pay Ján) in the district of Trujillo means “damaging drought” in Chinese. Chan Chan (Chan Chán) was an area occupied by the Chinese where there are enormous ruins. Chan Chán was the old name for Canton in China—where there still exists a village called Chan Chán. Hong Kong (Joncon) on the River Moche means “red hole” or “red country.”4
In summary, in northern Peru’s Ancash and Libertad provinces there are ninety-five villages or towns that have names that are Chinese and have no significance or meaning in Quechua, Aymara, or any of the eight Peruvian dialects, nor do they mean anything in Spanish. There are also 130 geographical names in Peru that correspond to the similar names in China.
Map of the Ancash province in Peru, which contains a plethora of villages and small towns with Chinese names.
The remarkable connection with China goes beyond names. The people in the Eten and Monsefu villages until one hundred years ago were said to have understood Chinese but not each other’s dialects.
On the map below, the dots show Peruvian names that correspond with geographical names in China. They stretch from the borders of Ecuador in the north to Ka province in the south—more than a thousand miles—stopping where the full effect of the north-flowing Humboldt Current begins to be felt.
We have also seen that the Inca people of Ecuador have significant East Asian DNA as do people of the coast south from Ecuador. Juanita, the Virgin of the Sun, whose body (dated 1420 A.D.) is now at Arequipa University, also has Chinese genes—from Taiwan. It seems to me that enormous numbers of Chinese came and settled in Peru before the Spanish Conquest.
The dots on this map show Peruvian names that correspond with geographical na
mes in China.
When we first visited South America forty years ago, the great city of Chan Chan, the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas, was hardly known other than to archaeologists. Its awesome size and complexity have come to light only after years of intensive excavations. Three aspects are immediately striking. First is the colossal scale of the place. It covers 7.7 square miles, with a central 2.3-square-mile urban core dominated by a series of huge enclosures—a city more than twice the size of medieval London, meaning of the same era.
The second vivid image is the regularity of the enclosed area—rectangles within rectangles on a north-south axis with streets east-west and north-south providing access to the rectangles. The third powerful impression is the dominance of the twenty-five-foot walls both surrounding the city and within. It is a totally different urban plan from anything we have seen in North, Central, or South America. The plan could be a replica of medieval Canton (Chan Chán to the Chinese). Could the Peruvian Chan Chan (Canton) have been built by the builders of the Chinese Canton (Chan Chán)?
The similarities between Chinese and ancient Peruvian coastal cities is the subject of a study by Jorge E. Hardy.5 Hardy gathered aerial photos and maps comparing the Peruvian Chan Chan and Chinese cities of the same period. He wrote: “We find an interesting similarity in urban plans and even in the elements utilized in their design between cities of Peru’s northern coast and Chinese cities of the same epoch.”
Hardy focused on a number of characteristics, including the notable wall around the Peruvian city, which was intended to separate Chan Chan from outsiders. He said that the building of an imposing wall around the periphery of a city was just as important to a small city as Chan Chán in China. “In both cases,” he wrote, “the wall symbolized the abrupt physical and cultural separation of city and country.”
Who Discovered America? : The Untold History of the Peopling of the Americas (9780062236777) Page 12
