Archaeologica.org

controversial, that is, if you think finding a Sumerian script, ca. 2500 BC, in the Andes is controversial ...
anyone hear about this?

Fuente Magna, the Controversial Rosetta Stone of the Americas
http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifact ... cas-003660

“The writing on the bowl “was probably Proto-Sumerian,”

According to Bernardo Biados, the Fuente Magna was most likely crafted by Sumerian people who settled in Bolivia sometime after 2,500 B.C. According to Biados, the Sumerians were known to sail to the distant Indian subcontinent and some Sumerian ships may have made their way around South Africa and entered one of the currents in the area that lead across the Atlantic from Africa to South America. It is possible that some chose to stay and explore into the Andes, perhaps searching for areas high on the plateau of Bolivia where food was being produced. Yuri Leveratto says, “the Sumerian culture influenced the people of the plateau, not only from a religious point of view, but also in the language. In fact, some linguists have found many similarities between the proto-Sumerian and Aymara languages.”

This appears to be a bona fide Sumerian-like script on an artifact from the Andes found in the late '50s. This seems huge. For the diffusionists out there, we seem to have an extra 4000 years to play with in terms of transoceanic contact. (The Shang Dynasty script among the Olmecs is another example.)

"Proto-Sumerian" after 2,500 BC?

Hi Chris -

I seem to remember that DC was designed by LaFayette, who was stiffed payment for many years by the Congress.

The town was 10 miles by 10 miles, with land ceded by Maryland and Virginia. The public buildings were supposed to be built with money raised by land sales, but the sales fell through disastrously.

Apparently either nobody thought it wold be a good investment, or they were all broke.

I'm sure that anyone really interested could easily find Ellicott in the colonial papers, probably with repeated requests for payment for his survey. The Presidential papers are on file at the Madison building of the Library of Congress, about 3 blocks from the Capitol.

But then that might bring a quick stop to the theosophist Masonic crap being sold.
Of course, since people believe what they want to believe, it most likely wouldn't.

Since no houses had been built in DC, legislators shared lodgings, which led to coalitions of different sorts coming up with different plans to promote the "common good" and make them some money.

Note the canals, which never had enough water to fill them. The result was a stinking malarial swamp.

As is obvious to everyone, instead of the stagnant water it is the money flowing through DC that makes it such a swamp today.

And of course even to this day one does have to watch one's step to avoid stepping in the horse $#!+.

A classic out of place artifact

Did Sumatrans explorers get that far upstream?
Maybe.
But I would lean toward it being a trade item from downstream.
(But then, that would infer long distance, open ocean travel by sailors with an aversion to river travel.)

It is too bad these type of things have to depend on these type of locations for publicity.
(The "suggested books" column gives it away.)
The original publisher of Epoch Times outfit is a little more reputable but it will never equal a Penn State paper.
That in in the USA of course.

yeah, guilt by association is valid to some extent. On the other hand, sometimes the joke in MIB, about grabbing the tabloids for their intel, has a little validity too. But the artifact itself, and its location -- which seems to be known and recorded, and best if it is a place you can return to -- wow. A simple examination of the engravings will expose relative antiquity. Seems like it has already passed muster. Whatever the script, it's a foreign script.

Hi EP,
It was Pierre Charles L'Enfant. He never got paid, but worse, his name was stricken from the official document. Nobody knew he was related to the plan until the 1880s.
There is a Facebook discussion page that just got started up regarding the DC situation.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/957812674277304/
Don't really want to engage in a conversation here.
Doc is just out and want to give it several months.

This appears to be a bona fide Sumerian-like script on an artifact from the Andes found in the late '50s. This seems huge. For the diffusionists out there, we seem to have an extra 4000 years to play with in terms of transoceanic contact. (The Shang Dynasty script among the Olmecs is another example.)

Transoceanic? As I understand it, Sumerians were still sailing in reed boats at 2500bce, something not very seaworthy. I could rather go for a Phoenician trade vessel gone astray due to an abundance of Sumerian beer below decks.

Or it could be that it was a common trade language. If boats were made of stone, we would have a much better picture. Or if coastlines were not so chewed up. As it is, independent invention vs. Diffusion is the name of the game. I may have jumped the gun, though. Will have to delve into this thing. But like the Olmec-Shang connection, it is a complicated script, and if the time frame jives with the Andean artifact-- like it does for the olmec-shang -- then, ... the game's afoot!

Reed boats have been proven to be open ocean capable.
This one, sailed by a self taught reed boat builder, made it across the Pacific
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/ancient/crosses.htm

They are an very little known technology since they just rot away so easy at the end of their usefull life.
Even if anything is left, it is just a pile of grass.
Not much of a thesis there.

But they have been around dince 5000BC
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... sands.html

if this bowl is legit, then there should be a whole bunch of evidence for their presence in the area. The key is, where was the artifact made? Maybe it was traded inland from the coast? If it was actually made from stone in the Titicaca region, then there should be evidence of other Sumerian influence or graphics. One would think, anyway ...

Hi Chris -

I do not "do" facebook, but I probably should, simply for self defense against gossiping women.
Aside from that, I have had people imitating me since March of this year.

I am pretty sure that the letters in which this fellow was stiffed will make humorous reading.

It strange how no one considers the minimal hypothesis - that a boat on a trade mission between Sumer and Harrapan got lost, crew died, empty hull washes ashore, and rare artifact was taken to rulers of a stratified society.

And then of course, Augustus LePlogeon was in that area, and the piece may be a simple forgery by him or his associates.

Remember the crystal skulls, made in Europe from Brazilian quartz?

But of course, neither of those stories would make good television.

simply for self defense against gossiping women.

You can not out gossip women, E.P.

Don't even try. Men lack the gene for it.

Minimalist wrote:

simply for self defense against gossiping women.

You can not out gossip women, E.P.

Don't even try. Men lack the gene for it.

Personally, I am of the opinion that The Iliad would have been a better work if the Trojan War had of been triggered by gossiping women - oh wait, it was gossiping goddesses, but no one seems to notice that much.