Y chromosome study probes ancient Liangzhu culture

A new DNA study from China suggests, among other things, that the ancient Liangzhu Culture of the Yangtze region, famed for its jade work, had genetic signatures suggesting an Austronesian and Daic population. One has to question whether genetics, in this case the O1 haplotype, can say anything about language culture especially that far back in time, but the study does support the archaeological evidence suggesting Liangzhu had links with areas further South.

Y chromosomes of prehistoric people along the Yangtze River.

Li H, Huang Y, Mustavich LF, Zhang F, Tan JZ, Wang LE, Qian J, Gao MH, Jin L.

MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.

The ability to extract mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from ancient remains has enabled the study of ancient DNA, a legitimate field for over 20 years now. Recently, Y chromosome genotyping has begun to be applied to ancient DNA. The Y chromosome haplogroup in East Asia has since caught the attention of molecular anthropologists, as it is one of the most ethnic-related genetic markers of the region. In this paper, the Y chromosome haplogroup of DNA from ancient East Asians was examined, in order to genetically link them to modern populations. Fifty-six human remains were sampled from five archaeological sites, primarily along the Yangtze River. Strict criteria were followed to eliminate potential contamination. Five SNPs from the Y chromosome were successfully amplified from most of the samples, with at least 62.5% of the samples belonging to the O haplogroup, similar to the frequency for modern East Asian populations. A high frequency of O1 was found in Liangzhu Culture sites around the mouth of the Yangtze River, linking this culture to modern Austronesian and Daic populations. A rare haplogroup, O3d, was found at the Daxi site in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, indicating that the Daxi people might be the ancestors of modern Hmong-Mien populations, which show only small traces of O3d today. Noticeable genetic segregation was observed among the prehistoric cultures, demonstrating the genetic foundation of the multiple origins of the Chinese Civilization.

More on Magnetism (Article)

The Earth rotates on its axis like a giant top. The northernmost point of this axis of rotation is known as the geographic North Pole. The southernmost point of the same axis is the geographic South Pole.

The movement of metal fluids like iron and nickel in the outer core of the Earth is believed to generate the Earth's magnetic field according to the Dynamo Theory.

One can imagine a massive bar magnet or dipole running through the earth creating the magnetic North and South poles.

However the magnetic poles do not coincide with the geographic poles.

The magnetic North Pole, for example, is inclined about 11.5 degrees from the geographic North Pole. The magnetic North Pole is located near Ellesmere Island to the west of northwest Greenland.


Magnetic poles is offset from geographic pole by 11.5 degrees (Source: http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Intro/Part2_1a.html)

The angle between the geographic and magnetic poles is the primary cause of magnetic declination, the difference between a magnetic compass reading for North and the true direction of geographic North.

The line where magnetic declination is zero is known as the agonic line, as explained in the previous blog entry. And again, because of magnetic anomalies this line is not easy to predict.

The agonic line can be thought of as a sort of magnetic meridian. A medieval Chinese text discusses such a central meridian where magnetic declination is zero.

The center of the Earth's magnetic dipole, or "bar magnet," also deviates from the center of the Earth's core from which it is offset by about 700 kilometers toward Southeast Asia.

The reason for this offset of the magnetic poles and center can only be guessed at, but the inequality results in differing strengths of the Earth's magnetic field.

Because the center of the dipole is closer to Southeast Asia, the magnetic field in Southeast Asia is stronger than anywhere else in the world. This is known as the Southeast-Asian Anomaly and it is the area of the Earth's surface closest to the dipole's center. The magnetic field is strongest along the magnetic equator in the Southeast-Asian Anomaly.

In the Western Hemisphere we find the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), which is the area of the Earth's surface furthest from the center of the dipole. Here the magnetic field is weaker than in other areas of the globe.

Because the Southeast-Asian Anomaly represents a stronger field it is known as a positive anomaly while the SAA is a negative anomaly.

The known practical effects of these anomalies is mainly found in space flight where they interfere with communications in the ionosphere. All communications are disrupted in the Southeast-Asian Anomaly and high frequency communications in the South Atlantic Anomaly.


The Southeast-Asian Anomaly and South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) from Earth's Magnetic Field.

Biomagnetism and Magnetoreception

Research has clearly shown that many species are able to orient themselves and navigate using magnetoreception to detect the Earth's magnetic field.

There are two types of known magnetoreception -- one using detection of the poles, or polarity; and the other detects differences in magnetic inclination or "dip."

While magnetoreception is widely recognized in birds, bacteria and other species, the evidence for human magnetoreception has been more controversial with some political overtones.

Robin Baker first claimed to have found evidence for human magnetic orientation in tests he conducted in 1987. His methods though were questioned. In 1989, however, R. G. Murphy found evidence of human orientation that was disturbed when a magnet, but not a piece of brass, was placed on the head of the subject. This suggested that the orientation was magnetic in nature.

While Baker's research with other species was acclaimed, when he turned toward human study, he encountered resistance to his efforts. Helen Saul writes:

Sadly, Baker's research stopped before it got much further. When he shifted his interest from animals, birds, and fish to humans, it became so contentious that he lost the general support of the scientific community..."The stark contrast between positive results and negative interpretations remains an unexplained feature of the literature on human magnetoreception," he [Baker] wrote in 1987. He eventually left his post at Manchester University, and since then, the work has fallen by the wayside.

Henry H. Bauer writes in Science Or Pseudoscience: magnetic healing, psychic phenomena, and other heterodoxies:

Baker's heresy has been to study human sensing of magnetic fields, which attracts opposition for no obvious reason: “Every animal seriously tested has been found to have a magnetic sense, and it now seems that the final search will be for an animal that is magnetically blind. It would be more surprising to discover that Man just happened to be that animal than to discover he was not”...the “atmosphere surrounding the study of human magnetoreception has, both publicly and less publicly, been just a little unpleasant.”

University of Hawai'i anthropologist Ben Finney picked up on Baker's research by discussing the subject with modern navigators trained in traditional Pacific Islander (Micronesian) navigation.

Finney came to the conclusion that magnetoreception might be employed by navigators on an intuitive basis:

Taken together with experimental findings about magnetoreception in various species, these reports suggest that skilled noninstrument navigators may be able to turn to magnetoreception for orientation cues of last resort and that this magnetic sense of direction may also play an unconscious role in dead reckoning. In the light of experimental evidence on the hierarchy of directional senses, it is not surprising that noninstrument navigators would refer the more exact cues available from the passage of the sun and stars across the sky to any feelings they might have about their bearings but be open to following those feelings whenever the situation demands.

Finney suggests, as I have also in my own writings, that magnetoreception may be a latent ability in humans that must be learned much like humans must learn how to swim.

The subjects-typically students-usually employed in magnetoreception experiments have been navigationally naive in comparison with such Pacific island masters as Mau Piailug and Nainoa Thompson. If there are striking differences in performance between young birds without navigational experience and veterans of migrational or homing flight, might not this also be the case for humans?

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Baker, Robin. Human navigation and magnetoreception, Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1989.

Bauer, Henry H. Science Or Pseudoscience: magnetic healing, psychic phenomena, and other heterodoxies, University of Illinois Press, 2001.

Gehmeyr, Michael. Earth's Magnetic Field, Boston University, 2005.

Finney, Ben . "A Role for Magnetoreception in Human Navigation?" Current Anthropology, Vol. 36, No. 3. (Jun., 1995), pp. 500-506.

Murphy, RG. The development of magnetic compass orientation in children. Paper presented at the Royal Institute of Navigation Conference, 1989.

Saul, Helen. Phobias: Fighting the Fear, Arcade Publishing, 2004.

"Dragon's Triangle" and the Magnetic Mountain (Article)

Many people are aware of the Bermuda Triangle, a wedge-shaped area of the western Atlantic Ocean where ships and planes are said to mysteriously disappear.

The same author who popularized the existence of the Bermuda Triangle, Charles Berlitz, also developed a lesser known theory of the Dragon's Triangle. This latter area was nearly antipodal, on the other side of the earth, in relation to the Bermuda Triangle and, according to Berlitz, hosted the same unusual phenomenon.

Supporters and skeptics have long battled over the Bermuda Triangle theory. Some have claimed that the first record of mysterious activity in this area was recorded by Christopher Columbus. Many fantastic reasons are given for the disappearances that occur in the area including UFOs and black holes. There are also more scientific reasons offered such as the existence of magnetic anomalies.

Skeptics counter that the number of lost ships and planes in the region is not that unusual. They note that authorities have not classified the region of the Bermuda Triangle as especially dangerous.


Dragon's Triangle has older pedigree

While some claim that Columbus was the first to hint about something strange in the Bermuda Triangle region, it was really in 1950 that the legend as we know it first came to light in an Associated Press article by E.V.W. Jones.

However, Berlitz's suggestion of a similar anomalous region in the Philippine Sea does link into more ancient local legends.

The most common form of this legend was that of the Magnetic Mountain, which was said to pull out iron nails and other iron parts from ships that passed nearby. The Chinese classic Huainanzi of the 2nd century BCE mentions "the lodestone that makes [iron objects] fly," without however describing any lodestone mountain.

In the 2nd century CE, the Greek geographer Ptolemy describes a magnetic mountain located near the Isle of Satyrs somewhere off the Indochinese coast. About two centuries later the Nan Zhou Yi Wu Zhi mentions a similar location off the coast of Central Vietnam where only wooden ships should sail.

Chinese writer Sung So between 1023 and 1063 says that "at the capes and at the points of Chang-hai (South China Sea), the waters are low and there are many magnet stones, so that if the great foreign ships which are covered with iron plates approach them, they are arrested, and none of them can pass by these places."

Other Chinese accounts suggest that in this same region the magnetic compass often erred throwing ships off course into certain doom. In 1438, Fei Xin mentions such phenomenon near Kunlun Island:

To the north we are afraid of the Seven Islands; to the south we fear the Kunlun. At these places the needle may err, and if that happens, or the steering is inaccurate, both men and ships will be lost.

Later the Dan Shui Ting Zhi dated about 1871 mentions rocks around Taiwan that 'bewilder' the magnetic compass.

As accounts of compass failures and the supposed linked magnetic anomalies form part of the mystery of both the Bermuda and Dragon's Triangle, the older Chinese testimony is interesting.

There are numerous other tales of the dangers of the Magnetic Mountain in the medieval period especially starting from the 11th century found in Chinese, Indian, Muslim and European works. The theme generally involved the mountain violently pulling iron nails from ships sending them flying toward the mountain.

The location of the Magnetic Mountain was generally placed somewhere in the "Indies," usually the most eastern parts. John of Mandeville, for example, locates the mountain on the "Adamant Isles" in Prester John's empire, while Roman de Ogier le Danois says that the "Great Lodestone" is located "not far on this side of the terrestrial paradise, whither were rapt in a flame of fire Enock and Helios."

Berlitz, on the other hand, located the Dragon's Triangle more to the east and north in the Philippine Sea.

In the One Thousand and One Nights, a king neutralizes the dangers of the Magnetic Mountain by shooting lead arrows at a brazen horsemen with a lead tablet on his chest. This causes the island to sink, rendering the mountain harmless, and the king is rescued by apparently the same brazen horseman, this time riding a boat.

The story of shooting arrows on the Magnetic Mountain and also of the latter causing iron nails to fly toward its magnetic influence may have some link to practices found more recently.

Early Spanish observers described an indigenous rite in the Philippines of ship crews shooting arrows into promontories and cliffs that jutted into the sea to propitiate the spirits involved. Following is a description of one such practice from Pedro Chirino (1604):

In the island of Mindanao between La Canela and the river, a great promontory projects from a rugged and steep coast; always at these points there is a heavy sea, making it both difficult and dangerous to double them. When passing by this headland, the natives, as it was so steep, offered their arrows, discharging them with such force that they penetrated the rock itself. This they did as a sacrifice, that a safe passage might be accorded them. I saw with my own eyes that although the Spaniards, in hatred of so accursed a superstition, had set a great many of these arrows on fire and burned them, those still remaining and those recently planted in the rock numbered, in less than a year, more than four thousand arrows; they certainly seemed as many as that, to all of us who passed that point.

Arrowheads in the Philippines were generally of two types -- ones made of palmwood and/or bamboo, and iron arrowheads. Given that the arrows mentioned above penetrated into the rock, we can surmise that they had iron arrowheads.

While no reason is given as to why shooting iron arrows into the cliff would have such an effect, we are still led to believe that the locals believed this would afford safe passage. We could possibly interpret the iron in the arrows as a substitute for iron or other metals on-board the ship in a ritual whose meaning had been forgotten?

In the Arabian tale, shooting the brazen horseman with the lead tablet off his horse with lead arrows also makes the sea safe and interestingly the horseman eventually saves even the one who shoots the arrows.

Another tale from Japan tells of Urashima, a fisherman who is brought to the underwater Dragon's Palace in the region of Tokoyonokuni generally thought of as in the South Seas. The story is often connected with modern Dragon's Triangle lore especially by those who like to believe in black holes and time warps as it contains the theme of "lost time." Here is a synopsis of the story from Answers.com:

Urashima Taro was fishing one day when he sees a turtle in distress. Urashima saves the turtle, in gratitude the turtle takes Urashima to the Dragon Palace. He spends many days in happiness at this underwater kingdom, however soon becomes homesick and asks to be allowed home. The queen of the palace allows him to go home and gives him as a gift a jewel encrusted box with explicit instructions never to open it. Upon arriving home Urashima discovers that over 300 years have passed in the real world and no one can remember him or any of his contemporaries. Wallowing in self-induced depression, he heads to the beach and remembers the box he was given. He opens it and a white cloud is released and he suddenly ages and dies - the box having contained his true age. Variants of this story have developed throughout Oceania and the actual origin is unknown.

Agonic Lines and the Magnetic Equator

At most locations on Earth, the magnetic compass does not point directly toward the North but at Magnetic North instead.

The difference between True North and Magnetic North is known as magnetic declination. This difference varies in quantity depending on location and time.

Chinese texts first record the existence of magnetic declination and they also track differences in declination that occur over time.

At certain points on the globe, the difference between True North and Magnetic North becomes zero. These points form an undulating boundary known as the agonic line. The agonic line occurs in the Eastern Hemisphere and is roughly antipodal to the agonic line in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1189, Zeng San Yi suggested that there was a central meridian where the magnetic needle pointed toward True North without any deviation, the first mention of what we know today as the agonic line. When one moves east of the agonic line, the needle points west of north, and if one moves west of the same line the needle points east of north.

The variations in the Earth's magnetic field are believed to be caused by movement of conducting fluids at the core-mantle boundary, magnetohydrodynamic waves and other factors. Below we have a graphic showing the position of the agonic line over different time periods starting in the 16th century.

Agonic Line (in red) at dates 1590, 1690, 1790, 1890 and 1990 (Chapter 1 Earth’s magnetic field, http://www.diss.fu-berlin.de/2005/70/chapter-1.pdf).



As can be seen above, the agonic line drifts over time and this drift is thought to have a westward bias. One can also see that the Eastern Agonic Line does tend to pass through or near the Philippines and the Philippine Sea.

In addition to magnetic declination, which causes a clock-like variation of the compass, there is another influence known as magnetic inclination. This is caused by the opposing pole, the South Pole in the Northern Hemisphere and the North Pole in the Southern Hemisphere. The opposing influence of the poles causes a vertical "dip" of a magnetic needle.

Georg Hartmann apparently discovered magnetic dip in 1544. The quantity of dip depends on one's latitude and it is possible to get a vague idea of one's latitude by measuring the dip. Also, as with the agonic line, there is a point where the dip becomes zero. This point is known as the magnetic equator.

The magnetic equator undulates north and south of the true equator and also varies with time and place like the agonic line. At any period, there are at least two points on earth where the agonic line and magnetic equator intersect -- at least one in the Eastern Hemisphere and one in the Western Hemisphere.

The figures below show the approximate intersection points for three periods: 1590, 1690 and 1790.

Agonic lines and magnetic equator, red curve shows agonic line, bold black curve is magnetic equator, blue dot is intersection point of Eastern Agonic Line.


The area where the agonic line and magnetic equator intersect would cause the compass to give "centered" readings but there is no reason to associate them with magnetic anomalies that would cause errant readings.

However local compass disturbances caused by magnetic rocks both on land and at sea is documented. Such disturbances would vary based on local magnetism which is greatly influenced by volcanism.

So the magnetic aberrations documented in the South China Sea and northward could certainly have factual basis. Possibly the knowledge of strange magnetic forces in the area could have given rise to the practice of offering metal arrows to rocks by seafarers, something that again could potentially have mutated into the legend of the perilous Magnetic Mountain.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Berlitz, Charles. The Dragon's Triangle, Fawcett, 1999.

Jonkers, A. R. T. Earth's Magnetism in the Age of Sail, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

Ronan, Colin Alistair and Joseph Needham. The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: An Abridgement of Joseph Needham's Original Text, Cambridge University Press, 1994.

First Lapita Settlement and Its Chronology in Vava'u

A new radiocarbon dating confirms the early settling of Lapita culture in western Polynesia presumably from the Bismarck Archipelago. The new dates from Vava'u in Tonga suggest colonization started around 1400 BCE:

First Lapita Settlement and Its Chronology in Vava'u, Kingdom of Tonga

Authors: Burley, David V.; Connaughton, Sean P.
Source: Radiocarbon, Volume 49, Issue 1, Pages 1-186 (April 2007) , pp. 131-137(7)
Publisher: Arizona Board of Regents (University of Arizona)

Abstract:

Beginning approximately cal 1400 BC, Austronesian-speaking Lapita peoples began a colonizing migration across Oceania from the Bismarck Archipelago to western Polynesia. The first point of entry into Polynesia occurred on the island of Tongatapu in Tonga with subsequent spread northward to Samoa along a natural sailing corridor. Radiocarbon measurements from recent excavations at 4 sites in the northern Vava'u islands of Tonga provide a chronology for the final stage of this diaspora. These dates indicate that the northern expansion was almost immediate, that a paucity of Lapita sites to the north cannot be explained as a result of lag time in the settlement process, and that decorated Lapita ceramics disappeared rapidly after first landfalls.

---
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Chicken bone suggests transpacific voyages

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Jun/05/ln/FP706050348.html

Chicken-bone clue points to early voyages to Chile

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer


Archaeologists say new evidence indicates Polynesian voyagers carried chickens, like these birds in New Guinea, to South America.

Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith


Archaeologists are rewriting the history of the Pacific with new evidence that Polynesian voyagers visited South America at least once, and perhaps repeatedly, long before the first Europeans arrived on the scene.

The new clue involves chickens: Evidence shows that chickens that were genetically nearly identical to those in Hawai'i and other Pacific islands were on the coast of Chile at least a century before the first Spanish and Portuguese visit to the New World.

Added to previous research showing that two species of plants from the Americas are widespread in Polynesia, it supports the case for Polynesia-America contact.

"It is a great testament to the skill of Polynesian navigators," said University of Hawai'i archaeologist Terry Hunt, a co-author of a study that was to be published in yesterday's proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Its lead author is New Zealand anthropologist Alice Storey. Hawai'i archaeologists Hunt and Steve Athens are among the co-authors.

"This is huge," said Polynesian Voyaging Society president and traditional navigator Nainoa Thompson. He said the news is a real boost for Hawaiians and the nations of Polynesia — whose boundaries have been described as a triangle with its points at Hawai'i, New Zealand and Easter Island or Rapa Nui.

"When I was in school, the Polynesian Triangle didn't exist. We weren't taught about it," Thompson said.

"Now we're learning that perhaps the triangle is too small. There is evidence of Polynesian presence on the east coast of Australia, a connection with Madagascar, and now South America. Their exploration may actually have been global."

Some kind of contact between Polynesia and South America has long been assumed, because of the presence throughout Polynesia of two American plants — the kumara or sweet potato, known as 'uala in Hawaii; and the bottle gourd, ipu in Hawaiian.

Still, they only prove an east-to-west movement, from South America into the Pacific.

"But until now, there has never been conclusive evidence of a Polynesian 'thing' in the Americas," said study co-author Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith, of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in an e-mail.

A CRUCIAL BONE

The "thing" ended up being a chicken bone at an archaeological site called El Arenal-1 on Chile's Arauco Peninsula, the earliest evidence yet found of chickens in the Americas.

"In my view, the only plausible explanation for both of these transfers is seafaring Polynesians voyaging from eastern Polynesia to South America and returning," said University of California-Berkeley archaeologist Patrick Kirch.

"Given what we have learned over the past few decades with Hokule'a and other experimental voyages, such feats were well within Polynesian voyaging capabilities," added Kirch, who was not involved in the study but had read the report.

Radiocarbon dating puts the chickens at the site within the 1300s — long before Columbus' 1492 arrival in the Caribbean. And the chickens could have been there earlier, since there is no way to tell whether the Arauco site contains the continent's oldest chicken remains.

The team also conducted DNA studies and found that the Arauco chicken was closely related to chicken remains from archaeological sites in much of Polynesia dated to the same period, including samples found at Kualoa on O'ahu, Anakena on Rapa Nui and in Tonga and Samoa.

It is possible that there was just a single contact — a double-hulled voyaging canoe that landed on mainland South America, traded chickens for sweet potatoes, and departed, never to return. If so, that site would not have been on the Arauco Peninsula.

Matisoo-Smith said it is too cold there, at 37 degrees south latitude, to grow sweet potato.

"We suggest that it was probably one of several contact events — and that Polynesians were the ones doing the voyaging — potentially dropping off the chicken and picking up the sweet potato," she said.

Hunt said that with the known multiple transfers — chickens showing up in the south and sweet potatoes coming from the northern part of South America — repeated voyages seem likely.

Matisoo-Smith said she hopes to develop further evidence of the role of Polynesians in early South America with tests looking for more early chicken remains as well as evidence of Pacific rats in South American archaeological sites.

"I am planning on heading over to Chile in the next year to look through museum collections, not only for chicken but also for any evidence of the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans)," she said. "We have been tracking rat DNA across the Pacific for nearly 10 years now — and pretty much anywhere that Polynesians went (or Polynesian ancestors), the rat went with them — so we would expect to find some exulans bones in South American sites, too."

Sam Gon III, senior scientist and cultural advisor to The Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i, said the study "opens the door for evidence of other forms of cultural exchange" between Polynesia and South America. Polynesians are now believed to have sailed into the eastern Pacific in two major waves, starting about 1,200 years ago, Hunt said.

Aztlan (Glossary)

Aztlan is the Aztec name for the homeland from which the Mexica or Nahuatlaca migrated according to the Aztec histories.

Extant codices depict Aztlan as an island surrounded by water and locate it somewhere to the far north of the Valley of Mexico.

The name "Aztlan" appears to refer to a land populated by the white heron, the egret or the crane although some other etymologies have been suggested. The texts describe Aztlan as having many different types of waterfowl and also describe the area as a 'place of reeds.' The description seems to indicate that the fabled homeland was a marshy stopping place of migratory aquatic birds.

According to Sahagun, the people of Aztlan called themselves the Chichimecas "Dog People," or Atlcachichichmecas "Fisher-Folk Chichimecas from a Far Country."

Clavijero writes of the tradition of the azquahuitil tree on which is found a bird making the tihui sound. According to their histories, the Aztecs began their migrations from Aztlan at the prompting of this bird and were led by Huitzilopochhtli "Hummingbird of the South" also known as Mexi, whence Mexicas or Mexicans. These migrations are variably dated usually between the 7th and 11th century CE.

Competing theories have located Aztlan in many different regions north of the Valley of Mexico including various spots in northern Mexico, the American Southwest, California, Florida and Wisconsin. The available geographical information makes it difficult to identify the location with any precision.

However, there is an interesting geographical tradition that arose when the Spanish arrived that might be related to the concept of Aztlan as an island.

For at least a century, and for probably longer, European geographers represented California as an island.

In the earliest forms of this representation, it appears that the old isle of Zipangu, mentioned by Marco Polo, was conflated with Aztlan traditions and depicted as an island off the west coast of North America where California should be located.

Later in the early 1600s, this island was given the name "California," a name of confused origins.


Map of California as an island by Joan Vinckeboons, ca. 1640.

It may be that the Spanish took descriptions of Aztlan as a paradise homeland of the Aztecs as reference to their own Eden, which in medieval European minds was associated with the region around Zipangu, a land of spice forests.

The first known mention of California in the 1510 romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo also associates the land with biblical Eden:

Know, that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons.

The description above is of an island in the East Indies, like Zipangu, in this case the medieval "Island of Women." The Spanish began to refer to the new discoveries of Hernán Cortés in Baja California as "California" in the early 1540s possibly taking into account the legends of the original homeland of the Mexica.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Smith, Michael E. "The Aztlan Migrations of the Nahuatl Chronicles: Myth or History?". Ethnohistory, 1984.

Padilla, Raymond V. "How Far North? A Conjecture on the Roots of Aztlán," In National Association of African American Studies, Harnessing the future by studying the past, 2004.

Hawaiian sea-captain Kawika Kapahulehua Dies

Kathryn Bender/Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Kawika Kapahulehua, in an undated photo, asks for peaceful passage.

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Published: May 27, 2007

Kawika Kapahulehua, who, in 1976, as the seasoned captain of the first ocean-voyaging canoe to sail from Hawaii to Tahiti in perhaps 600 years battled fierce storms, becalmed seas and a mutiny, died on May 17 in Honolulu. He was 76.

Ben Finney, the anthropologist who wanted to prove the trip was possible, did not give a cause of death, but said Mr. Kapahulehua had suffered strokes and a failed knee operation.

The question of how the more than 1,000 islands that constitute Polynesia, scattered over 10 million square miles of the Pacific, were settled has long intrigued scientists...

Read rest of the article.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

British-Israelism, America and the Philippines (Article)

With the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the first British settlement in the Americas, commemorated today, we can explore the link of this event with the theme of our blog.

When Philip II united the Spanish and Portuguese empires under Spain, many thought he had become the prophesied Last World Emperor, a veritable second Solomon. However, in 1587 the Protestant princess Elizabeth ruined the king's hopes of placing a Catholic monarch on the English throne.

Elizabeth I became the queen of Protestant England and supported Dutch Protestant rebels against Spain. This set up the Anglo-Spanish War which outlasted both Philip II and Elizabeth I and led to the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Spain, only shortly after reaching its greatest height, now began a slow decline.

England, on the other hand, had imperial ambitions of its own as expressed by authors like Samuel Purchas and John Dee.

Dee, the sometime-astrologer of Elizabeth I, had weighted in on the "Ophirian Conjecture," and had even devised a plan for a new British empire in Europe and throughout the world.

Unlike the Catholics before them, the rising Protestant movement looked at the Jews in a favorable light and even sought association with the Jewish people. In the late 1600s, works like Abasalom and Achitophel brought to light analogies between the British and Jewish peoples.

In 1714, John Toland propounded a common descent of the British and the Hebrews. This might be considered the rise of what is known today as British-Israelism or Anglo-Israelism, the belief that the British were, like the Jews, God's Chosen People.

By the mid-1700s, British-Israelism had taken hold not only in Britain, as in 1783 the book The United States elevated to Glory and Honor by Ezra Stiles shows that the theory was also taking root in Anglo-America.

"Ophirian Conjecture"

The British-Israelists adopted Catholic ideas of Tarshish and Ophir to some extent while rejecting the idea of a Last World Emperor or Great Monarch that was so popular among Iberians, the French and the Catholic Germans/Austrians.

In the British view, Tarshish of the prophecies was not in the East Indies, but was a reference either to Britain or Spain. According to the former theory, Britain was Tarshish and its colonies particularly the United States were the "young lions of Tarshish" mentioned in biblical prophecy.

The other view, which seems to have become more prominent, stated that Spain was Tarshish and according to the theory was related to the ancient Iberian port of Tartessos. The "ships of Tarshish" mentioned in the Bible refer to the Spanish discovery of the Americas, which were supposedly known as the "isles."

"The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents" (Psalm 72)

The Anglo-Saxons, according to the theory, were descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes who had assimilated with the Scythians, and the British kings were said to be related to the Davidic line of Judah.

American believers in this world-view asserted that the United States would fulfill a role in end-times prophecies as the modern Tarshish that confronts the Antichrist in Ezekial's prophecy.

Of course, to some extent this required wresting Spain's title as the great Ophirian empire.

Ideas of Anglo-Saxon supremacy helped in the development of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the justification for American world expansion. Among Protestant, and especially Methodist ministers in America, the idea of America's prophetic calling was loudly trumpeted in the 19th century.

Methodist ministers like Lorenzo Dow, Fountain Pitts and Samuel Davies Baldwin spoke of America's part in the final battle of Armageddon.

"Surely the isles shall wait for me and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far." --- Isa. lx...America answers to the term "isles," and "the ships of Tarshish first," to the discovery of America by the ships of Spain, opening the way to the emigration of God's people, to form a nationality in "the isles."


-- Samuel Davies Baldwin, Armageddon: Or, The Overthrow of Romanism and Monarchy; the Existence of the United States

In an address at the U.S. Capitol on the anniversary of Washington's Birthday in 1857, Fountain Pitts delivered two discourses on "Defence of Armageddon, or, Our Great Country Foretold in the Holy Scriptures."

The waiting isles of Isaiaih are a sublime announcement of our great country and its early occupation by European emigrants. "Surely, the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring my sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord they God, and to the Holy One of Israel."

Pitts told of the last war with Gog and Magog, the monarchies of Russia and England, but in which "Republicanism every where prevail, and nations learn war no more. Then sets in that millenial day, when science, commerce, manufactures and the arts would spread, the religion of the Son of God have sway, "righteousness and peace among the people walk, Messiah reign, and earth keen jubilee a thousand years."

A book based on Pitts sermons sold in four editions and was highly popular.


Methodist views, William Mckinley and the Philippines

William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States, the leader who fought the war against Spain, the other Ophirian candidate from Europe.

McKinley was a Methodist and would have been exposed to the American Israelism of Methodist ministers like Dow, Pitts and Baldwin.

Spain had sought Tarshish and Ophir in the Philippines and other islands of the East Indies and the West Pacific. When McKinley chose to take possession of the Philippines as part of the "white man's burden" he later explained his decision to a delegation of Methodist ministers.

Hold a moment longer! Not quite yet, gentlemen! Before you go I would like to say just a word about the Philippine business. I have been criticized a good deal about the Philippines, but don’t deserve it. The truth is I didn’t want the Philippines, and when they came to us, as a gift from the gods, I did not know what to do with them. When the Spanish War broke out Dewey was at Hongkong, and I ordered him to go to Manila and to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet, and he had to; because, if defeated, he had no place to refit on that side of the globe, and if the Dons were victorious they would likely cross the Pacific and ravage our Oregon and California coasts. And so he had to destroy the Spanish fleet, and did it! But that was as far as I thought then.

When I next realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them. I sought counsel from all sides—Democrats as well as Republicans—but got little help. I thought first we would take only Manila; then Luzon; then other islands perhaps also. I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way—I don’t know how it was, but it came: (1) That we could not give them back to Spain—that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany—our commercial rivals in the Orient—that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) that we could not leave them to themselves—they were unfit for self-government—and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was; and (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died. And then I went to bed, and went to sleep, and slept soundly, and the next morning I sent for the chief engineer of the War Department (our map-maker), and I told him to put the Philippines on the map of the United States (pointing to a large map on the wall of his office), and there they are, and there they will stay while I am President!

In the the 1898 edition of American Monthly Magazine published by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Mary S. Lockwood explained the American victory in the Spanish-American War as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy:

"Howl ye ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste."

We know the disasters that befel the ships of Tarshish and the above quotations are prophetic of disasters that have fallen upon Spanish fleets, which have floated on the Spanish waters that have laved the shores of Guadalquivir since the days that Hiram brought the ships of Tarshish to Solomon...to the day that the Spanish flag was struck over the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay and "Old Glory" floated over the waters at the command of Dewey. The great naval expedition planned and sent out by King Philip of Spain against England in the days of Queen Elizabeth, known as the invincible armada, was collected at Cadiz...Admiral Drake made a dash into the harbor of Cadiz and destroyed one hundred ships, with abundant arms and stores, repeating the prophecy, "Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish."

Lockwood noted that Anglo-Saxon America and Britain should now take the world stage as divinely-ordained protector of humanity.

Now, what is our duty? To establish a solid, orderly government and to occupy these islands until such an government obtains, if that means that "Old Glory" shall forever float over them. Our second duty: Let us make an alliance of hearts if not of hands with our kinsmen over the sea. The God of their battles has been the God of our battles, their prophecies have been our prophecies. We are of one tongue, one blood, one purpose -- the uplifting of humanity. Cruel as is war, its results, it is well if out of it comes a day when "the Star-Spangled Banner" and the Union Jack float together protecting the human side of the world.

America had willingly assumed the Ophirian mantle, the culmination of centuries of Anglo-Israel thought development.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Baldwin, Samuel Davies. Armageddon: Or, The Overthrow of Romanism and Monarchy; the Existence of the United States, Applegate, 1863.

Dow, Lorenzo and Peggy Dow. History of Cosmopolite, Or the Four Volumes of Lorenzo Dow's Journal, J. Martin, 1848.

Lockwood, Mary and Daughters of the American Revolution. The American Monthly Magazine, R.R. Bowker Co., 1898, pp. 326-329.

Pitts, Fountain E. A Defence of Armageddon, Or Our Great Country Foretold in the Holy Scriptures: In Two Discourses, J. W. Bull, 1862.

Weinbrot, Howard D. Britannia's Issue: The Rise of British Literature from Dryden to Ossian, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 419-422.

Jonitus and the development of Prester John

Medieval Syriac works like the Book of the Cave Treasures (6th century CE) and Revelations of Pseudo-Methodius (7th century CE) introduce us to the character of Jonitus, the fourth son of Noah.

Although not mentioned in biblical texts, the Jonitus figure becomes very important in latter European Christian apocalyptic tradition. The name occurs in many variations including Jonitho, Ionitus, Ionitum, Ionton, Yonton (Jonathan), Yoniko, Yoniton, Maniton, Baniton, etc.

For centuries, commentators have linked the origin of Prester John's name, Joannes or Johannes in Latin, with that of Oannes, the maritime sage mentioned in the Mesopotamian works of Berossus.

Various theories find the origin of the name "Oannes" in forms like U-khan-na "Lord of the Fish," or Ea-khan "Ea the Fish" in the Akkadian language. Oannes shares attributes of the fish-like god Ea/Enki and also of the sage Adapa.

It becomes apparent that if some form of these Akkadian originals Eakhan or Ukhanna had been preserved in the Middle East along with "Oannes" that they could serve also as a source for the name "Ionton."

The connection of Ionton/Jonitus with Oannes has been previously proposed (see Stephen Gero below). According to tradition, Ionton like Oannes is located in the very far east across the ocean and brings the art of statecraft and the sciences including astronomy to Mesopotamia. In the case of Ionton, he passes on these arts, which he receives directly from God, to Nimrod, the king of "Babel."

Jonitus is generally known to have been born after the Flood, although latter tradition including probably the Anglo-Saxon tradition of Sceaf appears to interpret Jonitus as the ark-born son of Noah.

Noah sent Jonitus to the farthest East, to the hiliu chora, which would mean either the "Region of the Sun (regio solis)," or the "Fire of the Sun," where the Sun is said to rise. This region, according to Pseudo-Methodius, is the same as, or includes, the biblical land of Nod, east of Eden.

Many theories exist as to why a fourth son of Noah was created. At least one of the reasons appears to be the need to account for the pre-Christian idea of the Earth as divided into four quarters or "corners." One son of Noah establishes a kingdom in each of these corners of the Earth.

Lineage of Jonitus
Pseudo-Methodius writes that at the end of the world a king of the lineage (cognatione) of Jonitus, the son of Noah, would reunite the four corners of the world into a single world empire.

The author also mentions in the end-times a king who shall trace his descent to Chuseth, the daughter of King Phul of Ethiopia, who shall rise from the Ethiopian Sea (Indian Ocean) and become emperor of the Greeks and Romans.

It is unclear whether this is the same person as the Jonitus king. In previous tradition, I have mentioned that as early as Middle Kingdom Egypt, there may have been dual apocalyptic traditions, one involving an eastern king of the "Isle of Fire" and the other associated with eastern Africa, south of Egypt, a royal descendant of a "daughter of Ta-Seti (Cush/Nubia)."

In late ancient and medieval tradition, Tarshish and Ophir become associated with the East Indies, and in biblical end-times prophecies like Psalm 72 and Ezekiel 38, Tarshish is often mentioned in conjunction with Sheba and Saba. These latter locations in medieval times were generally conflated with "Ethiopia" and "Abyssinia."

Prester John was a king of the Indies, the latter geographical concept covering the region from Southeast Asia to East Africa. Even in Pseudo-Methodius, the terms hendu and hendwaie are often used for "Ethiopia" and "Ethiopian."

Like the coming king of Jonitus lineage, Prester John had apocalyptic attributes. It was this latter king who would release Gog and Magog and the Ten Tribes in the last days.

In the famed letter of Prester John to the Christian emperors, he claims that one of his sons, a future Prester John, would accept the Christian empire of Europe after saving the region from Gog and Magog:

"These accursed fifteen nations will burst forth from the four quarters of the earth at the end of the world, in the times of Antichrist, and overrun all the abodes of the Saints as well as the great city Rome, which, by the way, we are prepared to give to our son who will be born, along with all Italy, Germany, the two Gauls, Britain and Scotland. We shall also give him Spain and all the land as far as the icy sea. The nations to which I have alluded, according to the words of the prophet, shall not stand in the judgment, on account of their offensive practices, but will be consumed to ashes by a fire which will fall on them from heaven."

Here we have a reference to the "Last World Emperor," a concept that developed in medieval times from works like the Tiburtine Sybil and Pseudo-Methodius.

Thus, the "John" in "Prester John" could refer to the prophesied king of the line of Jonitus, both names linked with Oannes and Joannes possibly through an Akkadian original form Eakhan or Ukhanna.

Prester John is a priest or priest-king (presbyter) of the Jonitus family, one of whom will figure in apocalyptic events. The idea of the the sage transformed to that of the the priest was a natural one, or the idea of priesthood may have been preserved directly from Oannes who taught and performed priestly rituals.

Pseudo-Methodius wrote during a time when Muslim invaders had conquered much of Christendom in Asia and Africa. In latter periods, there arose a series of Byzantine millennial prophecies of the Last World Emperor whose great duty was to vanquish the Muslim enemy. This theme also caught on in Western Christendom.

Centuries later, Prester John was viewed as the Eastern king to fulfill this role and reconquer Jerusalem.

It seems not unlikely that Pseudo-Methodius and those who followed him took earlier themes like the fourth son of Noah, and combined them with the prophetic Rex Orientis "King of the East" of late antiquity to construct a Christian savior from Muslim onslaught who eventually becomes the medival Prester John.

The title Prester John is used to describe, at first, an East Indian king (of Sanfotsi or Zabag) who is worried about Muslim interference in the spice trade routes between Southeast Asia and eastern Africa.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References
Aerts, Willem Johan, George A.A Kortekaas and Pseudo-Methodius. Die Apokalypse Des Pseudo-Methodius: die ältesten griechischen und lateinischen Übersetzungen, Peeters Publishers, 1998.

Gero, Stephen. "The Legend of the Fourth Son of Noah," The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 73, No. 1/2, Dedicated to the Centennial of the Society of Biblical Literature (Jan. - Apr., 1980), pp. 321-330.

Hill, Thomas D. "The Myth of the Ark-Born Son of Noe and the West-Saxon Royal Genealogical Tables," The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Jul., 1987), pp. 379-383.

Su-Min Ri. Commentaire de La Caverne Des Tresors: étude sur l'histoire du texte et de ses sources, Peeters Publishers, 2000.

Stone Age Potters of Sabah

The article below highlights the great discoveries by Stephen Chia on the ancient trade that occurred between Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific.

Specifically, the most recent research involves obsidian that originated in Talasea, New Britain found at the site of Bukit Tengkorak, Sabah on the island of Borneo some 3,000 years ago.

The site not only contained ancient pottery but is one of the few Neolithic pottery manufacturing sites that have been discovered.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

---

SpotLight: Stone Age Potters

By : SANTHA OORJITHAM

Bukit Tengkorak in Sabah’s southeastern Semporna peninsula was a pottery hub for the region 3,000 years ago. — Pictures courtesy of the Centre for Archaeological Research Malaysia at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Malaysia aims to become an ICT hub and an education hub, among others. But 3,000 years ago, it was a pottery-making hub, pre-historians tell SANTHA OORJITHAM.

A clay stove found at Bukit Tengkorak archaeological site, in a style still used today.

KAMPUNG Tampi-Tampi villagers today don’t think twice about using clay from the foot of Bukit Tengkorak and nearby areas in southeastern Sabah for their pottery, digging wells for fresh water, burning wood for fuel and eating a wide range of fish, shellfish and molluscs.

But most of them are unaware that from about 3,000 until 2,000 years ago, people at the summit of the 600-foot hill did the same--when the Semporna peninsula was a late Stone Age population hub and craft centre.

Experts from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), the Sabah Museum Department and the Department of Natural Heritage have found millions of sherds which show that the site about five kilometres from Semporna town was one of the largest, if not the largest, pottery making sites in Island Southeast Asia (SEA) and the Pacific during the Neolithic era (the last part of the Stone Age, beginning 8,000 BC).

Their findings have overturned some theories about how prehistoric people lived and traded in the region.
Until the excavations here, archaeologists believed that long-distance sea trade and migration of people in insular SEA and the Pacific moved east from Melanesia (near Papua New Guinea) to Polynesia, leaving behind what is known as the "Lapita culture" of pottery, stone tools and ornaments.

"Our research at Bukit Tengkorak shows that 3,000 years ago, people were not only moving east towards New Britain in Melanesia but also westwards towards Sabah," explains Dr Stephen Chia of USM’s Centre for Archaeological Research Malaysia, who based his PhD thesis on the site.

"This is one of the longest trading routes in the world during the Neolithic period," says the archeochemist who found obsidian (a volcanic glass used to make tools) at the site and traced it chemically to Talasea in New Britain, 3500 kilometres away. His fieldwork in Southeast Asia also found stone tools and pottery similar to Bukit Tengkorak in the Zamboanga Peninsula, the Sulu Archipelago and Sulawesi.

The Lenggong Valley in Perak was Malaysia’s earliest centre of habitation and its first capital over 100,000 years ago, notes Heritage Commissioner Datuk Professor Zuraina Majid. But 15 years of research, several PhD theses and four archaeologists studying the Semporna peninsula "point to another hub, attracting people from 72,000 years ago (at the Tingkayu site, for example) until now. Another site near Lahat Datu might be close to 100,000 years old, based on the stone tools found there."

"We are filling in the whole prehistoric sequence as we progress in our research, adding to knowledge of Early Man here — the way he made stone tools, pottery and metal, his adaptation to his surrounding, his subsistence activities, his contacts with the surrounding islands, exchange of ideas, etc.," she says. "All this made East Sabah a lively hub of previously unknown activity in the Southeast Asian region."

Foreign experts are also excited about the implications of the findings at Bukit Tengkorak. "The significance of this site is the witness of the exchange and movement of prehistoric people and material culture between Southeast Asia and the Pacific," says Professor Rasmi Shoocongdej of Bangkok’s Silpakorn University.

"Dr Chia’s work, among the finest research in SEA, fills in a gap of the intra-regional trade network of the Lapita culture of western Pacific and Sabah."

"It is very difficult to identify prehistoric pottery-making places," adds Kazuhiko Tanaka at the Institute of Asian Cultures in Tokyo’s Sophia University. "Bukit Tengkorak is one of the rarest examples of such sites."

Chia has set himself three tasks: Locating prehistoric settlements in Semporna and along Sabah’s southeastern coast, mapping ancient sources and trade routes of Neolithic obsidian artifacts and pottery between Bukit Tengkorak, Island SEA and the Pacific, and finding the origins and factors leading to the contact, trade and movement of prehistoric people.

He has already answered some questions about why Bukit Tengkorak, on the rim of a two-kilometre-wide volcanic crater, was probably chosen as a pottery making site: Its height and strategic location next to the coast made it a landmark easy to find, while its panoramic view served as a lookout for traders and enemies coming from either the Semporna Peninsula or the Sulawesi sea.

“Bukit Tengkorak was a ‘penanda’ (marker) for us so that we would not get lost,” says Hajjah Lambong Panglima Atani, a 67-year-old Bajau Laut who spent her childhood on a "lepa" boat.

Volcanic boulders at the summit form a shelter from the sun and rain as well as a natural wind tunnel for drying and firing the pots.

As the nearby villagers today know, there is at least a square kilometre of clay deposits at the foot of Bukit Tengkorak, plenty of fresh water from wells or streams, and firewood.

Agate and chert for making stone tools came from the foothills while food remains show the Neolithic pottery makers ate a wide variety of fish, shellfish and mollusks (still found in Semporna market today) as well as wild boar, deer, macaques and other mammals.

But like every archaeologist, Chia has more questions: Who were the people who made the pottery and stone tools here? Were they indigenous or a migratory group? Were there other sites nearby?

The team have found five promising new sites in Semporna. Last month, they started surveying Bukit Kamiri, not far from Bukit Tengorak, with a similar environment (natural wind tunnel, boulders for shelter and plenty of raw material, water and food supplies) with similar pottery and stone tools.

"If we can find a third site like this, it could really support what were the factors and reasons for choosing a site for pottery making and for burial as well," says Chia.

All this would "provide clues about who the people were," says Chia, who will be looking for more sites in Semporna and along the east coast of Sabah.

"We hope our research will contribute to building the nation’s history and its relationships with the rest of SEA and the Pacific."

Read More...

Hobbit hominids lived the island life

Wed Apr 18, 6:43 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) - A tantalising piece of evidence has been added to the puzzle over so-called "hobbit" hominids found in a cave in a remote Indonesian island, whose discovery has ignited one of the fiercest rows in anthropology.

AFP/HO/File Photo: A handout photo shows an artist's impression of the Homo floresiensis released by the Australian...

Read the rest of the article...

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Kinabatangan Valley, The Resting Place Of Timber Coffins

Wooden coffins placed in caves are a common feature in Southeast Asia. The coffins mentioned in the article below had carvings of buffalo heads, crocodiles, lizards, snakes and birds. Not sure why they connect them with Chinese merchants.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
---

April 03, 2007 17:22 PM

Kinabatangan Valley, The Resting Place Of Timber Coffins

By Haslin Gaffor

SANDAKAN, April 3 (Bernama) -- Lembah Kinabatangan, located in Sabah's central region, is not only renowned for its vast oil palm plantations. The valley is also the resting place of priceless treasures in the form of "timber coffins".

It is believed that about 2,000 timber coffins, some as old as 1,000 years, dotted the Kinabatangan Valley, making the area one of the nation's important archeological sites.

Read rest of the article

Columbus, Magellan and the "Hidden King" (Article)

The explorer Christopher Columbus saw himself as the fullfillment of the prophecy of the Encubierto "the Hidden One" who brings about the last age and rebuilds Zion. King Ferdinand also saw himself playing the same role but as the "Last World Emperor."

Magellan was commissioned for his world journey by Charles V who was also widely seen as the Universal Emperor of the Last Days. The millenarian aspects of the age of exploration have their roots in the old motif of the "Hidden King."

Ancient beginnings

The Hidden King theme is related to similar motifs like the "sleeping king/god", "lost king/brother", and the messiah of lowly origins who often has a secret or lost lineage.

In India, the Narayana mythology of the sleeping god that awakens periodically to save the world is a well-developed version of this theme.

A very old example of the motif is the serpent king of Punt who appears and disappears on a hidden moving island. The "hidden island" also occurs in latter beliefs of the Hidden Imam in Shi'ism and the Ilha Encuberta of Joachimite-inspired beliefs. The Hidden King takes recluse on this island or in a cave, fortress, etc., or dissimulates among the populace until the appointed time of the last days. In other cases, he is born/reborn and raised among the peasants unaware of his destiny and/or high origin until a sudden or gradual revelation occurs.

Ancient Chinese prophecies tell of a savior with the surname Li, the surname of the sage Laozi, who would arise at times of crisis. Later, during the Ming Dynasty, the imperial family claimed that the future Mingwang or Luminous King would arise from their line and would have their own surname Zhu.

Messiahs with the surnames Li and Zhu have sprung up periodically including in modern times with the founder of the Falun Gong movement, Li Hongzhi.

In the Old Testament and in Rabbinic Judaism, the idea of the Hidden Messiah was well-developed. Joachim of Fiore, a Cistercian abbot appears to have absorbed some of these and other "Oriental" influences when he experienced a "conversion" on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

His apocalyptic writings set the stage for late medieval European millenarianism and had much in common with Jewish and converso millenarianism, and also the cyclic thinking of Albumasar. Belief arose in a Pastor Angelicus, an Angelic Pope (Papa Angelico) and/or the Last World Emperor who would come during the latter times to reconquer Jerusalem just prior to the Second Coming.

In Iberia, the Last World Emperor became known as Rey Encubierto or Rei Encuberto, "Hidden King," and El Murcielago "the Bat." This coming monarch would conquer the Antichrist, who would also arise in Spain, defeat the Muslims and establish a worldwide empire. Spain with its heavy milieu of Muslim millenarian thinking as represented by Albumasar and Jewish/converso apocalyptic thought was ripe for messianic revival.

By the late 15th century, it became popular to think of Ferdinand of Spain as the Encubierto. The Marquis of Cadiz wrote a letter to the high nobles of Castille in 1486 revealing to them the "true" identity of Ferdinand:

"...there will be nothing in this world capable of resisting him...because he is the Hidden One.. and he will subdue all the nations from sea to sea...and he will not only be an Emperor, but he will be monarch of all the world."

To this end, we may find some of the more esoteric motivations for Ferdinand's sponsorship of Columbus and his voyages. The Encubierto was by necessity of connection with earlier prophetic traditions a King of the East (ab ortu solis), an Emperor of the Indies. In earlier ages, Prester John played this role, but for the new European savior it was necessary to establish an eastern empire from which to retake Zion like the angel in Joachim's visions.

Columbus himself was inspired by the works of Pierre d'Ailly, a student of the Albumasar school, and had started but never completed a work entitled the "Book of Prophecies." In this work and his other writings, he outlines the destiny of Spain in the reconquest of Jerusalem, and states that the gold of the East Indies (Tarshish and Ophir) would be used to rebuild Zion.

He saw himself as a divine guide in the "enterprise of the Indies." In the model of his namesake St. Christopher, the dog-headed "bearer of Christ," (Christoferens = 'Christ-bearer') Columbus would carry Christianity to the East. He also noted the same spiritual symbolism in his surname Columbus which means "dove" in Latin.

Abundant evidence exists suggesting that Ferdinand also fancied himself as the Encubierto and never stopped believing that he would conquer Jerusalem before his death.

After Columbus, the messianic expectations continued unabated and were directed strongly at the newly-ascended emperor Charles V.

A "constellation of prophecies" swirled around the new emperor. Writers like Giles of Viterbo helped develop the idea of Charles V as the Last World Emperor. His device Plus Ultra "beyond which" referred to the Pillars of Hercules, the old limit of traditional Europe beyond which he had passed.

Some believe that Nostradamus may have been alluding to Charles V in one of his prophecies when he says:

Chief of the world will the great Chyren be,
Plus Ultra behind, loved, feared, dreaded:
His fame and praise will go beyond the heavens,
And with the sole title of Victor will he be quite satisfied.

Such were the messianic expectations at the time that Charles V had to face insurrections himself from peasant saviors like El Encubierto who led the Germanias revolt of artisans in Valencia. Some of the peasant leaders claimed descent from the old kings of Aragon or other monarchs.

When Charles V sponsored Magellan's circumnavigation, we can say that he was seeking the title of Emperor of the Indies, something rather unofficially used for his son Philipp II, for whom the Philippines were named. The last emperor of the East Indies was the legendary Prester John, but now the European monarchs themselves strived to become the Christian savior king from the East.

Unlike Columbus, Magellan seemed less concerned with his own place in prophecy, but evidence points to a spiritual goal also for his journeys. Notes from this writings indicate he was interested in finding the Biblical lands of Tarshish and Ophir, nations which also figured in apocalyptic thought.

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles
shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and
Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall
down before him: all nations shall serve him.

-- Psalm 72

Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them,
unto the name of the Lord thy God,
and to the Holy One of Israel,
because he hath glorified thee.

-- Isaiah 60

Samuel Purchas writing in the early 17th century stressed the need for Britain to involve itself in the "Ophirian navigation" to secure its own self-vision as the chosen messianic nation but with a more mercantile twist:

And this also we hope shall one day be the true Ophirian navigation, when Ophir shall come unto Jerusalem as Jerusalem then went unto Ophir. Meanwhile we see a harmony in this sea-trade, and as it were the consent of other creatures to this consent of the reasonable, united by navigation howsoever by rites, languages, customs, and countries separated.

Magellan appears to have placed Tarshish and Ophir near Ptolemy's Cattigara, the great ancient trading city of the farthest East. When nearing the end of the world circuit, he deliberately set his sights for Cattigara sailing at 12 or 13 degrees North latitude, which he believed to be the proper course for that fabled city.

For Philip II who inherited both his father's empire and that of Portugal, he could not but help continue with this messianic vision. The Spanish monarchy according to Tommaso Campanella writing in 1600 was "founded upon the occult providence of God." The Count-Duke of Olivares declared "God is Spanish and fights for the nation these days."

Philip II is said to have attempted to attain the title of "Emperor of the Indies," of which he was known in his own kingdoms, through an Imperial Vicariate from the Vatican, but those attempts ultimately failed.

Such title ultimately was equivalent to that of the "Hidden King," and its acquisition served as a primary esoteric motivation for the voyages of both Columbus and Magellan.

I see greater things than I had expected and were told me. Verily, this Philip, pious jewel among kings, as a second Solomon mercifully gave both here and elsewhere examples of his wisdom.

-- Viglius van Aytta on the seventh window donated by Philip II and Mary Tudor to Sint Janskerk.


In its riches the scriptural land of Ophir prefigures the Indies of which Luis de Haro is chancellor, and Solomon, associated in late sixteenth-century Spain with Philip II, is a type both of Christ and of the Spanish king.

-- Stephen Rupp in Allegories of Kingship


"....the principle settler of these archipelagoes was Tharsis, son of Japheth together with his brothers, as were Ophir and Hevilath of India..."

-- Francisco Colin speaking of the Philippines in Labor Evangelica, 1663.

In an interesting coincidence when Philip II, the "Second Solomon," dispatched Legazpi to occupy the Philippines, the latter encountered and entered into alliance with one Rajah Soliman, king of Manila, during his invasion of Luzon.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Gruzinski, Serge. "From The Matrix to Campanella: cultural hybrids and globalization," European Review Vol. 14, No. 1, 2006, 111–127.

MacPherson, Ian and Angus MacKay. Love, Religion and Politics in Fifteenth Century, Brill Academic Publishers Spain, 1998, pp. 177-8.

Perry, Mary Elizabeth, and Anne J. Cruz, editors Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and the New World. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1991 1991. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft396nb1w0

Reeves, Marjorie. The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: a study in Joachimism, Oxford University Press, 2000.

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Sanfotsi-Zabag's Golden Age of Maritime Trade (Article)

During the Sanfotsi-Zabag age starting a century or two before the Sung and ending maybe slightly afterward, maritime trade for the Sambali (Shambhala) empire reached its apex.

Although Chinese texts show awareness of the Southern Seas at an early date, these records have only vague descriptions that tell little of trade relations.

The first substantial notice of the southern maritime network comes with the travel diary of I-Ching who boarded a Po-sse ship for India in the 7th century. The Po-sse were Southeast Asian mariners, not Persians as sometimes suggested, as the name Nan-hai-Po-sse "South Sea Po-sse" indicates. Studies have also shown that the products associated with Po-sse are Southeast Asian in provenance.

However, the Po-sse may have been confused with Persians because of the Nestorian connection. As noted earlier in this blog, there existed as early as the 5th century, a Nestorian Metropolitan of Mainland Southeast Asia, South China and Zabag (Dabag) in coastal Persia.

Little is known of these early Nestorians. By the Yuan Dynasty at least we known of Nestorian communities around Quanzhou from different sources. However, it appears that the Chinese associated Nestorianism with the earlier Po-sse of Zabag whose ships may have brought elements of the religion to South China.

When Nestorian Christians set up monasteries in Sian during the T'ang Dynasty, the Chinese called them Po-sse-ssu "Po-sse monasteries" and the teachings were known as Po-sse-ching-chiao "Po-sse teachings."

Sacred Isles

In the late 8th century, the poet Bao He wrote of the South Seas trade in the poem "Sending the Esteemed Master Li to Quanzhou":

The land by the sea lies beyond the realm of civilization,
But the matched tally earns the Han official respect.
The cloud-shrouded mountains lie in the lands of the myriad Yue,
And in the markets are the people of the sacred isles;
Grasping jade, they have come to our land from afar,
Offering pearls, they come to offer tribute.

(Clark, pp. 32-3)

The testimony of I-Ching and Bao He indicates that maritime trade was something introduced to the Chinese by Po-sse and Yue merchants.

Possibly in earlier times trade with South China was conducted overland to Champa from whence it went to sea on the spice routes. During the T'ang dynasty, we see the rise of Canton and Quanzhou as important Chinese ports.

An edict by Emperor Wenzong in 829 states:

The foreign merchants of the South Seas [who come to the land] are seeking virtous enlightenment; they should be accorded generous treatment while here...In order to promote proper respect toward the imperial commissioners (jiedu guancha shi) among the foreigners in Lingnan, Fujian and Yangzhou, except for the collection of anchorage fees, the court purchase and regular presents, we must allow them to come and go freely and to trade, and we must not impose heavy taxes. (Clark, p. 44)

Circumstances which led to the flourishing of the Sanfotsi-Zabag trade include the rise of the powerful and outward-looking Sung Dynasty to the North and the expanding Muslim empire to the West. Both showed strong interest toward trade and the ships and merchants of Sambali were positioned as middlemen. The expansion of the ports at Canton and Quanzhou greatly expanded the volume of trade that was possible.

Sanfotsi and Champa

According to the Sung hui-yao and other Sung sources, the kingdoms of Sanfotsi, Champa, Mai (Mindoro) and Butuan were all linked closely by sea.

Interestingly, close to half of the envoys sent by both Champa and Sanfotsi to the Sung court had the "surnames" of 蒲 "Pu" or 李 "Li". One explanation offered for this is that these "surnames" were respectively the Muslim names "Abu" and "Ali," but this seems highly unlikely.

First, its unlikely that so many envoys would have the kunya name Abu "father of," which is hardly attested in early Islamic tombstones and inscriptions in Southeast Asia. Also, there is no reason for "Ali" to appear so commonly as a "surname."

Indeed, it appears the Chinese, who place their own surnames at the beginning, mistook titles of Sanfotsi, Champa and other envoys as surnames. In the case of Champa, "Pu" seems to be a rendering of the Cham title "Po" meaning "lord, master." The Cham word for "king" is "Po Tao."

In Sanfotsi, the equivalent title of respect is "Apu" or "Apung" having a meaning similar to "Seigneur."

The "surname" of "Li," appears to be a rendering of the Sanfotsi title "Ari" or "Aring" meaning "king" or "prince."

That Champa and Sanfotsi would often send nobles as envoys is only natural and one of the envoys 'surnamed' Li in 971/2 is specifically described as "deputy king" of Champa.


Sanfotsi Envoys during Sung Dynasty with "surname" of Pu or Li

Envoy	Date	Source
Li Shu-di (李庶帝)	960	Sung-shi
Li Li-lin (李麗林)	962	Sung-shi
Pu Mie (蒲蔑)	972	Sung-shi
Pu Tan-han (蒲陁漢)	976	Sung-shi
Li Pu-hui (李甫誨)	980	Sung-shi
Pu Ya-tuo-luo (蒲押陁羅)	983	Sung hui-yao
Li Jia-pai (李庶帝)	1003	Sung hui-yao
Li Mei-di (李加排)	1008	Sung hui-yao
Pu Po-la (蒲婆藍)	1008	Sung hui-yao
Pu Mou-xi (蒲謀西)	1017	Sung hui-yao
Pu Ya-tuo-luo-xie (蒲押陀羅歇)	1033	Sung hui-yao

In addition to envoys some merchants of Sanfotsi took up permanent residence in South China especially at Quanzhou. The Sung writer Lin Zhiqi records some notes on these foreign residents at Quanzhou:

Among the three prefectures of the Southern Sea and responsible for taxing merchant ships is Quanzhou prefecture. Among the many countries with trade relations with Quanzhou is Sanfotsi. There are scores of wealthy merchants from Sanfotsi who live or were born in Quanzhou. Among them is a man called Shinowei. Shi is famed for his generosity towards fellow foreigners in Quanzhou. The building of a foreign resident cemetary was one of his generous deeds...All foreign merchants of Quanzhou are buried there. The construction started in 1162 and completed the following year...Such kindness will certainly promote overseas trade and encourage foreigners to come. It is much appreciated that Shi has done this deed.

The discovered remains of ships that worked the trade routes provide spectacular evidence of this golden age of Southeast Asian trade from the Sung and proximate periods in and around the Philippines:

Butuan Barangays

The only place in Southeast Asia to have a collection of sea-going ships is Butuan on the island of Mindano in the Philippines. Eleven boats have been found at four sites with three of them dated (320 CE, 900 CE, 1250 CE). The boats show classic all-wood, lashed-lug construction typical of Southeast Asian tradition.


Tanjung Simpang Wreck

Discovered off Sabah in Borneo and dated to the 11th century, the boat was loaded with Chinese ceramics and apparently made with Chinese woods.

Breaker Shoal Wreck

Found at Breaker Shoal southwest of Palawan in the Philippines, the ship contained qingbai Sung or Yuan ceramics, and lead and iron ingots.

Pandanan Wreck

This spectacular early 15th century find off Pandanan in the Philippines is a hybrid Southeast Asian-Chinese vessel with all-wooden joint construction but Chinese-style transverse bulkheads. Built of tropical hardwood, a practice later to be implemented by Zheng He's fleet, the ship carried a sensational cargo of 4,722 items including many very well-preserved pieces.

Lena Shoal Wreck

A late 15th century Chinese-style ship found off northeastern Palawan in the Philippines containing 5,000 objects including bronze cannons and well-preserved pottery.

Santa Cruz Wreck

This hybrid 15th century vessel found off the northern coast of Zambales (Sambali), Philippines yields a sensational 15,000 ceramic pieces with 80 percent of the hull intact.

Luuc Wreck

Discovered in 1998, off Mindanao this Butuan-style ship contained Ming wares.

Brunei Wreck

Found in 63 meters of water off the coast of Brunei, this ship yielded massive quantities of Thai and Chinese ceramics apparently from the late 15th century.

It is quite interesting to note that only one shipwreck in Southeast Asia has been suggested as Arab/Indian in origin or at least design -- the Belitung Wreck. However, the instruments and tools used by the crew of the Belitung boat appear to have an Indonesian origin. This evidence further assures us that the "Po-sse ships" and crews were of Southeast Asian provenance.

While the Muslim expansion helped bring about the prosperity of Sanfotsi-Zabag it also rather quickly caused trouble for the kingdom. The Buag eruption of Mount Pinatubo some 800-500 years ago, may have ultimately contributed to the slumping fortunes of Sanfotsi-Zabag that did not turn around till the rise of the Lusung kingdom during the Ming Dynasty.

This quote from the Canton Stories (Pingzhou Ketan) of Zhu Yu (1118-9 CE)however illustrates Sanfotsi-Zabag's great prosperity at its peak:

Every country in the southern ocean has its own chief. Sanfotsi was named the greatest country. It possesses its own writing system and its people are skilled at calculation. Some merchants say that they even predict future eclipses of the sun and moon. But their writing system is unknown to the Chinese. There is a great deal of sandalwood and frankincense there for trade with the Chinese. Sanfotsi ships send frankincense to China and the Chinese Trade Office treats the product as a monopoly and buys the whole cargo after taking customs duties. In recent times Sanfotsi established a sandalwood monopoly and the ruler orders merchants to sell to him. The product's market value increases several times. The subjects of that country do not dare sell privately. This is an effective system. The country is right in the center of the Southern Sea. Ta-Shih [Perso-Muslim] countries are far to the West. Chinese bound for Ta-Shih reach Sanfotsi and repair their ships and exchange goods. Distant merchants congregate here and therefore it is considered the most prosperous place.

Foreign merchants visiting Zabag are greeted by wading women. From a 16th century Persian copy of Qazwînî’s `Ajâ’ib al-makhlûqât. Leiden Or. 8097, f 55, Leiden University.


The king on a golden throne surrounded by naked women. Leiden Or. 08907, fol. 54a, Leiden University.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Clark, Hugh R. Community, Trade, and Networks: Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Samuel N. C. Lieu. "Nestorians and Manichaeans on the South China Coast," Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Mar., 1980), pp. 71-88.

Flecker, Michael. "The South-China-Sea Tradition: the Hybrid Hulls of South-East Asia," International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 36 (1), 2007, 75–90. [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2006.00109.x]