Page 10 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • April 23, 2014 Good-bye, Columbus! Once upon a time, Columbus discovered America. We were all taught to prate about that in elementary school. As a pre-teen, I read a Landmark book that made a strong case for Leif Ericsson and his cohorts following up on a tip from a previous Norseman and landing in what is now Canada, or farther south. The source material for that book, “The Vinland Saga,” reports that Ericsson, a trans- planted Norwegian who momentarily hailed from Iceland, had in his crew an Irish boy and girl who were trained runners and reconnoitered the newly found coast. Erics- son also brought along a German from the Rhineland who found grapes and made wine. Nobody else has been able to find those grapes, but you can ferment anything with a little imagination. The Norse Vinland stories were “controversial” until a few decades ago, when Norse artifacts were found among the buried foundation of a Norse-style house in Canada. You really cannot refute a coin from 1000 or assume that it floated here. DNA tests in Iceland disclosed that some Icelanders were descended from a single American Indian woman. Old-timers will remember Tillicum, the Indian wife of Boltar, the Viking warrior and friend of Hal Foster’s imaginatively drawn Prince Valiant. Tillicum’s prototype probably did not get to Iceland in a dugout canoe, and the DNA of her progeny definitely sank Columbus even as it established her unknown Norse husband as among the first Europeans to land in America; either that, or the Indians discovered Iceland. Another hit on Columbus theory came when a well- documented voyage from China came to light. This trip took place during one of the periods of Chinese cultural confidence, a half century or more before Columbus. Chi- nese accounts describe a well-prepared voyage by large sea-going junks that reached what sounds like the Pacific Coast and Mexico. Guess who really discovered America. It was the Car- thaginians, with the bravery and muscle of the Celts behind their expedition. Partisans of the various ethnic discover- ies may reflect that, if this discovery took place, pagan cousins of the Jews and Arabs and the pagan ancestors of the Irish, Scots, and Welsh all got here before the Chinese, the Vikings, and Columbus. The theory of Phoenician discovery has been around a long time. Frank Huston was a proud and unreconstructed Confederate soldier who refused to sign an allegiance to the United States. He preferred to live with the Lakota, and knew the Cheyenne and the Arapaho quite well. (Rod Stei- ger portrayed Huston in “Run of the Arrow,” which took Huston’s actual career as a point of departure.) Huston’s theory was that the Lakota (Sioux) were aboriginal, but that the Cheyenne, who tend to be paler and taller than other Indians, were partially of Norse descent, and the Arapaho were descended from the Phoenicians. Huston based this concept on the fact that the Arapaho, while they maintained a warrior cult, were enthusiastic traders and the best businessmen among the Plains tribes. Huston’s theory did not come from thin air. Years before, some rocks found on the shore of Massachusetts were said to be inscribed with the Carthaginian language. The theory is mentioned in commentaries on the Book of Mormon. In the 1870s, a stone inscription discovered in Brazil was said to be Phoenician. That claim was discounted and then reaffirmed. Two rocks with what were described as Hebrew inscriptions -- the Jews were neighbors of the Phoenician cities of the Middle East, and the Phoenicians who lived in ancient Carthage used a similar alphabet -- also turned up in what is now the United States, but these were shown to be forgeries. The principal modern proponent of the Carthaginian discovery -- not of North America, but of South America - - is Hans Giffhorn, professor emeritus from the University of Hildesheim in Germany. Giffhorn is a principal spokes- man, along with English and South American scientists, for the concept that fugitives from the Roman destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C. escaped over the Atlantic, an ocean they knew through the tin trade with Britain, and discov- ered South America. Landing on the coast of Brazil, the dark-haired Carthaginians and their blonde or red-haired Celtic mercenaries from the Balearic Islands and northern Spain found some unpromising turf. During a presumed search for fresh water and more fertile ground, they sailed up the Amazon until they reached the Chachapoya region of Peru. Here, Giffhorn and his sympathizers found some fascinating anomalies in local Indian culture. From the first days of the Spanish conquest in the 1500s -- anecdotally from the first days of the Inca conquest a half-century before, though the Inca had no written lan- guage -- the Chachapoya people had relatively light skin and hair that was sometimes blonde and sometimes red. Filmmakers on PBS showed films of people who were culturally Indian and spoke rustic Spanish, but had blonde hair. One boy was a redhead and could have passed easily into a crowd of Irish kids. The Indians said this was not the result of philandering -- the region is isolated and the people now strictly Catholic -- but said their grandparents had blonde hair about a quarter of the time and red hair more infrequently. The Chachapoya, from Spanish times, fought their ene- mies with a sling. Most South American and North Amer- ican Indians used bows and arrows. The simplest tribes once used the atlatl, a stick with a notch on the end that engages the butt of a spear and gives it extra torque. Some South American tribes used blowguns with poisoned darts for hunting at close range. The sling is otherwise unknown in South America. The Chachapoya slingers weave the stone-holding pockets in the same manner as the legendary slingers of the Balearic Islands. The slingers in both cultures wrap the sling around their heads when it is not in use. When a Bale- aric sling aficionado was shown a modern Chachapoya sling, he was astounded. Some of the massive walls in the Chachapoya country are made of mildly dressed stones that are all the same size. Andean walls of large size -- Macchu Pichu and some buildings in Cuzco are key examples -- were usually made of stones of different sizes fitted together and dressed only where they interface. The Chachapoyan walls look like the work of European peasants. There is one possible loophole in the Carthaginian theory. When the Spaniards arrived in the land of the Inca and the Chachapoya, they found that the Indians had no domestic animals except for dogs, llamas, and guinea pigs. The Carthaginians, famous as sailors and traders in ancient times, had also been farmers. The Romans totally destroyed Carthaginian culture, but they saved and translated one Carthaginian book: Mago’s “Treatises on Farming.” This book in Latin translation became a Roman classic because it was full of practical information. Much of Mago’s book concerns how to breed and train oxen, and the original mentioned horses and donkeys. The beleaguered Carthag- inians had undoubtedly expended all their war elephants defending the city, but colonizers would almost certainly have taken cattle and horses to South America for milk, meat, manure, and muscle power for farming. My wife came through with a book she picked up at the Glen Rock Library Book Sale for our grandson. A Maine farm woman and illustrator named Dahlov Ipcar recounted a conversation between an early Spanish explorer and tribal Andean farmers presumed to be full-blooded Indians. “They told the Spaniards that, long ago, their ancestors had tried to keep horses, but that they had all died of a sick- ness caused by vampire bats,” Ipcar wrote. Vampire bats are a major problem in sub-Andean cattle raising today as they may have been just after 146 B.C. The Chachapoyan people, like many Andeans, practiced a form of mummification. Some of the mummies have fea- tures that are, if not European, potentially of mixed ances- try. Some bones show lesions associated with tuberculosis -- an unknown disease among tribal Indians in North America, like smallpox, until the Europeans introduced both diseases and accidentally wiped out 90 percent of the original Americans. Tuberculosis is partly fostered by bad nutrition, but is endemic in cattle cultures and not much found where there are no cattle. The case for Carthaginian colonization of South Amer- ica is not as water-tight as their sailing ships were, but the assembled evidence will not just ago away. American Indi- ans built some notable urban centers in Mexico where no Carthaginian presence has ever been detected. Tenochtit- lan circa 1520 was bigger than Venice, then the largest city in Europe, and a lot cleaner than London. No amount of European presence will ever detract from the fact that the ancestors of the Indians got here long before anybody else, but in terms of fascinating evidence, the Carthaginian discovery of South America has a lot going for it. Letters to the Editor Community benefits from BOE’s prudent planning Dear Editor: I would like to congratulate the board of education on a job well done regarding this year’s school budget. The citizens of Midland Park will benefit from their careful and prudent planning to make every tax dollar count while pro- viding for the needs of the school district and the children of the community. Additionally, as the council’s represen- tative to the board of recreation, I want also to thank the BOE for their cooperation in the sharing of our fields and facilities. It is truly a joint effort, and everyone in the com- munity benefits from it. Mark Braunius Midland Park Endorses Meeks for board Dear Editor: Midland Park needs more individuals and free think- ers on the board of education. John Meeks, a fresh name candidate, has espoused some new and innovative ideas as opposed to the three incumbents, who, for several years, let the buildings stand in disrepair. The present board mem- bers concentrate on curriculum and disregard financial matters. If the current board members are re-elected, tomorrow will look like yesterday, last week, and the years gone by. Do our high school students have a variety of courses to choose from? How prepared are they for higher education or the business world? Can they balance a checkbook? Do they have the skills to evaluate the advantage of making a cash purchase versus using a credit card and then making minimum payments? Are our schools giving our students the best advantage for our tax dollars? Give John Meeks one of your votes, and then we can compare results next year. Robert Perry Carole Perry Midland Park Urges support for incumbents Dear Editor: When we moved to this town 15 years ago, we were enamored by the community and gentle spirit of the town. We didn’t yet have children but knew that the schools were the gem of this Mayberry-like community. Now, as parents of three young Midland Park students, we are very com- mitted to ensuring that, not only our children, but all the current and future students of the Midland Park School District receive the best possible education in the best pos- sible facilities. We applaud the current board of education members for always keeping the students’ best interest at the heart of their decision making. It’s not an easy job, and we are grateful for the time and dedication they have taken to lead our district forward. James Canellas, MaryAlice Thomas, and Peter Triolo, (continued on page 19)