JASON COLAVITO
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Legends of the Pyramids
    • The Mound Builder Myth
    • Jason and the Argonauts
    • Cult of Alien Gods >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Foundations of Atlantis
    • Knowing Fear >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Hideous Bit of Morbidity >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Cthulhu in World Mythology >
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
      • Necronomicon Fragments
      • Oral Histories
    • Fiction >
      • Short Stories
      • Free Fiction
    • JasonColavito.com Books >
      • Faking History
      • Unearthing the Truth
      • Critical Companion to Ancient Aliens
      • Studies in Ancient Astronautics (Series) >
        • Theosophy on Ancient Astronauts
        • Pyramidiots!
        • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • Fiction Anthologies >
        • Unseen Horror >
          • Contents
          • Excerpt
        • Moon Men! >
          • Contents
      • The Orphic Argonautica >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • The Faust Book >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • Classic Reprints
      • eBook Minis
    • Free eBooks >
      • Origin of the Space Gods
      • Ancient Atom Bombs
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Ancient America
      • Horror & Science
  • Articles
    • Skeptical Xenoarchaeologist Newsletter >
      • Volumes 1-10 Archive >
        • Volume 1 Archive
        • Volume 2 Archive
        • Volume 3 Archive
        • Volume 4 Archive
        • Volume 5 Archive
        • Volume 6 Archive
        • Volume 7 Archive
        • Volume 8 Archive
        • Volume 9 Archive
        • Volume 10 Archive
      • Volumes 11-20 Archive >
        • Volume 11 Archive
        • Volume 12 Archive
        • Volume 13 Archive
        • Volume 14 Archive
        • Volume 15 Archive
        • Volume 16 Archive
        • Volume 17 Archive
        • Volume 18 Archive
        • Volume 19 Archive
        • Volume 20 Archive
      • Volumes 21-30 Archive >
        • Volume 21 Archive
        • Volume 22 Archive
    • Television Reviews >
      • Ancient Aliens Reviews
      • In Search of Aliens Reviews
      • America Unearthed
      • Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar
      • Search for the Lost Giants
      • Forbidden History Reviews
      • Expedition Unknown Reviews
      • Legends of the Lost
      • Unexplained + Unexplored
      • Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
    • Book Reviews
    • Galleries >
      • Bad Archaeology
      • Ancient Civilizations >
        • Ancient Egypt
        • Ancient Greece
        • Ancient Near East
        • Ancient Americas
      • Supernatural History
      • Book Image Galleries
    • Videos
    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
      • Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
      • Of Atlantis and Aliens
      • Aliens and Ancient Texts
      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
  • About Jason
    • Biography
    • Jason in the Media
    • Contact Jason
    • About JasonColavito.com
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Search

Fusang and the Ancient Egyptian Buddhists of America

3/5/2014

29 Comments

 
While I’m working on indexing and proofreading the page proofs for Jason and the Argonauts through the Ages, I’ve also been trying to assemble the final list of texts for my collection on ancient texts related to ancient astronauts and fringe history, which has the working title of Ancient Astronauts and Alternative Histories: A Sourcebook. In reviewing the list, I found that East Asian texts were rather underrepresented. This isn’t entirely my fault; fringe historians tend to tread lightly on Asian material except for repetitive iterations of miracle stories and flying dragons—and how many of those can one read?

So I did a little more research to see if I could find some more appropriate Asian material, and I came across the Chinese story of Fusang, which I’m sure I’ve discussed before but which I’ve discovered has some interesting connections I didn’t already know about.
The legend of Fusang is a bit complex. According to the early historian Sima Qian, the first Chinese emperor sent envoys to find a magic tree called the fusang-tree, which supposedly existed on a magical island called Fusang, located at the place where the sun rises in the east. In time, this magic never-never land became identified in Chinese poetry with Japan, the islands to the east of China. However, in the interim the name was applied less consistently, and it was during this period that the historian Yao Silian compiled the Liang Shu, an official history of the Liang Dynasty of southern China. Silian wrote in 635 CE, compiling information in large measure collected by his father Yao Chao decades earlier. These records in turn discussed events that supposedly took place a century before, in the middle of the fifth century.

The text was translated in 1875 by Charles G. Leland, though the passages below I have slightly modified for my book by transliterating names using modern terms:
During the reign of the dynasty Tsi, in the first year of the year-naming, ‘Everlasting Origin’ [499 CE], came a Buddhist priest from this kingdom, who bore the cloister-name of Hui Shen, i.e., Universal Compassion, to the present district of Hukuang, and those surrounding it, who narrated that Fusang is about twenty thousand li in an easterly direction from Da-han, and east of the Middle Kingdom. […] In earlier times these people lived not according to the laws of Buddha. But it happened that in the second year-naming ‘Great Light,’ of Song [458 CE], five beggar-monks from the kingdom of Kipin [in northeastern Afghanistan] went to this land, extended over it the religion of Buddha, and with it his holy writings and images. They instructed the people in the principles of monastic life, and so changed their manners.
Here’s the weird thing: Even though the text makes very clear that Afghan monks traveled to Fusang and then a Buddhist from Fusang traveled in turn to China, for the past two and a half centuries Western scholars have labeled this China’s discovery of America.

The story of how that happens begins with Joseph de Guignes, a French scholar who wrote a book 1761 suggesting that Fusang had to be America. Part of Yao’s description of Fusang included things like hieroglyphs and bark paper, which recalled the achievements of Mesoamerica. Further, the distance to Fusang—20,000 li—seemed to indicate that this was in fact America. The length of li was not consistent over time, but in the period when Hui Shen supposedly traveled, 20,000 li would have been 5,200 miles. In the period when Yao Silian wrote, it would have been 4,000 miles.

Disconfirming details associated more with Siberia—such as deer herding and the presence of horses in Fusang—were ignored. French mapmakers, however, were taken with this idea and began including Fusang on their maps, typically in what is now California or British Columbia. This lasted for a few decades at the end of the 1700s.

The story gained new impetus in 1875 when Charles G. Leland published Fusang: The Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century. He identified Fusang with Mexico, and to this day there are those who believe that the people of Fusang were the Maya and that therefore the Maya were really Buddhists—in large measure due to the now-debunked idea that the Maya were a pacifist culture. Leland’s views, though influential, were all but conclusively demolished by Gustaaf Schlegel in one essay of his “Problèmes géographiques: Les Peuples Étrangers Chez les Historiens Chinois,” published in T’oung Pao 3, no. 2 (1892). Schlegel compared each detail of Fusang to the actual geography and anthropology of Mexico and found it wanting. He preferred to identify Fusang with Kamchatka or other far eastern Asian lands.

Something I found interesting, though, was one of the more extreme claims of Joseph de Guignes. For reasons known only to him, he believed that Chinese characters were derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs and that Chinese culture was “really” Egyptian. This belief found its way into other eighteenth century texts, which similarly tried to tie various Asian high cultures back to Egypt as the “mother culture” of the whole world. Surely you will recall that the 1909 hoax article about the alleged Grand Canyon “lost civilization” found just this same mix of Egyptian and Buddhist imagery—specifically finding a Buddha just like the one that the Afghan priests supposedly brought from Kipin, a kingdom which in those days abutted Tibet:
Over a hundred feet from the entrance is the cross-hall, several hundred feet long, in which are found the idol, or image, of the people's god, sitting cross-legged, with a lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of the face is oriental, and the carving this cavern. The idol almost resembles Buddha, though the scientists are not certain as to what religious worship it represents. Taking into consideration everything found thus far, it is possible that this worship most resembles the ancient people of Tibet.
A few years later, in 1913, Alexander M’Allan made the same case in Ancient Chinese Account of the Grand Canyon, trying to use the Fusang texts and others to prove that the Chinese visited the Grand Canyon.

What I didn’t realize at the time I first discussed M’Allan’s work was how these seemingly disparate theories and hoaxes shared a deep background in an eighteenth-century misinterpretation of the Liang Shu. There really are connections in ancient history—just not the ones fringe historians think.

29 Comments
Byron DeLear
3/5/2014 02:58:43 am

Jason---was the misattribution toward a Chinese discovery merely because of a misconception of what was meant by "beggar-monks from the Kingdom of Kipin?"

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/5/2014 03:01:36 am

It seems to be. Leland, for example, writes that Kipin was inhabited by Chinese pilgrims studying Buddhism and was therefore Chinese despite being located in Afghanistan.

Reply
Julio Cesar Assis
3/5/2014 06:15:31 am

“First we describe the Fu-Sang story, centering upon the monk Hui-Shen, at the end of the +5th century. The controversies initiated by de Guignes over the identification of the land of Fu-Sang with the American continent […] suffice it to say that the most probable locations of Fu-Sang are still Karafuto, Kamchatka, the Kurile Islands, perhaps Japan itself”.

“So many echoes and similarities […] the teocalli-s and the horizontal line in architecture, the art motifs, the extremely important part played by jade […] existing traditional craft on both sides of the Pacific Basin. […] the repeated appearance in modern times of dismasted junks, with survivors, on the Pacific coasts of all three Americas, but especially the North and the Centre. […] the geographical knowledge of the Kurushio current [by the Chinese]”.

Needham says that China → Mesoamerica contacts are undeniable facts but Chinese influence on Mesoamerican culture was not decisive.

J. Needham & Lu Gwei-Djen. Trans-pacific echoes & Resonances; listening once again. Philadelphia: World Scientific, 1984, p. 2-4.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/5/2014 06:34:33 am

It is longstanding theory, but one that has yet to have evidence in its favor. Michael Coe included Chinese contact in his classic text "The Maya," but there has never been any Mesoamerican artifact found in China or vice versa. The jade, incidentally, isn't even the same color (or rock type), and it's doubtful either culture would have recognized the other's jade as the same rock.

Reply
Julio Cesar Assis
3/5/2014 10:10:46 am

The only artefacts that would falsify Needham’s hypothesis would be the ones that corroborate that Chinese influence over Mesoamerican culture was decisive. It is unlikely that such artefacts will ever emerge.

Varika
3/5/2014 06:01:39 pm

If Needham actually states in so many words that Chinese contact with Mesoamerica is "undeniable fact," then his credibility is somewhere in the toilet. "You can't disprove it" doesn't make it a fact. It only means it's a possibility--and that, I won't argue with.

Reply
Julio Cesar Assis
3/5/2014 06:56:21 pm

"…relatively little that was fundamental came from outside. At all events it was never enough to affect the basic ethos of the Meso-American civilizations. Yet we retain the conviction that individuals from Asia, and even small groups, did come, possibly quite often, bringing with them ideas and objects which stimulated the Amerindian peoples to parallel or divergent developments”.

J. Needham & Lu Gwei-Djen. Trans-pacific echoes & resonances, 1984, p. 2.

Needham cites A. L. Kroeber’s concept of “stimulus diffusions” and refer two main bibliographies:

A Selective Bibliography of the Influences of Asia and Oceania on Pre-Columbian America. Buenos Aires, 1972.

Taylor, C. R. H. A Pacific bibliography; printed matter relating to the native peoples of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. Oxford, 1965.

Julio Cesar Assis
3/5/2014 07:02:32 pm

A. L. Kroeber’s concept of “stimulus diffusion”.

Pacal
3/6/2014 05:13:48 am

Needham et als hypothesis does indeed lack much, if any support. Despite well over a century of intensive digs relatively little support for much diffusion as appeared. In fact the one more or less undeniable pre-columbian diffusion seems to be from America toPolynesia - the sweet potato. We have problematic possibilities like the chicken, albeit possibly introduced just before Columbus and apparently confined to a small region of South Amerrica - pre Columbian.

The problem with stimulus diffusion is that it is a pretty nebulous concept in that human civilizations / cultures contain lots of similarities simply because were human and of course since humans living in civilizations have depended on agriculture until fairly recently. All of this would produce similarities. So I rather doubt much stimulus diffusion also.

Frankly the last 30 years or so have not been kind to hyper or even moderate diffusion claims of influence from the Old to the New World. It appears that hyper diffusion is effectively dead and even moderate diffusion seems rather unlikely. What we are left with is occasional contacts, which over all seems to have had little impact.

In fact the discovery that Peruvian high culture goes back to c. 3000 - 2500 B.C.E. has precluded virtually all theories of pre Columbian American culture / civilization being imported into the Americas from the Old World. What is fascinating is this doesn't preclude some sort of diffusion within the New World in that Since Mexican culture started later so influence from Peru seems likely. Also of course Maize did indeed diffuse from Mexico south into Peru.

Needham et al's hypothesis has little evidence to support it and in fact is gossamer in substance and very weak. These visitors were both very tidy and frankly it is extremely unlikely they came "quite often".

Pacal
3/5/2014 01:48:54 pm

This reminds me of a series of rather vigorous debates I had with someone at the In the Hall of Maat website. This individual was quite adamant that not only was Fusang America. Ignoring the presence of the wheel, domesticated reindeer, horses etc. But he was convinced that Chinese immigrants had founded Teotihuacan and that Buddhism was spread by missionary monks in Mesoamerica. He was convinced that a rebellion in China c. 750 C.E., triggered the collapse of Teotihuacan c. 750 C.E. He was further convinced that the fall of the Maya was correlated with the end of the Tang Dynasty in 907 C.E. Well firstly Teotihuacan fell it appears 600-650 C.E., or even earlier, and the Maya had been collapsing for more than century by the time of the last long count date, (909 C.E.).

The tissue of special pleading, assumptions and fantasy he engaged in to explain why the Chinese so signally failed to bring over certain (any) features of their culture like rice, millet, metallurgy, the Chinese writing system etc., was quite something. And it goes on and on. The gentlemen in question eventually wrote a novel containing these notions.

Any idea of such sustained contact has to explain the lack of certain cultural traits., We know from later contact that Native Americans adopted all sorts of things rather quickly, for example the horse, iron tools etc. So we would expect to see such things from sustained contact. But since we don't see them sustained contact is unlikely.

I am puzzled about the reliance on translations of a portion of a Chinese work. It is my understanding that only a portion of the relevant material has ever been translated from the text. So it appears people are relying on a old translation rather than checking the original. Frankly it my understanding that Fusang was associated with all sorts of fantastic myths and fantasy among the Chinese so I have my doubts that it was ever except in the broadest sense a real place.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/5/2014 10:34:22 pm

Fusang was mentioned in many Chinese texts but the earliest go give a description was the Liang Shu. Leland actually did translate nearly all of the material on it from the Liang Shu, if I can judge by the later French edition, made directly from the Chinese, which is almost identical. Leland's translation doesn't look complete because he broke it up into short sections interspersed with commentary, but Chinese experts say this is the entirety of the entry for "Fusang-guo" in the Geography section of the Liang Shu.

Reply
Pacal
3/6/2014 05:16:05 am

Thanks for the clarification. I am wondering if the later French translation you are referring to is in Schlegel 1892?

Jason Colavito link
3/6/2014 05:17:57 am

Yes, it is. I compared it as well to more recent Chinese work that happened to include excerpts from the same (though for a different reason), and no one else cites material beyond these few paragraphs, so it seems like it covers everything.

Julio Cesar Assis
3/7/2014 04:42:45 am

“it is extremely unlikely [the Asian visitors] came "quite often".

With “quite often” Needham is referring to “the repeated appearance in modern times of dismasted junks, with survivors, on the Pacific coasts of all three Americas, but especially the North and the Centre”.

This is undeniable.

“What we are left with is occasional contacts, which over all seems to have had little impact”.

This is Needham’s thesis.

“The Amerindian cultures, they believe, were not wholly without influences from the Asian mainland, but these were on the whole minor, and the powerfully original social and technical creation of the Amerindian peoples were essentially and basically their own”.

J. Needham & Lu Gwei-Djen. Trans-pacific echoes, back cover.

The fury to debunk is such that people try to debunk the very ideas they hold.

Reply
Pacal
3/8/2014 03:54:48 am

"The fury to debunk is such that people try to debunk the very ideas they hold."

Yawn. Avoid mind reading.

I was replying to the below especially the stuff after Yet .... I merely note that Needham produced little or no evidence that any of this was the case.

"…relatively little that was fundamental came from outside. At all events it was never enough to affect the basic ethos of the Meso-American civilizations. Yet we retain the conviction that individuals from Asia, and even small groups, did come, possibly quite often, bringing with them ideas and objects which stimulated the Amerindian peoples to parallel or divergent developments"

As for this:

"With “quite often” Needham is referring to “the repeated appearance in modern times of dismasted junks, with survivors, on the Pacific coasts of all three Americas, but especially the North and the Centre”.

This is undeniable."

Yes it is undeniable, and it is irrelevant. Why? well again not Needham mentions "modern times". I merely note that the Spanish who occupied Mexico in the first half of the 16th century don't seem to have had many Chinese junks blown over to Mexico before the mid 19th century.

Large Islands + FUSANG
3/5/2014 04:21:12 pm

1.) Taiwan --- Its due east, its an island with a history.

2.) Japan --- These islands are to the north + east!!!

3.) Hawaii --- Its further east, but its quite a long trip!!!

4.) The Western Hemisphere --- This assumes its coastlines are followed and an attempt at a map is done that communicates things back to the people who sent the ship out on its voyage... but we are looking at two continents.

Reply
Steven
3/9/2014 01:16:38 am

Well, in summary, I guess we could say mis-information is as tantamount as information...but as long as it's not lost...who cares?
I write my own alternative histories...far away from this subject tho...

I think it would have been helpful to have better pyramids in china to help bolster the maya/mexican idea...the other stuff is just a reach.

Reply
Jeroen Bruijns
3/9/2014 12:59:28 pm

The best argument against pre-columbian contacts between the old and new world, with exception of L'Anse aux Meadows, which was a grazing shot in my opinion, is the stay away of the Colombian exchange in those alleged contacts. To bad they didn't happen, the Amerindians might have developed resistance against the diseases the conquistadors brought along.

Reply
Julio Cesar Assis
3/10/2014 03:42:02 am

They say that the Aztecs were defeated by disease but if allies of Tlascala and other city-states were in closest contact with Europeans these tlascaltecas and others should have been the first to get sick. But at the same time it is said that the Spaniards could only win due to these Indian allies as Europeans were few. I would like to know the answer to this apparent paradox.

Reply
Jeroen Bruijns
3/10/2014 03:51:59 am

Why do you think the Amarindians who siddd were spared from diseases? I think they all died in large numbers, no matter which side they were on. Most deseases have an incubation time, you don't die by just looking at an European :-).

Reply
Julio Cesar Assis
3/10/2014 05:03:16 am

It was a long way to Tenochtitlan and rubeola, smallpox and epidemic parotitis all have incubation periods of less than two weeks.

This is an interesting question and I just asked if someone has the answer.

Reply
Jeroen Bruijns
3/10/2014 10:16:28 am

Still, what makes you think the allies of Cortes survived? The population of the new world was reduced with 95% in the first century after 'first contact', but not everybody died after first meeting the Europeans. The defense if Tenochtitlan would also collapse if just 25% of it defenders died during Cortes' atack. Also bad for their moral. If the same percentage of the alies of the Europeans died, I don't think it would have made such an impact. Certainly because the conquistadors them self were not affected.

Jeroen Bruyns
3/11/2014 10:12:50 am

More puzzling is why the amarindians didn't have a lot of diseases unknown to the Europeans. The often given reason that there were no large animals, because the quartenairy extinction, who could transmit diseases, doesn't feel satisfieing. Pest e.g. transmits through rats.

Reply
The Other J.
3/13/2014 09:18:33 am

If it looks like what the story actually describes is far east Asia/Siberia/Kamchatka, my question would be what's the history of Buddhism in those parts? I just don't know. But it'd be interesting to see if the history stretches back to the same era as the Fusang story (450's CE), and if the locals there have any folklore that corroborates the Liang Shu history.

Reply
Hendon Harris
8/31/2016 02:12:20 am

A Chinese poet in the 3rd Century BCE reported that Fu Sang was
on a land mass 10,000 li wide. There one would find another massive sea. Using the 3 li to one mile ratio that seems to routinely match up in other reports made by other Chinese over the centuries referring to Fu Sang, 10,000 li would be 3,333 miles wide. That may be a coincidence but I don't think so. That's the exact distance from the west coast to east coast of North America. That report of of the width of Fu Sang eliminates Japan and any of the Pacific islands by any use of the li's distance ever used.
Hwui Shan reported to the Chinese Emperor that his mission trip to
Fu Sang had been a great success. Unless he was a liar as some
scholars have claimed one could expect to find evidence of Buddhism in the cultures and on the land of any place that was ever
proven or even claimed to be ancient Fu Sang even 1500 years later. Does that explain why there are so many symbols, customs
and monuments in the Four Corners region of the American Pacific
Southwest? The Dalai Lama seems to believe so. If anyone would
know about Buddhism you would have to concede it would probably
be he. Why else do you believe he would write a forward in Peter
Gold's book "Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: The Circle of the Spirit". And where did Jeanie Martinez Wells of the University of New Mexico get her facts when she wrote her online paper "Dimensions of Dine and Buddhist Traditions" These may all be coincidences but some of us see a pattern of evidence developing.
How do you explain the rock form "The King of Arches National Park'. That sure looks like the ruins of a Persian Manicore to me.
The Persian Manicore was a well known form which would have been known by Buddhist clerics from Gandhara (Greater India) in the 5th century. Also how do you explain the massive phallic symbols found throughout that same region. "Phallic Symbols North America" Phallic symbols are a known object of Buddhist and Vedic veneration to this very day. How can you explain that the most common Native America wedding ceremony today is the Seven Step Seven Vow Wedding celebrated around the sacred flame with specific types of wood for fuel. The only other place than North America in the world where it is celebrated is in India where it originated thousands of years ago. In India years ago and today it is called the Sapthapadhi.
There is a lot of evidence that indicates the presence of Vedic or Tibetan Buddhism in North America's ancient past. We may or may not want it to be true. However, the evidence won't disappear just because it's not convenient for or support our historical narrative.
"Buddhist Symbols, Customs and Monuments in Pre Columbian North America"

Reply
Hendon Harris
6/6/2019 11:34:56 pm

Jason, I am clear on the fact that you do not believe that Buddhists or Buddhism reached
North America in the 5th Century AD. I am also clear that you do not believe that North America ever was or could be the ancient Chinese land of
enchantment Fu Sang.
Understanding your position how do you explain
the numerous symbols of Buddhism that tie back
through the last 1500 years to what we know today as the Four Corners in the Pacific Southwest. Access on the Internet: “Ancient Buddhist Symbols in North America” or “Mandalas, Mantras, Manjis and Monuments”
There are several geoglyphs in North America
that are visible to this very day that point to either
ancient Asian and /or Tibetan Buddhist influences
here in North America.
1). “Buddhist Tree of Life, Lotus Flower Egar
Colorado Vedic Geoglyph”
2). “Joseph Needham North American Grid Map
Collection”
3). “Diamond Lake Domino Geoglyph Tiles Oregon”
I personally feel you have to jump through all kinds of hoops in order not to acknowledge the
obvious evidence of scores of individual signs
that not only point to evidence of ancient Buddhism here in N America but even more
specifically Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhism based
on specific symbols that tie back to that specific
school of Buddhism.
Whether or not we may or may not want to accept
this evidence for Eurocentric reasons the facts on the ground and in the cultures speak for themselves whether or not we want to accept it.
Very rarely will anyone talk about the North Pacific
Gyre the interlocking ocean currents that made trips from Asia to N America much easier than we
have been taught.
What other country used GRIDS so extensively
in their mapping technology and process than
China? Why are there such a huge number of
Very Large Geoglyph Grid Patterns all over the
Western United States. For the largest example
of this zoom in on the city of Eugene, Oregon.
There you will see literally thousands of originally two toned large grid patterns that were created
by the deforestation of trees on alternating grids.
If anyone can believe that these massive grid
patterns in numerous locations in N America
were random acts of nature then they can believe
anything.
Lastly, Fu Sang is not a random name. It originally referred to a land of huge trees from which the Sun originated before crossing the
Eastern Sea. Where is the One Place in the
world where such trees as the California and
Oregon Redwoods grow to this very day?
How about Northern California and Oregon?

Reply
Hendon Harris link
6/14/2020 02:25:20 am

For an old example of a large chessboard grid pattern in a remote area of Alberta Canada use your favorite search engine and type in "Joseph Needham N American Chessboard Grid Collection". When you get to that site scroll down to where it
says "Original Map" When you click on that it will take you to a satellite image of a deteriorating chessboard grid in a remote area of Alberta, Canada. That very large grid is between Hwys #40 and #43 in Alberta Canada. That is just one example of the scores of chessboard grid patterns all over the western side of N America. Probably the clearest example is just south of Priest Lake, Utah. The ancient Chinese clearly had a fascination with grids for a number of different purposes including mapping. "The Map of the Tracks of Yu" is an extant
example of a grid map carved into a rock in China in the 12th or 13th century.
All these grids have obviously been surveyed because of the defined corners and straight lines from grid to grid which also have alternating contrasting colors. There is no way ANYONE
can claim that this is simply the act of random erosion.
The question remaining is "Who did this and why?"

Reply
Hendon Harris
7/11/2020 06:04:13 pm

Cultural Anthropology, particularly the subsection of Matriarchal Societies, will provide evidence to reasonably conclude that the
western coast of N America was in fact Fu Sang, not far from the The Land of Women.
Today the Puebloan people of the Pacific Southwest (Four Corners Area) of the U. S. including the Hopi and Navajo Native American cultures are known and acknowledged as Matriarchal Societies. That is a society where women (not men) play the dominate role.
It is reasonable to conclude that these cultures have been matriarchal societies for thousands of years not unlike the other such cultures located around the world to this day.
Currently there are recorded accounts of trips made to N America by the early Spanish explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries and even one thousand years prior by the ancient Chinese in the 5th Century. Reading the material prepared by both the Spanish and the Chinese explorers arriving here one must conclude that they both encountered a culture here in N America that they were not familiar with nor which they were even comfortable. The Spanish referred to this region as the Land of Amazons ruled by Queen Cali, their female ruler. They had no need for men other than for procreation. Today the modern day State of California is named after Queen Cali, the fictional Amazon Queen made famous by a Spanish author in a novel he wrote for his Spanish audience detailing fictional accounts of these N American Warrior Women.
When the leader of a band of Buddhist monks who had arrived in the "Land of Fu Sang" in the 5th century and returned to China 40 years later to give his report to the Chinese Emperor, by the time it was recorded In the Chinese archives it had been apparently significantly embellished for the humor of the Chinese Imperial Court. Descriptions of the culture/s recorded today in the Imperial Chinese Records are details of what the Chinese court derisively referred to as "The Land of Women".
The Chinese courtiers chose the opportunity to weave what they believed was humorous fiction into their recorded account of this Land of Women. They claimed these women did not need men at all. They claimed the women there were impregnated by snakes. (An interesting footnote is that Hopi men are extremely interested in snakes. Their once every other year Snake Dance at Walpi Village has been attended by U S President/s and is world famous.) There were also claims that these women nursed their babes from their backs.
Today, yesterday and thousands of years prior the Puebloan cultures of the Pacific Southwest have been and will probably remain matriarchal.
As recently as the 15th century and as far back as the 5th century two completely different male oriented societies from two widely separated continents both apparently came to this same place and each reported a dominate female/ matriarchal society here. What are the odds of that? Could that have been
a simple coincidence? I think not. The Navajo and the Hopi are
still here.

Reply
Hendon Harris link
11/20/2022 05:22:58 pm

"Church Rock Cathedral in the Desert"

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Blog
    Picture

    Author

    I am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.

    Become a Patron!
    Tweets by JasonColavito
    Picture

    Newsletters

    Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.

    powered by TinyLetter

    Blog Roll

    Ancient Aliens Debunked
    Picture
    A Hot Cup of Joe
    ArchyFantasies
    Bad UFOs
    Mammoth Tales
    Matthew R. X. Dentith
    PaleoBabble
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Alternative Archaeology
    Alternative Archaeology
    Alternative History
    Alternative History
    America Unearthed
    Ancient Aliens
    Ancient Astronauts
    Ancient History
    Ancient Texts
    Ancient Texts
    Archaeology
    Atlantis
    Conspiracies
    Giants
    Habsburgs
    Horror
    King Arthur
    Knights Templar
    Lovecraft
    Mythology
    Occult
    Popular Culture
    Popular Culture
    Projects
    Pyramids
    Racism
    Science
    Skepticism
    Ufos
    Weird Old Art
    Weird Things
    White Nationalism

    Terms & Conditions

    Please read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    RSS Feed

Picture
Home  |  Blog  |  Books  | Contact  |  About Jason | Terms & Conditions
© 2010-2023 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Legends of the Pyramids
    • The Mound Builder Myth
    • Jason and the Argonauts
    • Cult of Alien Gods >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Foundations of Atlantis
    • Knowing Fear >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Hideous Bit of Morbidity >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Cthulhu in World Mythology >
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
      • Necronomicon Fragments
      • Oral Histories
    • Fiction >
      • Short Stories
      • Free Fiction
    • JasonColavito.com Books >
      • Faking History
      • Unearthing the Truth
      • Critical Companion to Ancient Aliens
      • Studies in Ancient Astronautics (Series) >
        • Theosophy on Ancient Astronauts
        • Pyramidiots!
        • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • Fiction Anthologies >
        • Unseen Horror >
          • Contents
          • Excerpt
        • Moon Men! >
          • Contents
      • The Orphic Argonautica >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • The Faust Book >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • Classic Reprints
      • eBook Minis
    • Free eBooks >
      • Origin of the Space Gods
      • Ancient Atom Bombs
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Ancient America
      • Horror & Science
  • Articles
    • Skeptical Xenoarchaeologist Newsletter >
      • Volumes 1-10 Archive >
        • Volume 1 Archive
        • Volume 2 Archive
        • Volume 3 Archive
        • Volume 4 Archive
        • Volume 5 Archive
        • Volume 6 Archive
        • Volume 7 Archive
        • Volume 8 Archive
        • Volume 9 Archive
        • Volume 10 Archive
      • Volumes 11-20 Archive >
        • Volume 11 Archive
        • Volume 12 Archive
        • Volume 13 Archive
        • Volume 14 Archive
        • Volume 15 Archive
        • Volume 16 Archive
        • Volume 17 Archive
        • Volume 18 Archive
        • Volume 19 Archive
        • Volume 20 Archive
      • Volumes 21-30 Archive >
        • Volume 21 Archive
        • Volume 22 Archive
    • Television Reviews >
      • Ancient Aliens Reviews
      • In Search of Aliens Reviews
      • America Unearthed
      • Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar
      • Search for the Lost Giants
      • Forbidden History Reviews
      • Expedition Unknown Reviews
      • Legends of the Lost
      • Unexplained + Unexplored
      • Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
    • Book Reviews
    • Galleries >
      • Bad Archaeology
      • Ancient Civilizations >
        • Ancient Egypt
        • Ancient Greece
        • Ancient Near East
        • Ancient Americas
      • Supernatural History
      • Book Image Galleries
    • Videos
    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
      • Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
      • Of Atlantis and Aliens
      • Aliens and Ancient Texts
      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
  • About Jason
    • Biography
    • Jason in the Media
    • Contact Jason
    • About JasonColavito.com
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Search