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8
DISCOVERED
AMERICA
FIRST
,
•
New fltlidencfl
ls
incre•slngly coming
to 1/ght pnJvlng that Columbus
wes
11
relatllffl l•t• come< to the New World.
Others reached
TlitJ
shoriJs
ol
the
Americes
thouslmds ol ,..,.,.
tHiore
Columbus
wes
bom.
Who ...,.,.. th11y?
Here ls tbe intríguingstory.
byWilliam F. Dankenbnng
D
r. Alexander von Wuthenau. a
white-haired patriaren • witl> a
redoubtable intellec:t. resides in
Mexico City. Alter living in latin
Ame rica for 3 6 years. von
Wuthenau has devoted his life to study–
ing the mysteries of pre-Columbian an
and is
w~hout
peer in his field.
.
· 1interviewed the learned professor for
many hou'l in his home recently. and
we discussed some of the
most
cootro–
versial and astonishing archaeologic:al
findlngs in recent decades.
According to Dr. von Wuthenau.
there is signifteant
evidenq~
of Maditer–
ranean and Afric:an influences on the
..new continent' ' ata very earfy time!
Severa! years ago Dr. von Wuthenau
observad on a six-foot stela in the na–
tional museum of Mexico a ' 'Star of
David' ' design engraved in the earring
of a Mayan dignitary. The
$3..,.
Mayan
figura has a hat which is very similar to
the papyrus craft Thor Heyerdahl pi–
loted across the Atlantic. panemed alter
the reed ·boats of ancient Egypt. In·
trigued. von Wuthenau investigatad re–
productíons of rock drawings in the
Jewish necropolis of Beit-Shearim. Here
he
was surprised to find a very similar
drawing. wilh an interlaced six-pointed
..Star. of David.. and an authentic an–
cient read boat.
Even more remarkable. a phylactery
- a cord wound on a Hebrew youth's
weakest arm al the time of his Bar Mitz–
vah - has been found etchad on the
right arm of an eight-foot figure in Vera–
cna. Miuuco. the Tepatlaxco Stela. Thos
evidence strongly suggestad that the
..isólationist.. school df'thought ·wt.lch
assumes that the cultures of the Amer–
ícas evolvad independendy from the Old
World is in need of total rethinking.
This. however. was just the begir>–
ning. With the advent
of
America·s bo·
centennial year, the whole•question of
who discovered America has ·been
thrown up in the alr for a completely
new evaluation.
The Paraíba Stone
In 1966,
J~les
Piccus. professor of
Romance languages at
the
University
of
Massachusens, bought an old scrap–
book containing a cranscription of mys·
terious stone markings found in 1872
by a slave in the tropical raon forest of
Paraiba state. Bratil. lntrigued, Dr. Pie·
cus brought the material to the attention
Óf Professor Cyrus H. Gordon of the de–
panment ot Mediterranean Studies at
Brandeis University. Massachusetts. Dr.
Gordon. a scholar of the fi rst rank and
authór of sorne thineen books·. is an
expen in ancient Semotic languages.
1 talked to Dr. Goidon in hos home in
a suburb of Boston. Massachusetts
1
about two years ago. He ralated how he
comparad the Paraiba inscnption with
the latest
work
on Phoentcian writings:
.., noticed that the peculiarities of this
text found in Brazil and written ín a
language very closely relatad to Hebraw
and Phoeniéian referred to events be·
tween 534 and 531
a.c....
Dr. Gordon
related. .. , realized this had to be genu–
ine because il contained words. gram–
matfcal forms and expressions that were
not known in the 19th century, but
were only authenticated in the 20th
century. This is imponant, because if
one of these inscrlptions tumed up in
1973. thare would be no way
ot
know·
ing if
it
were genuine or fake. The ree-
WEEK ENDING J\JLY 12,
191S