antediluvian
It’s been only one year since John A. Ruskamp Jr., Ed.D., reported that he identified an outstanding Chinese petroglyphs, hidden in plain sight, above a walking path in Albuquerque’s Petroglyph National Monument.
Now, the growing list of seemingly out-of-place Chinese artefacts can count on a new votive sword. Actually, the 30cm object was found in July 2014 by an avocational surface collector, behind roots in an eroded bank of a small stream in Georgia, but it is only now being made public due to the fact that still little is known about it.
Yet, even if we don’t know much about its origin, the shape and the many symbols it shows are clearly related to the jade objects from the Xia (2070-1600 BC), Shang (1600-1046 BC) and Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC). The feathered crown, as well as the dragon figure spanning a portion of the top of the blade, are typical to the Shang Dynasty. And a grotesque face mask, on the guard and handle of the sword, called Taotie, originates to the Liangzhu culture (3400-2250 BC).
Now, there is clear similarity between the Taotie symbol and a symbol used by the Mesoamerican Olmec culture (actually, the Chinese-Olmec mythologies and symbolisms, have been the subject of debate for over one hundred years, because of their similarities), which begins during the Shang Dynasty, around 1500 BC. Thus, according some scientist, the Chinese culture could have had a direct influence over the Olmec civilisation and later Mesoamerican culture, including the Mayans. For instance, Chinese may have shown the Olmec the mastery of working jade. Hypothesis leading to the possibility that the votive object might have reached Georgia due to the travelling habits of the Olmecs and other cultures around the Gulf of Mexico, as Haskell suggest…
Despite the many indications of authenticity, it is unlikely that these discovery convince any archaeologists who have dogmatically rejected evidence of an ancient Chinese presence in the Americas.