Olmec, Mayan, Xi People, Writing, Otomi, Mande & Yoruba

Researchers have found that some Mayan people have genetic markers, which point to African ancestors. For example Underhill, et al noted that:"

One Mayan male, previously (has been) shown to have an African Y chromosome." - Underhill, et al (1996) " A pre-Columbian Y chromosome-specific transition with its implications for human evolutionary history", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA, Vol.93, pp.196-200.

Paul Manansala has observed that: Mestizos in Mayan or nearby areas show significant African admixture. The East Coast had extensive admixture according to a recent study by Lisker et al. ("Genetic Structure in Mesoamerica," _Human Biology_, June 1996).

The following percentages of African ancestry were found among East coast populations: The Olmecs built their civilisation in the region of the current states of Veracruz and Tabasco.

  According to Lisker et al in the image above these 3 are the percentages of African ancestry.

 Many scholars refuse to admit that Africans early settled in America.

But the evidence of African skeletons found at many Olmec sites, and their trading partners from the Old World found by Dr Andrzej Wiercinski prove the cosmopolitan nature of Olmec society.

The major evidence of the African origin of the Olmecs comes from their writing. The writing system used by the Olmec and later adopted by the Maya was first used by Mande speaking people in North Africa and is called Libyco-Berber (even though it can not be read in Taurag).

 The first scholar to recognise the African origin of the Olmec writing was Leo Wiener, in Dr Wiener, highlighted the fact that the writing on the Tuxtla statuette was identical to writing used by the Mande speaking people.

In addition to the Mande speaking Olmec or Xi people influencing the Mayan languages they also influenced the Otomi language of Mexico. The Otomi language also shows affinity to the Mande languages.

Haslip-Viera, Ortiz de Montellano and Barbour (1997) have argued that Olmec civilisation was not influenced by Africans and therefore Afrocentrism should have no standing in higher education, but in fact it can be illustrated that the facial types associated with the Olmec people and Meroitic people are identical;

And that Olmec figurine such as the Tuxtla statuette excavation are inscribed with African writing used by the Mande people of West Africa. (Wiener, 1922; Winters, 1979, of Manding writing, provide the "absolute proof " recovered by archaeologists from "controlled excavations in the New World" as demanded by Haslip-Viera, Ortiz de Montellano and Barbour (1997: 419) to "proof"/confirm Olmec and African contact.

 The Olmec spoke a variety of the Mande language, which is still spoken in West Africa today.

Haslip-Viera, Ortiz de Montellano and Barbour (1997: 419, 423-25) argue that the claims of the Afro-centrists claims that the Olmecs were Africans, must be rejected because 1) the Olmecs do not look like Nubians, and 2) the absence of an African artefact recovered from an archaeological excavation.

These authors are wrong on both counts, there are numerous resemblances between the ancient Olmec people and ancient Nubians, and an African artefact: Manding writing, is engraved on many Olmec artefacts discovered during archaeological excavation (Winters, 1979, 1997).

Haslip-Viera, Ortiz de Montellano and Barbour (1997) argue that the Olmecs could not have been Nubians or Kushites of the Napata-Meroe civilisation, as claimed by van Sertima (1976) because the Olmec civilisation preceded the civilisation of the Kushites by hundreds of years.

 They also claim that the Olmecs had flat noses, while the Nubians had "thinner noses" because they lived in the desert (Haslip-Viera, Ortiz de Montellano & Barbour, 1997:42

This view is false. The ancient Nubians like African- Americans today were not monolithic, they had different hues of skin, facial features and nose shapes (Keita, 1996: 104). This is evident in from the wall-painting from the tomb-chapel of Sebekhotep at Thebes, c.1400 BC, which show Nubians, of different types bringing rings of gold, incense and other luxury items to the Egyptian Pharaoh (Taylor, 1991).

Sources: Underhill, et al, Paul Manansala, Dr. Andrzej Wiercinski, Dr. Leo Wiener, van Sertima, Haslip-Viera, Ortiz de Montellano and Barbour, Translation from Otomi and Mande to English A Winters and Dr. Leo Wiener, Translation from Otomi and Mande to Yoruba and English Samuel A Akinyemi.

Olmec, Mayan, Mande, Writing, La Venta Offering No 4

In this chapter we will use the inscribed celts found at La Venta in 1955, at offering No.4, the inscribed jadeite celt from near El Sitio, and the Black Stone Serpent Sceptre of Cardenas, Tabasco as examples of the Olmec writing. All the translations of Olmec artefacts are based on the Manding dictionary of Delafosse (1921).

La Venta Offering No 4

 The celts of La Venta offering no.4, were discovered by Drucker in 1955. These celts show both the plain and cursive forms of the Olmec script. These inscribed celts were part of a collection of 16 figurines and jade and serpentine found in offering no.4 (Soustelle, 1984).

In La Venta offering no.4, fifteen figurines were arranged around a central figure. According to the inscriptions on the celts in this collection, the personage buried in this tomb was Pè. The bold head of Pè suggest that he was their cult leader. A pit had been dug over the incised celts and figurines, a hole leading from the earth's surface down to the burial cache suggest that this was used for pouring libations on the figurines.

This view is supported by the fact that the inscriptions written in the plain Olmec syllabic style ( Fig. 1), mentions the fact that Pè tomb was to act as a talisman or protective shrine for the faithful.

La Venta Offering No 4

 The six celts found in La Venta offering no.4, were arranged in a semi-circle. Four of the celts were engraved. The first and last celts in the semi-circle were not engraved. Moving from left to right two engraved jade celts when joined together depict an Olmec priest wearing an elaborate headdress and holding what appears to be a torch or baton in his hand.

This figure probably represented Pè. It is analogous to the figure engraved on a jade Breastplate (no. 13:583), now located in the National Museum of Anthropology at Mexico City ( Wuthenau, 1980).

The first two Laventa celts probably were originally joined together and served as a symbol of authority for the deceased priest while he was alive. The breakage of this celt into two parts probably symbolized the withdrawal of the priest's physical body, from the physical plane to the spiritual plane.

The placement in the tomb of Pè's "celt of power" was meant to hold his spiritual power at the grave site. The third engraved celt at La Venta offering no.4, was engraved in the cursive Olmec script (Fig. 2). In the text of the cursive script we find Pè's obituary.

 Transliteration of Symbols on Figure 1

Fè fè mi pè po gbè: without breath void consumed Pè pure/holy below (in), lu bè ma: the family habitation lay low the celebrity (the) Lord (in), yu ka-pè ba ko: the big hemisphere tomb Ka-Pè the Great (in) the back of, se yu we: (to) possess for posterity the big hemisphere tomb Hence, ta lu ba i: this place the family habitation great/strong thine, gba kyè be po: fixed in the ground inheritance/estate here pure/holy, mbe be: lay low the celebrity lay low the celebrity.

Translation
"Without breath. Void. Consumed (lies) the Hole Pè, below the family habitation. Lay low the celebrity, the Lord, in the hemisphere tomb. The Great Ka-Pè, in the back of the big hemisphere tomb, possesses (this place) for posterity. Thine inheritance (is) fixed in this ground. Here the pure celebrity lays low. Lay low the celebrity".

Vocabulary
fè, v. to be void, empty, without breath mi, v. consumed Pè, proper name; v. spacious, pin down po, adj. : superlative of white translated as holy, pure, the good gbè, v. lay low, below; virtue lu, family habitation bè, v: lay low the celebrity ma, it can be translated as "Great one" or "Lord"; it can also be a suffix joined to a substantive or a verb to show intensity. yu, the big hemisphere tomb Ka, a title given to Olmec elites ba, adj.: great ka, adv.: in the back of se, possess (this place) for posterity we, adv.: hence ta, this place, place, here lu, n.: the family habitation ba, adj.: great i, pronominal particle of the second person: thine, thou, you gba, transitive v.: fixed in the ground kyè, inheritance, estate be, here

Sources: Delafosse, Soustelle, Wuthenau, Drucker

Olmecs, Mayan, Mande, Manding, Libyco-Berber, Writing

The view that Africans originated writing in America is not new. Scholars early recognized the affinity between Amerindian scripts and the Mande script(s). By 1832, Rafinesque noted the similarities between the Mayan glyphs and the Libyco-Berber writing.

 And Leo Wiener (1922, v.3), was the first researcher to recognise the resemblances between the Manding writing and the symbols on the Tuxtla statuette.

In addition, Harold Lawrence (1962) noted that the "petroglyphic" inscriptions found throughout much of the southern hemisphere compared identically with the writing system of the Manding. Rafinesque (1832) published an important paper on the Mayan writing that helped in the decipherment of the Olmec Writing. In this paper he discussed the fact that when the Mayan glyphs were broken down into their constituent parts, they were analogous to the ancient Libyco-Berber writing.

The Libyco-Berber writing can not be read in either Berber or Taurag, even though these people use an alphabetic script similar to the Libyco-Berber script which is syllabic CV and CVC in structure.

This was an important article because it offered the possibility that the Mayan signs could be read by comparing them to the Libyco-Berber symbols (Rafineque, 1832). This was not a far-fetched idea, because we know for a fact that the cuneiform writing was used to write four different languages: Sumerian, Hittite, Assyrian and Akkadian. The Mande people often refer to themselves as Sye or Si 'black, race, family, etc.'.

The Si people appear to have been mentioned by the Maya (Tozzer, 1941). Tozzer (1941) claimed that the Yucatec Maya said that the Tutul Xiu (shiu), a group of foreigners from zuiva, in Nonoualoco territory taught the Maya how to read and write. This term Xiu agrees with the name Si, for the Manding people (also it should be noted that in the Manding languages the plural number is formed by the suffix -u, -wu).

Winters (1979, 1997) was able to read the Libyco-Berber signs because they were analogous to the Manding or Si signs recorded by Delafosse (1899). These Si people , now centered in West Africa and the Sahelian region formerly lived in an area where Libyco-Berber inscriptions are found (Winters, 1983, 1986). Using the Manding languages Winters (1983) was able to decipher the Libyco-Berber inscriptions.

The second clue to the Manding origin of the Olmec writing was provided by Leo Wiener in Africa and the Discovery of America (1922,v.3). Wiener presented evidence that the High Civilizations of Mexico (Maya and Aztecs) had acquired many of the cultural and religious traditions of the Malinke-Bambara (Manding people) of West Africa. In volume 3, of Africa and the Discovery of America,

Wiener discussed the analogy between the glyphs on the Tuxtla statuette and the Manding glyphs engraved on rocks in Mandeland.

In Table 1, we show a comparison of the Libyco-Berber, Vai syllabic signs, and Olmec signs from selected sites to test the hypothesis of Lawrence (1961), Wiener (1922) and Winters (1979, 1983), that the Olmec writing is of Manding origin.

The phonetic values of the Olmec signs are the phonetic values the Vai syllabary, which is analogous to the Olmec writing (Winters, 1979, 1997). Progress in deciphering the Olmec writing has depended largely on a knowledge of the Malinke-Bambara (Manding) languages and the Vai writing system (Delofosse, 1899). This language is monosyllabic. The terms in the Manding languages explain the characteristics of the Olmec civilization. The Olmec inscriptions are primarily of three types 1) talismanic inscriptions found on monuments, statuettes, vessels, masks, and celts; 2) obituaries found on celts and other burial artifacts; and 3) signs on sceptres denoting political authority.

The Olmec script has two forms or stages : (1 syllabic and 2) hieroglyphic. The syllabic script was employed in the Olmec writing found on the masks, celts, statuettes and portable artifacts in general. The hieroglyphic script is usually employed on bas-reliefs, stelas (i.e., Mojarra, and tomb wall writing. The only exception to this rule for Olmec writing was the Tuxtla statuette. Olmec is an agglutinative language. Olmec had mixed syntactic constituents because of its use of affixes.

  The basic word order for Olmec was subject (S), object (O), and vowel (V) in simple declarative sentences. Due to the use of several prefixes in Olmec there are some VO sentences in the corpus of Olmec inscriptions.

In the Olmec script the consonants k, m, and n, was often placed in front of selected Olmec words, e.g., be : mbe, ngbe; and pe: Kpe. In these instances the nasal consonant can be dropped, and the monosyllabic word following the initial consonant element can be read , e.g., Kpe= pe ' spacious, pin down, flat lands, etc.

Thusly, the appearance of CCV or CCCV Olmec forms are the result of the addition of initial consonantal elements to monosyllabic Olmec terms. Olmec Syllabic Writing. The famous inscribed celts of offering no.4 LaVenta, indicate both the plain (Fig. 1) and cursive syllabic Olmec scripts (Fig. 2).

In the cursive form of the writing the individual syllabic signs are joined to one another, in the plain Olmec writing the signs stand alone. The cursive Olmec script probably evolved into Olmec hieroglyphics. The inscriptions engraved on celts and batons are more rounded than the script used on masks, statuettes and bas-reliefs. The pottery writing on the Los Bocas and Tlatilco ware are also in a fine rounded style.

Sources: Harold Lawrence,  Delofosse, Tozzer, Terrence Kaufman, Leo Wiener, A. Winters, Rafinesque

Olmec, Mayan, Mande, Writing

African Origin of the Mayan Writing. The major evidence for the African origin of the Olmecs comes from the writing of the Mayan people. As mentioned earlier most experts believe that the Mayan writing system came from the Olmecs (Soustelle, 1984).

Moreover, this view is supported by the appearance of jaguar stucco mask pyramids (probably built by the Olmecs) under Mayan pyramids e.g., Cerros Structure 5-C-2nd, Uxaxacatun pyramid and structure 5D-22 at Tikal.

This would conform to Schele and Freidel's belief that the monumental structures of the Maya were derived from Olmec prototypes. An Olmec origin for many Pre Classic Maya sites, would explain the cover-up of the jaguar stucco mask pyramids with classic Maya pyramids at these sites. The evidence of African style writing among the Olmecs is evidence for Old World influence in Mexico. The Olmecs probably founded writing in the Mexico. Schele and Freide (1990) have discussed the Olmec influence over the Maya. This agreed with Brainerd and Sharer's, The ancient Maya (1983, p.65) concept of colonial Olmec at Mayan sites.

It would also explain Schele and Freidel's (1990) claim that the first king of Palenque was the Olmec leader U-Kix-chan; and that the ancient Maya adopted many Olmec social institutions and Olmec symbolic imagery. B. Stross (1973) mentions the Mayan tradition for a foreign origin of Mayan writing. This idea is also confirmed by Mayan oral tradition (Tozzer, 1941), and C.H. Brown (1991) who claimed that writing did not exist among the Proto-Maya.

Terrence Kaufman has proposed that the Olmec spoke a Mexe-Zoquean speech and therefore the authors of Olmec writing were Mexe-Zoquean speakers. This view fails to match the epigraphic evidence. The Olmec people spoke a Manding (Malinke-Bambara) language and not Zoquean. There is a clear African substratum for the origin of writing among the Maya (Wiener, 1922). All the experts agree that the Olmec people gave the Maya people writing (Schele & Freidel, 1990; Soustelle, 1984). Mayanist also agree that the Proto-Maya term for writing was *c'ihb' or *c'ib'.

The Mayan /c/ is often pronounced like the hard Spanish /c/ and has a /s/ sound. Brown (1991) argues that *c'ihb may be the ancient Mayan term for writing but, it can not be Proto-Mayan because writing did not exist among the Maya until 600 B.C. This was 1500 years after the break up of the Proto-Maya (Brown, 1991).

Landa's tradition concerning the origin of writing among the Maya supports the linguistic evidence (Tozzer, 1941). Landa noted that the Yucatec Maya claimed that they got writing from a group of foreigners called Tutul Xiu from Nonoulco (Tozzer, 1941). The Tutul Xi were probably Manding speaking Olmecs.

The term Tutul Xiu, can be translated using Manding as follows: Tutul, "Very good subjects of the Order". Xiu, "The Shi (/the race)". "The Shis (who) are very good Subjects of the cult-Order". The term Shi, is probably related to the Manding term Si, which was also used as an ethnology. The Mayan term for writing is derived from the Manding term *se'be. In Figure 2., are the various terms for writing used by the Manding/Mande people for writing.

Brown has suggested that the Mayan term c'ib' diffused from the Cholan and Yucatecan Maya to the other Mayan speakers. This term is probably derived from Manding *Se'be which is analogous to *c'ib'. This would explain the identification of the Olmec or Xi/Shi people as Manding speakers.There are also many cognate Mayan and Manding terms (Wiener, 1920-22) . The Transcription of the Olmec Writing It is generally accepted that the transcription of an unknown language/script requires 1) bilingual texts and/or 2) knowledge of the cognate language(s).

It has long been felt by many Meso-Americanist that the Olmec writing met non of these criteria because, no one knew exactly what language was spoken by the Olmec that appear suddenly at San Lorenzo and La Venta in Veracruz, around 1200 B.C.E. This was a false analogy. For over 50 years there has been evidence that the Olmec people probably wrote their inscriptions in the Manding language (Winters, 1979,1997) and the Manding writing from North Africa called Libyco-Berber, was used to write the Olmec (Winters, 1979, 1997) and Mayan (Rafinesque, 1832) language.

To decipher an unknown script it is unnecessary to reconstruct the Proto-language of the authors of the target script. In both the major transcription of ancient scripts, e.g., cuneiform and ancient Egyptian, contemporary languages in their synchronic states were used to gleam insight into the reading of dead languages. No one can deny, that it was Champolion's knowledge of Coptic, that led to his successful transcription  of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Sources: Soustelle, Schele and Freidel, Brainerd and Sharer,  B. Stross, Tozzer, C.H. Brown, Terrence Kaufman, L. Wiener, Landa, Winters, Rafinesque