Posted on 07/29/2011 9:25:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Olmec and the ShangLast year, in a book entitled Origin of the Olmec Civilization, Professor Mike Xu, a Chinese who teaches in the foreign languages department at the University of Central Oklahoma, proposed a hypothesis which aroused a storm of controversy in archeological circles. In Xu's view, the first complex culture in Mesoamerica may have come into existence with the help of a group of Chinese who fled across the seas as refugees at the end of the Shang dynasty. The Olmec civilization arose around 1200 BC, which coincides with the time when King Wu of Zhou attacked and defeated King Zhou, the last Shang ruler, bringing his dynasty to a close.
by Claire Liu
tr. by Robert Taylor
Transpacific Contacts?
by Dr. Mike Xu
Texas Christian University
http://www.chinese.tcu.edu/www_chinese3_tcu_edu.htm
The Olmecs and later the Maya depicted jaguars in much of their art.
Some of their art depicted figures with human and jaguar features (at least that's how some interpret this:
"No, Maggie, not Aztec. Olmec. Ol-mec."
I will admit that my information might be quite out of date but as I remember we know almost nothing about the Olmecs, not even what they were really called. So isn't the above statement speculation?
We know they feared and venerated cats, and probably for good reason:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2755896/posts
Panthers and jaguars are much larger than house cats. Certainly they would be feared. But weren’t there other cats as well like the Ocelot that were intermediate in size? There were also cat goddesses in Egypt around the time the Olmec civilization began. Connection?
Ocelots, and just to cause trouble, the Onza (a cryptoanimal), Geoffrey’s Cat, at least two varieties of lynx, the Florida panther...
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