Page 136 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

the ‘feathered serpent’. On one level it did, indeed, depict exactly that: a
plumed or feathered serpent, the age-old symbol of Quetzalcoatl, whom
the Olmecs, therefore, must have worshipped (or at the very least
recognized). Scholars do not dispute this interpretation. It is generally
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accepted that Quetzalcoatl’s cult was immensely ancient, originating in
prehistoric times in Central America and thereafter receiving the devotion
of many cultures during the historic period.
The feathered serpent in this particular sculpture, however, had certain
characteristics that set it apart. It seemed to be more than just a religious
symbol; indeed, there was something rigid and structured about it that
made it look almost like a piece of machinery.

Whispers of ancient secrets

Later that day I took shelter in the giant shadow cast by one of the Olmec
heads Carlos Pellicer Camara had rescued from La Venta. It was the head
of an old man with a broad flat nose and thick lips. The lips were slightly
parted, exposing strong, square teeth. The expression on the face
suggested an ancient, patient wisdom, and the eyes seemed to gaze
unafraid into eternity, like those of the Great Sphinx at Giza in lower
Egypt.
It would probably be impossible, I thought, for a sculptor to invent all
the different combined characteristics of an authentic racial type. The
portrayal of an authentic combination of racial characteristics therefore
implied strongly that a human model had been used.
I walked around the great head a couple of times. It was 22 feet in
circumference, weighed 19.8 tons, stood almost 8 feet high, had been
carved out of solid basalt, and displayed clearly ‘an authentic
combination of racial characteristics’. Indeed, like the other pieces I had
seen at Santiago Tuxtla and at Tres Zapotes, it unmistakably and
unambiguously showed a negro.
The reader can form his or her own opinion after examining the
relevant photographs in this book. My own view is that the Olmec heads
present us with physiologically accurate images of real individuals of
negroid stock—charismatic and powerful African men whose presence in
Central America 3000 years ago has not yet been explained by scholars.
Nor is there any certainty that the heads were actually carved in that
epoch. Carbon-dating of fragments of charcoal found in the same pits
tells us only the age of the charcoal. Calculating the true antiquity of the
heads themselves is a much more complex matter.
It was with such thoughts that I continued my slow walk among the
strange and wonderful monuments of La Venta. They whispered of
ancient secrets—the secret of the man in the machine ... the secret of the

14 The Prehistory of the Americas, p. 270.

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