Page 140 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

Phoenicians and other Old World peoples had crossed the Atlantic ages
before Columbus. There was compelling evidence for that, although it is
outside the scope of this book. The problem was that the Phoenicians,
3
who had left unmistakable examples of their distinctive handiwork in
many parts of the ancient world, had not done so at the Olmec sites in
4
Central America. Neither the negro heads, nor the reliefs portraying
bearded Caucasian men showed any signs of anything remotely
Phoenician in their style, handiwork or character. Indeed, from a stylistic
5
point of view, these powerful works of art seemed to belong to no known
culture, tradition or genre. They seemed to be without antecedents either
in the New World or in the Old.
They seemed rootless ... and that, of course, was impossible, because
all forms of artistic expression have roots somewhere.

Hypothetical third party

It occurred to me that one plausible explanation might lie in a variant of
the ‘hypothetical third party’ theory originally put forward by a number of
leading Egyptologists to explain one of the great puzzles of Egyptian
history and chronology.
The archaeological evidence suggested that rather than developing
slowly and painfully, as is normal with human societies, the civilization of
Ancient Egypt, like that of the Olmecs, emerged all at once and fully
formed. Indeed, the period of transition from primitive to advanced
society appears to have been so short that it makes no kind of historical
sense. Technological skills that should have taken hundreds or even
thousands of years to evolve were brought into use almost overnight—
and with no apparent antecedents whatever.
For example, remains from the pre-dynastic period around 3500 BC
show no trace of writing. Soon after that date, quite suddenly and
inexplicably, the hieroglyphs familiar from so many of the ruins of
Ancient Egypt begin to appear in a complete and perfect state. Far from
being mere pictures of objects or actions, this written language was
complex and structured at the outset, with signs that represented sounds
only and a detailed system of numerical symbols. Even the very earliest
hieroglyphs were stylized and conventionalized; and it is clear that an
advanced cursive script was it common usage by the dawn of the First
Dynasty.
6

3 Fair Gods and Store Faces, passim. See also Cyrus H. Gordon, Before Columbus: Links
Between the Old World and Ancient America, Crown Publishers Inc, New York, 1971.
4 See, for example, (a) Maria Eugenia Aubet, The Phoenicians and the West, Cambridge
University Press, 1993; (b) Gerhard Herm, The Phoenicians, BCA, London, 1975; (c)
Sabatino Moscati, The World of the Phoenicians, Cardinal, London, 1973.
5 This can be confirmed in any of the works cited in note 4.
6 W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt, Penguin Books, London, 1987, p. 192.

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