The Mysteries of The Old Civilizations

There are many enigmatic relics belonging to the famous Europide population (part of Cro-Magnon, sometimes having the Brünn's or Predmost's features) that existed in South America (Eastern region), almost reaching the Western Australian shore, and covering the Polinesian islands and the lands that sank 10 -12,000 years ago. We're talking about the population which was called by the Aymaras Indians "Viracochas" ("the white man with red beard") and who called themselves, "The Sons of the Sun".

Viracochas' knowledge was superior to the Inka or Maya. To the "sons of the sun" was attributed the construction of the fortresses of Tiahuanaco, Sacsayhuaman and Cerra Gallan. When the Spanish came to conquer South America, the Indians thought the Spaniards were the grandchildren of Viracochas. They were claiming that Viracochas came from the ocean and they were ruled by someone called Quetzalcoatl (by the Aztecs), Kukulkan (by the Mayas), Amalivaka (by the Tamanacs), Manco-Capac (by the Inkas), Viracocha (by the Aymaras). But all of them described him similarly: a tall white man, blue eyed, with long blond-reddish hair and beard.

They were said to had built the fortresses of Tiahuanaco, Sacsayhuaman, Cerra Gallan ("the fortresses of the flying men") even before the end of the Würm period, when the ice melted (10,000 B.C.)

In 1930, 800 skeletons were found in the North part of Mexico. They were European Homo Sapiens Fossilis, but 2.44 meters tall. Here, at Montezuma King's court, the conquistadores (Cortez expedition) discovered a white woman belonging to the tribes who always attacked the Northern territories of the state.

In June 1542, Orellana's soldiers who were looking for Eldorado, found a beautiful river (Amazon) and, somewhere on its shore, a tribe of white women. Because of their particular qualities of fighters, the soldiers tried to avoid them.

Machu Picchu - sacred fortress of Inkas - built 6 centuries before the construction of the Inka state (according to some scientists). Only a few hundred women were living there even though the place was big enough to bring together a few thousand people.

Cerra Gallan was discovered in 1956. It is situated at 6,000 meters altitude. Breathing is hard up there and the risk of fainting is high. The fortress is built on a very high peak from rocks of 1-10 tones each. The external wall is 6-8 meters high and its width is of 3-4 meters; it doesn't have any gates and it surrounds some cylindrical towers (height:12 meters). It's odd that there are no windows or doors, but only an opening in the ceiling. There weren't found any skeletonss or skulls or any other human trace. The fortress was built a few thousand years B.C. The Aymaras people call it "the flying men's fortress" and link it to Viracochas.

The Zimbabwe fortress, found in the East part of Africa, is similar, almost identical to Machu-Picchu and Cerra Gallan.

But the anthropological evidences don't stop here. They exist also in the Island of Easter, where in 1722, Rogeveen discovered two groups of population: first one belonging to the race which we usually meet in Oceania, and the second one, a white race - tall people with reddish or blond hair and beard, with long ears - which became like this due to the heavy ear-rings of 10-15cm length which they would wear.

Tiahuanaco is situated next to Titicaca Lake, at an altitude of 3825m (12,500 feet), where the pressure is twice lower than at the sea level. Here you can find "The Sun Gate". The walls' length is of a hundred meters; they are built from cubes of 60 tones each; there are also many long statues, towers, and a statue of 7.5 meters representing a man with long hair, beard, and European features. The Viracochas statues had pipes, built from a white stone which doesn't exist in the area. Some statues show European faces or black faces, reminding of the Olmec's art.

Sacsayhuman (at an altitude of 3,500m), looks more like Inka's buildings.

Maya's origins are obscure. Their writings go back to 68 AD, a year when Rome was decaying but the Maya were coming to greatness. The Maya used, like the Olmecs, what was called the 'Long Count' - a mathematical system used for calculating their highly-accurate calendar and predicting the conjunction of the planets. They were obsessed with astronomy; accurate predictions brought order to their lives.

They had a calendar for Venus (Venus was called Noh Ek or Xux Ek - which means the 'Big Star')

They calculated the length of a year to be 365.2420 days. Our corrected Gregorian calendar gives us a year of 365.2425 days. They got closer to a true year then we did. They also calculated the length of a year for the planet Venus - and were correct to within one day every six thousand years. What is more, they were aware of their error and made adjustments accordingly.

According to Maya, the world has seen four great cycles, each about 5,200 years. Each has ended with some disaster - fire or flood or famine. We are now at the end of the fifth cycle, forecast for December 24, 2011.

However,when it came to illness, the Mayan priests were the ones to be consulted, not the doctors. They would suggest sacrifices, burn incense, throw a dice to determine the cause of the condition. (been asked to underline that Maya didn't have doctors - for those people who understood they did)

Chichen Itza >>>
Photo by: Lucio Luiz Pastor

Their art was brilliant however. Maya paintings were found in their books but many of these were burnt by the conquistadores. Paper was made from tree bark which was beaten soft, then stretched, smoothed and dried, and finally rolled, ready for use in long narrow sheets. They also painted murals and pottery.

The Maya paid great attention to their heads. Before new-born infants were a week old, they had their heads bound between two flat boards, which forced the skull to grow upward, giving rise to their long, narrow foreheads. Often a ball of wax was dangled over the infant, fixed firmly in its crib, to encourage the child to become cross-eyed. Such a person was considered fashionable and clever. The Maya tattooed their faces producing heavy scars.

The greatest contrast between knowledge and superstition was the Maya obsession with self-immolation. The blood gathered from all the self-torture was sprinkled over the idols carved in the forms of their gods. The more painfully it was produced, the Maya believed, the more highly it would be valued.

<<< Maya Hyeroglyphs (Palenque)

Jose Maria Melgar y Serrano was the first one to discover a huge head belonging to the Olmec people (1862). The heart of the Olmec territory is the region El Viejon and La Venta. No one seems quite sure where the Olmecs came from. They carved from huge blocks of basalt giant heads - the head alone resting on the ground is almost ten feet high and weighing up to 20 tones.

They were brought from 60 miles away and just left there, on the ground. The heads are Mongol-featured, European-featured, or African-featured. The ones from La Venta were part of a complex of temples, altars, platforms, and of other statues carved to have bodies. Some of the statues represent powerful men that look like warriors and some represent taller men with noble profiles. They look like lords.

<<< "Monte Alban" (Zapotec site) , Mexico
Photo by: Lucio Luiz Pastor

The Olmecs also liked jaguars. They left many jade jaguars. They probably thought they were descending from jaguars. These conclusions are based on etchings which show a jaguar physically mating with a human being. They also had temples and huge heads at San Lorenzo.

>>> Carved from a single rock of basalt weighting almost 20 tones, this giant head is one of the many left by the Olmecs in the swampland of La Venta.

Photo by: Hasso Hohmann

<<< Jaguar - priest going on his knees toward a temple, detail.

We don't know much about the Toltecs. However, for some time, before Tula was discovered, Teotihuacán was thought to be the capital of the Toltecs. (after Angelo Morretta, "I Mitti Delle Antiche Civilita Messicane", 1984, Milano)

900: they build Tula (Tullan); they expend in Hidalgo, Morelos, Puebla; 987: Ce - Acatl Topiltzin abandons Tula.

They left us nothing in writing, except for a few hieroglyphics.

<<< Teotihuacán, High priest of Tláloc, god of water.

<<< The Pyramyd of Sun, Teotihuacán.
(Agualarga Editores, S.L.)

P.S. All we can do is wait... Wait and see how many of the theories will survive. Maybe some time we will find one single truth in all the books that want to explain the mysteries of the old civilizations. And maybe, one day archeologists will join forces with astrologists and geologists and will stop contradicting each other. And they'll try to see farther than they do now. This would be nice if it happened before something else happens to what we have left from these cultures.

But my opinion is: read all, give yourself a break, read again... read all their books with a completely free mind. It's not possible what they say? You don't believe them? Doesn't matter. Keep in mind only sure things (like how many meters a building had). And if you want to know more, start from almost zero and build your theory slowly slowly. Do you realize how wrong you could be and what a wrong conclusion you could reach if you took for granted some theories -- absolutely wrong -- which blocked the further evolution but no one realized it? It always happens like this. Just look back at our history. How much do you think that the human race changed?