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Click Here for Brown & Company (Ad Served by Doubleclick) [logo2_go_55x60.gif] [icon_arrow.gif] ABCNEWS.com [icon_arrow.gif] ABC2000 HOME [icon_arrow.gif] WORLD PARTY [icon_arrow.gif] TIME TRAVEL [icon_arrow.gif] Y2K BUZZ [icon_arrow.gif] COUNTDOWN [icon_arrow.gif] VIDEO 2000 MORE ON ABCNEWS.com [Select a section:] match.com ABCNEWSstore.com [icon_arrow.gif] ABC.com [icon_arrow.gif] ESPN.com [icon_arrow.gif] DISNEY MILLENNIUM [icon_arrow.gif] THE CENTURY Early Crossings Scientists Debate Who Sailed to the New World First Independent Invention "When I first brought my artifacts from the Americas to China, scholars there thought that I just had more samples of Shang writing. The similarities are that striking." Michael Xu, Chinese Studies scholar Ancient man saw the ocean as a superhighway and not as a barrier. Research archaeologist Betty Meggers old world travels Finds in the Americas such as celts bearing inscriptions similar to those from the Shang dynasty in China suggest that Europeans may not have been the first to visit by sea. (ABC2000.com) By Jennifer Viegas Special to ABCNEWS.com It may be a simple matter of historical chance that this story is not written in Chinese. At least two scholars believe Asians traveled by boat to New World long before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Yet another anthropologist recently said water travel permitted Australian aborigines to reach South America more than 11,000 years ago. These controversial theories have academics debating and individuals wondering if the Pacific Ocean was a superhighway, instead of a barrier, to the New World. By Land or By Sea? The traditional theory on early migration to the Americas says much of the northern hemisphere was covered in ice sheets until glaciers began to break up and sea levels fell about 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. At this time, a land bridge was thought to have formed over the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska. Asian hunters tracking big game crossed the bridge in search of dinner. Some, according to the theory, liked their new environs so much they decided to stay. A 1997 study published by the National Academy of Sciences appears to support the fact that the New World's first migrants came from Asia. Researchers studied Native Americans from the Navajo, Chamorro and Flathead tribes and determined that all three groups possess a unique type of retrovirus gene, JCV, found only in China and Japan. After the land bridge migration, current dogma teaches that Asia had no further contact with the Americas until the early 1800s, when shipping records prove a handful of immigrants and visitors began to arrive. Striking Similarities But Michael Xu, assistant professor of Chinese Studies at Texas Christian University, is among those who theorize that China had further contact with the Americas before the early 19th century. Symbols From the Past This jade celt is among those excavated at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico in 1955 and attributed to the Olmec. The striking similarities between the Olmec and Chinese Shang Dynasty symbols suggest that Chinese may have traveled to the Americas by boat well before the early 19th century. (Photo: Krantz & Martinez/Journal of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences) While excavating Mesoamerican sites in the American Southwest and Central America, Xu discovered jade, stone and pottery artifacts attributed to the Olmec, believed to be ancestors of the Maya. Artistic motifs on the objects bear an extraordinary resemblance to Chinese bone inscriptions from the Shang dynasty, about 1600 to 1100 B.C. Symbols for agriculture, astronomy, rain, religion, sacrifice, sky, sun, trees and water are nearly identical, according to a report published in the current issue of the Quarterly Journal of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. "When I first brought my artifacts from the Americas to China, scholars there thought that I just had more samples of Shang writing," Xu says. "The similarities are that striking." Colonization was not a Chinese priority, according to Xu, which could explain why other aspects of Chinese culture did not spread to the Americas -- and why North Americans aren't speaking Chinese. Pacific Superhighway Betty Meggers, a research archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institution, thinks Asian contact goes back even further, to 5,000 years ago. She has identified compelling similarities between pottery found at a site called Valdivia in Ecuador to pottery from the Jomon period in Japan. Both Meggers and Xu say they believe natural Pacific water flows, such as the Kuroshio from Japan and the Black Current from China, transported boats to the New World. Meggers theorizes that Asians have traveled to and from the Americas for thousands of years. While there is no direct evidence for regular trade or foreign settlements, Meggers points to other signs of contact, such as similarities between Mayan and southeast Asian pyramids. It is unclear when, or if, the contact ended, but she says, "Ancient man saw the ocean as a superhighway and not as a barrier." Aborigines As Well A team of Rio anthropologists also believes early water travel to the Americas was possible. As evidence they point to an 11,500-year-old skull, found in Brazil, which they say belonged to a woman of African or Aboriginal descent. Digital computer imaging last month revealed she had round eyes, a large nose and a pronounced chin -- features characteristic of ancient Africans and Aborigines. Ventura Santos, a researcher at Rio's National Museum and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, who led the study, suggests the woman had ancestors related to Australian aborigines who boated across the northern Pacific 15,000 years ago. John Johnson, curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, is skeptical about the Brazilian skull's history, and he says he doubts boats at that time could withstand long journeys. But, he says, shorter boat trips along the Pacific coastline seem plausible. Earlier this year, Johnson used radiocarbon dating to determine that the remains of a skeleton, called Arlington Springs Woman, found on Santa Rosa Island, across the Santa Barbara Channel, were 13,000 years old. "The channel was five to six miles wide then, so I doubt she swam across," Johnson says. "Some sort of water craft must have been used." DNA May Offer Key Despite such tantalizing evidence as the Arlington Woman or Xu's Mesoamerican artifacts, it is difficult to prove anyone traveled by water thousands of years ago. Early boats were probably made from wood, reeds and other plant materials that decay easily. DNA analysis, however, may soon provide the concrete evidence many scholars seek. Johnson hopes to perform DNA research on the Arlington Springs Woman within the next several months, and other related studies are sure to follow. One, or more, of these reports could reveal what traffic was like on "the Pacific Ocean superhighway" thousands of years ago. Independent Invention Anthropologists who believe the earliest Asian migrants arrived in the New World solely by land, and not by sea, generally attribute cultural similarities between ancient artifacts from the Americas and Asian objects from the same time period to independent invention. David Grove, professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, says, "Humans independently invent things. It is possible that the Olmec created pottery with artistic motifs nearly identical to Shang inscriptions at around the same time with no outside influence." Garman Harbottle, senior scientist emeritus at Brookhaven National Laboratory, agrees. During a recent China excavation, Harbottle saw four-legged corn grindstones with rubbing stones that are identical to tools found in South America. "You could take the Chinese one, bury it in Guatemala, and no one would know the difference," he says, adding that the same holds true for certain turquoise and jade work. Whether ancient great minds thought alike or water travel made idea sharing between cultures possible, one fact remains clear: People the world over have more in common than they probably realize. SEARCH ABCNEWS.com FOR MORE ON ... ______________________________ SEEK