For many years, it was believed that Christopher Columbus, who came ashore from his caravel Santa Maria on October 12, 1492, became the first inhabitant of the Old World to set foot on the American continent. This date is officially celebrated in the United States as America's Discovery Day.
Columbus sailed the wrong way
But why is it not the entire continent he discovered that is called Colombia, but only a small country in its central part? The fact is that until the end of his life the brave navigator believed that he had found a new sea route to India. His mistake is immortalized in the collective name of the indigenous inhabitants of the American continent - Indians.
Seven years later, another equally famous navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, originally from Florence, who served in the naval service in Spain and Portugal, made the first of his several expeditions to the lands reached by Columbus. He expressed the conviction that this was not India at all, but a previously unknown continent, and proposed calling it the New World.
And in 1507, the cartographer from Lorraine Waldzmüller gave the continent its current name - America, in honor of Vespucci. So after 15 years again open land received its final name. Well, after that the local residents did not begin to be called “Americans”, but remained as Indians. It would seem that everything fell into place. But…
"Leiv Was Here"
Since the early 60s of the twentieth century in different parts On the eastern coast of the North American continent, archaeologists find irrefutable evidence that in 800-1000, that is, more than 500 years before Columbus, brave sailors from northern Europe - the Vikings or Normans - not only visited these lands, but also settled and lived for a long time . Archaeological finds - the remains of buildings and fortifications, utensils, fragments of weapons and clothing, runic inscriptions carved on the rocks - convincingly indicate that for a number of years in different places coast there were settled colonies of pale-faced newcomers from overseas.
This is also recognized by modern inhabitants of the continent. In 1964, on the recommendation of the US Congress, President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill on the annual celebration of Leiv Eiriksson Day on October 9 - in honor of the leader of the Norman expedition, which, according to Old Norse legends and chronicles, was the first to reach the legendary Vinland, an area on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland. Moreover, already in the 19th century, evidence of the presence of Scandinavians was discovered on the shores of Florida and Mexico, and in our time, many researchers consider it proven that the Vikings also lived at the foot of the Andes, in the legendary Tiahuanaco - one of the oldest cities in the world in the territory of modern Bolivia.
In 1975, the French scientist, Professor Jacques de Maillet, director of the anthropological institute in Buenos Aires, made a sensational report that the Vikings had even visited the Amazon basin and climbed up it and its tributaries - the Beni and Madeira - far into the South American continent. The anthropologist came to this conclusion after more than 20 years of research into the mysterious tribe of the so-called “white Indians.” During one of his expeditions to the Brazilian state of Piaui, he came across the remains of a 10-meter wall, the ruins of two small forts and the Temple of the Sun. Those who were there stone statues appeared to be replicas of Scandinavian Viking Age ones, and the walls were covered with runic inscriptions characteristic of the ancient Danish-Norwegian language. On one of the fragments of the wall, de Maillet discovered carvings of a Norman ship with dragon heads on the bow and stern, as well as symbolic images of the hammer of Thor, the Nordic god of lightning and thunder. The professor is convinced that the light-skinned “white Indians” are the descendants of fearless Scandinavian sailors.
Jews? Arabs? Chinese?
However, perhaps the Vikings were not the first overseas newcomers to American shores. In the states of Tennessee and Georgia, inscriptions carved on rocks have been found, suggesting that representatives of the Jewish people lived there about 3,000 years ago. The Yuchi Indian tribe from Georgia has customs and speech patterns in which researchers of American folklore see a possible influence of Hebrew culture.
There is a version about the discovery of America by the Arabs. Medieval Arabic legends describe lands with animals and plants unknown to the world at that time, which, according to some scientists, belong to the fauna and flora of both Americas. The Arabs allegedly set sail from the territory of what is now Morocco, from where the port city of Casablanca is now located.
For hundreds of years in Europe they have been saying that in ancient times the Chinese reached America. And in 1962, a message from a certain Beijing professor appeared about a landing on the coast of Mexico in 459 BC. e. six Chinese sailors led by a Buddhist monk. Chinese scientists are trying to substantiate this hypothesis, relying on ancient legends, mythology, numismatics, as well as on Chinese motifs they allegedly discovered in the Aztec culture.
Celts?
In 1975, several scientists from the American Epigraphical Society announced that more than 2,500 years ago, the Celts, representatives of the Indo-European people who then inhabited large parts of Northern and Central Europe, including British islands and Ireland. This landing is evidenced, in their opinion, by inscriptions in the language of this people discovered on rocks in the states of New Hampshire and Vermont. These inscriptions were studied by Harvard University professor Barry Fell, an expert in the field of marine biology and epigraphy, a science that deals with the search and study of ancient inscriptions. He confirmed that the time of their appearance is the period between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC. e., and suggested that they were most likely left behind by fishermen who swam to North America from Europe about 2000 years before Columbus.
Hypotheses, hypotheses...
In 1940, about 400 inscribed stones were found near the mouth of the Susquehanna River, about 100 miles from Philadelphia. At first it was thought that this was the work of the Vikings, but Barry Fell saw signs of Phoenician writing in them. He believes that he was able to translate some of the inscriptions, and since they mentioned women and children, Fell concluded that at this place between 800 and 600 BC. e. there was a settlement founded by the Basques - highlanders from the Pyrenees.
The next hypothesis of the indefatigable Fell concerns the ancient Egyptians. In his opinion, in 231 BC. e. they swam across Pacific Ocean(!), landed on the coast of Chile, 200 kilometers southwest of present-day Santiago. The basis for this sensational hypothesis was an equally surprising discovery by scientists at the University of Texas. On the walls of the Casa Pintada cave in the Cordillera, they discovered inscriptions dated to the 16th year of the reign of the Egyptian king Ptolemy III (he began to rule in 246 BC: “... the southern border of the coast that Mavi reached... The fleet managed to sail to this southern border. The sailors occupy these lands for the king of Egypt, the queen and their son."
Next comes detailed description the mentioned lands. Scientists have noted the amazing similarity of the texts with those that Fell discovered in Libya, as well as ... with the written monuments of the Polynesians. It has been suggested that residents Ancient Egypt, and therefore Libya, reached the coast of South America through the Pacific Ocean, stopping along the way on the islands of Polynesia.
Great Hanno
Another discovery of Fell is associated with the name of the Carthaginian prince Hanno-vel-Hannon, a subject of Hiram III, king of the Phoenician city-state of Tire, founded in the 4th millennium BC. e. At the head of an expedition of sailors from Carthage and Gadir (present-day Cadiz - a port in southern Spain) Hanno in 480 BC. e. went in search of overseas lands and, having reached the American continent, landed in several places on the east coast between Quebec and Yucatan. In Massachusetts, as well as in Canada and Mexico, inscriptions carved on rocks were discovered, made, according to Fell, in the Ibero-Punian language, which was used in southern Spain and North Africa in the vicinity of Carthage about 2500 years ago.
One of the inscriptions reads: “Hanno, who came from Tamu, reached this place.” Another says: “Declaration of ownership. Do not destroy. Hanno claims this place as his domain."
True, some archaeologists and linguists doubt that Fell correctly determined the origin of these inscriptions and understood their content. But he also has many supporters. Among them is the famous Swiss linguist Linus Brunner, who praised Fell's discovery as brilliant. Independently of Fell, the reading of three similar inscriptions discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century in the province of Quebec was carried out by Thomas Lee, a professor at Laval University in Canada. From them, in his opinion, it follows that 2000 years before Columbus, a Phoenician expedition from Carthage reached the coast of North America and climbed up one of the tributaries of the St. Lawrence River.
Which of the inhabitants of the Old World and when was the first to set foot on the American continent, we will probably never know. One can only assume that its very first inhabitants were people who moved there from Eurasia over land that existed in very ancient times on the site of the Bering Strait, and are now known to us as American Indians. This event took place tens, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of years ago. And the results of recent research by American geneticists indicate that the distant ancestors of today’s Indians lived in the area of Lake Baikal.
A little over ten years ago - on October 12, 1992, planet Earth celebrated one of the most significant dates in the history of mankind - the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America. There are many hypotheses about when in the Western Hemisphere, Northern and South America, man appeared on numerous islands and when people came to the American continent. For the fifth century now (since the 16th century), pundits have been debating this issue. In numerous studies on this topic, among the first inhabitants of America, people from Canary Islands, Phoenicians and Carthaginians, ancient Greeks and Romans, Jews, Spaniards, Egyptians and Babylonians, Chinese and even Tatars and Scythians.
Science developed, and as new discoveries were made, knowledge accumulated and hypotheses were selected. Today there is no longer any doubt that the part of the world marked on the world map as America was inhabited by people from other continents. However, from which ones exactly has not been finally decided. Nevertheless, scientists were able to identify many common features inherent in all Indians, bringing them closer to the Mongoloid peoples of Asia. Appearance the original inhabitants of America at the time of their first meetings with Europeans was as follows: stocky figure, short legs, average size feet, rather long but with small hands, high and usually wide forehead, poorly developed brow ridges. The Indian's face had a large, strongly protruding nose (often, especially in the north, the so-called eagle nose), and a rather large mouth. The eyes are most often dark brown. The hair is black, straight, thick.
Many early European documentary and literary sources indicated that the Indians were Redskins. This is actually not true. The skin of representatives of various Indian tribes is rather yellow-brown. According to modern researchers, the name “Redskins” was given to them by the first settlers. It did not arise by chance. The North American Indians once had a widespread custom of rubbing their faces and bodies with red ocher on special occasions. That's why Europeans called them redskins.
Currently, anthropologists distinguish three main groups of Indians - North American, South American and Central American, whose representatives differ in height, skin color and other characteristics.
Most researchers believe that the settlement of the American continent came from Asia through the Bering Strait. Scientists believe that four great glaciations helped ancient people overcome the expanse of water. According to this hypothesis, during the glaciations the Bering Strait froze and turned into some kind of huge bridge. Asian tribes who led a nomadic lifestyle freely moved along it to the neighboring continent. Based on this, the time of the appearance of man on the American continent was determined - this happened 10-30 thousand years ago.
At the time of the arrival of the Spanish caravels under the command of Christopher Columbus off the eastern coast of the New World (October 1492), North and South America, including the islands of the West Indies, were inhabited by many tribes and nationalities. WITH light hand the famous navigator, who assumed that he had discovered new lands of India, they began to be called Indians. These tribes were on different levels development. According to most researchers, before the European conquest, the most advanced civilizations of the Western Hemisphere developed in Mesoamerica and the Andes. The term “Mesoamerica” was introduced in the 40s of the 20th century by the German scientist Paul Kirchoff. Since then, in archeology this has been used to designate the geographical region that includes Mexico and most Central America (to the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica). It was this territory that, at the time of its discovery by Europeans, was inhabited by many Indian tribes and presented a motley picture of the cultures that they represented. According to the correct definition of the Czech Americanist Miloslav Stingl, “these cultures were at different stages of development of tribal society, and the general laws of evolution characteristic of the primitive communal formation manifested themselves here in many local variants and forms.” To the most vibrant and developed civilizations Ancient America(pre-Columbian period) scientists include such cultures as Olmec, Teotihuacan, Mayan, Toltec and Aztec.
The study of the art of Ancient America and its history is relatively young. It dates back a little over a hundred years. American studies researchers currently do not have such rich material and achievements as are available today in the field of studying ancient art. They also experience great difficulties due to the fact that in order to reinforce their conclusions obtained as a result archaeological excavations and discoveries, do not have such a number of written monuments that are, for example, at the disposal of researchers of the Ancient East. The ancient Americans developed writing much later and never reached a high level of development. The written monuments of the peoples of Mesoamerica that have reached us have not yet been sufficiently studied. Therefore, most information concerning political history, social system, mythology, conquests, titles and names of rulers is based only on Indian legends. Many of them were recorded after the Spanish conquest and date back to the first half of the 16th century. It is also important to remember that until this time, ancient American civilizations developed without any influence from European or Asian centers. Until the 16th century, their development proceeded completely independently.
The art of Ancient America, like any other art, has a number of features and characteristic features that are unique to it. In order to comprehend this originality, a dialectical approach is necessary, taking into account the historical conditions under which art and culture developed ancient civilizations Mesoamerica.
Scientists attribute the highest flowering of the culture of the Mayan Indian tribe to the 7th-8th centuries. The Aztec Empire reached the apogee of its development at the beginning of the 16th century. Very often, in the works of archaeological scientists and researchers of ancient cultural civilizations, the Mayan Indian peoples (as older people) are called by analogy “Greeks,” and the Aztecs (as they existed later) are called “Romans” of the New World.
The cultural traditions of the Mayan Indians had enormous influence in the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as in several states of modern Mexico. The geographical boundaries of the distribution of this civilization were 325,000 km 2 and covered the habitat of several dozen, and possibly hundreds of tribes. In general, the tribes inherited a single culture. However, in many ways it naturally had regional characteristics.
The Mayan civilization stood out primarily for its achievements in construction and architecture. Representatives of this nationality created exquisite and perfect works of painting and sculpture, and had unique masters in stone processing and making ceramics. The Mayans had deep knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. The greatest achievement is their introduction of such a mathematical concept as “zero”. They began to use it hundreds of years earlier than other highly developed civilizations.
The Aztecs appeared in Central Mexico in the second half of the 12th century. No historical data about them has been found before this time. There are only a few legends and traditions from which it is known that they called the island of Aztlan (Aztlan) their homeland. One of the traditional descriptions of the supposed life of ancestors in Aztlan is known, allegedly compiled for the last of the pre-Hispanic rulers of the Aztec state, the famous Montezuma II the Younger, based on ancient manuscripts. According to this source, the ancestral home of Aztlan was located on an island (or was an island), where there was a large mountain with caves that served as dwellings. From this word, which denoted the location of the island (Aztlan), came the name of the tribe - Aztecs (more precisely, Aztecs). However, science has not yet established the exact geographical position of this island.
In the earliest stages of their existence, the Aztecs were dominated by a nomadic lifestyle; they were mainly engaged in hunting. This left an imprint on their character. By nature they were very warlike. For almost two centuries, the Aztecs waged wars of conquest and at the beginning of the 14th century, having conquered many other tribes living in Central Mexico, they created a powerful empire. Around 1325, the city they founded, Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City), became its capital.
Currently, interest in the study of ancient Indian civilizations has not faded. Architectural monuments, sculpture, jewelry, household items discovered in places , Where several thousand years ago people lived who had an original, unique culture, there is still a lot of unsolved mystery. Understanding the history of pre-Columbian America, leading archaeologists and modern scientists are trying to find an explanation for many of the most important aspects of the life of ancient human communities.
Test tasks
1. Christopher Columbus was from
a) Italy
b) Spain
in Portugal
d) France
Answer a) Italy.
2. The purpose of Columbus's voyage was
a) circumnavigation of the world
b) reaching the shores of India or Japan
c) discovery of a new continent
d) crossing the Indian Ocean
Answer b) reaching the shores of India or Japan.
3. One of Columbus's ships was named
a) "Nostromo"
b) "Salvador"
c) "Pinta"
d) "East"
Answer c) “Pinta”.
4. How many voyages did Columbus make to the shores of the new continent?
at four
The answer is c) four.
5. When was the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America celebrated?
6. Fill in the gaps in the text.
At the beginning of August 1492, a flotilla of three ships left the port of Paloe: Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. Columbus crossed Atlantic Ocean and discovered several islands, which he believed were somewhere off the coast of India. Most likely, the name of the new continent came from the name of the Italian traveler Amerigo Vespucci.
Thematic workshop
Read the text and answer the questions.
On October 12, a plane landing on a regular flight from New York landed at Madrid airport. Among the other passengers who descended the gangplank, a tall Indian, dressed in a beaded robe of buffalo skin and a magnificent headdress of eagle feathers, especially stood out. Having descended to earth, he announced that he had arrived as an envoy of the North American Indians and that today, on the day of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus, he was announcing his discovery.
1. What do you think the North American Indian discovered?
Answer. An Indian discovered the Old World. When Europeans discovered America (the New World) and began to create colonies, the Indians did not go on ships to Europe, but lived in their ancestral territories until they were expelled from there or completely exterminated. Therefore, they could only accidentally hear about the existence of Europe (the Old World) from the stories of Europeans.
2. Why did the Indian have the right to announce this discovery?
Answer. Because the first native of America set foot on territory previously unknown to his fellow tribesmen. Therefore, he had the right to announce his discovery.
3. In what year did this discovery take place?
Answer. In 1992.
Cartographic workshop
Use atlas maps to find geographical names associated with the name of Christopher Columbus. They can be in both South America and North America. Do not forget also that maps are not only physical, but also political.
Answer. The following geographical names are associated with the name of Christopher Columbus:
North America - federal district Colombia (USA)
North America - British Columbia (Canada)
North America - Columbia River (USA and Canada)
North America – several settlements Colombia or Columbia. Columbia, South Carolina, Columbia, Missouri, Columbia, Maryland, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Tennessee, Columbus, Ohio.
South America - Colombia
South America - highest mountain Colombia Cristobal Colon (5775 m)
Central America - the town of Colon (Panama)
Central America - Province of Colon (Panama)
Central America - Colon Department (Honduras)
“Colon” is the name of Christopher Columbus in Spanish.
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