Do you think there was communication with Africa?

[SSJVegetaTrunks]

In US History class yesterday, we were talking about the pre-columbian Americas. My history teacher thinks that there may have been some sort of communication between the Maya and Africa.

The reason he thinks this may be is partly because of Pyramids. While the Egyptians were creating pyramids like this:



The Mayans were creating pyramids like this:



The Egyptians created them in honor of the gods, while the Maya created them for religious sacrifices. Extremely similar monuments on two different sides of the earth, places that were thought to have no communication.

My teacher thinks that, perhaps, there was an African man who knew about the Egyptian Pyramids. One day he was out fishing, when a storm blew him away from the shore. If the winds were strong enough, and if he had enough supplies, it may be possible that he was pushed all the way to South America.

What do you think?

[Filibusteria]

nah.

[Rah'Majashan]

There are many theories of the Egyptians and some ancient American culture interacting. It has been proven that the currents can be easily traversed by the boats available at the time (I believe Thor Hyerdhal did this as well as his Kon Tiki thing) Also, they have found trace amounts of cocaine in Egyptian mummies. Cocain is native to the new world and has never been to have grown any where in the old world.

Recentlly, they discoverd a massive city on the coast of Brazil right where a boat leaveing the Azores would naturally land. Also, if the voyages of Zhen He are to be believed, a boat could also easily make it to central america in a short time. So, I do think there was more interaction goin on in the nacient world then we like to believe.

On the other side of the coin, the slope of a pyramid is the maximum slope you can make and still have the walls not fall apart. So, it is not a far fetched idea to thik that any culture who attemped to pile rocks up for a temple would finally settle upon a similar design.

Would be realy cool is we ever found evidence of such interaction though.

[rexdacorum]

Pyramid idea is not an egyptian or an american brand. It is an universal brand. Pyramids exist also in Europe, especially in its south-eastern part.

Interaction probably existed, but not on a grand scale, and certainly, not on a scale large enough to put an impact on native american culture and civilization. Imagine the fact that the none of the native american civilizations used the wheel...

Might have been possible, at least in theory, for certain navigating people to reach the America`s, but before Columbus, these interactions seem to have been short-lived, living no identifiable impact on the local culture. In fact, the Vikings attempted to colonise America, but they where driven back by hostile tribes. Despite the years of coabitation in Newfoundland between the Vikings and the Native Americans, there was no major interaction between the 2 cultures.

[Rah'Majashan]

Yeah, I've read that the Vikings, the most feared warriors of the middle ages, were actually afraid of the native americans they encountered. They called them Skreelings, which i believe means something like, shadow people, because of the way the natives would suddenly appear then fade into the shadows of the forest.

[SSJVegetaTrunks]

Pyramid idea is not an egyptian or an american brand. It is an universal brand. Pyramids exist also in Europe, especially in its south-eastern part.

Except Europe and Egypt DID have interaction. And the South-Eastern part is pretty close to Egypt.

[jacobdebroedere]

If I remember correctly Egyptians stopped building pyramids around 2000/1500 B.C. Mayan piramids were constructed later, more like 600 A.D.(I'm sure Kuk can give more details).