We know they (not the Mayans or Aztecs) were the builders of ancient American pyramids. Dozens of their enormous Olmec Heads have been found throughout Central and South America. Why don't they look like modern Native Americans?
The African looking Olmec heads have dumfounded historians for centuries. There were many speculations as to why they have African features, but no one could agree on a theory, and African American scholars like Dr. Ivan van Sertima were laughed at for decades until now.
There is now undisputed scientific proof that the first Americans were descended from Africans or Australian aborigines, according to evidence in a new BBC documentary. Dozens of their skulls and cave writings have been found dating back to 50,000 years. The skulls, one named 'Lucia' by Scientists, have definite and distinct Negroid facial features like those of Africans, New Guineas or Australian Aborigines.
The programme, Ancient Voices, shows that the dimensions of prehistoric skulls found in Brazil match those of the aboriginal peoples of Australia and Melanesia. Other evidence suggests that these first Americans were later elminated by invaders from Asia. Until now, Native Americans were believed to have descended from Asian ancestors who arrived over a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska and then migrated across the whole of north and south America. Now we can see that there was a mix of racial groups leading to the current Native American peopling.
The land bridge was formed 11,000 years ago during the ice age, when sea level dropped. However, the new evidence shows that these people did not arrive in an empty wilderness. Stone tools and charcoal from the site in Brazil show evidence of human habitation as long ago as 50,000 years.
Archeologists agree that the Mayan and Aztec civilizations - which began thousands of years after the Olmec civilization ended, definitely inherited the bulk of ancient pyramids and advanced pre-columbian art and artifacts previously called 'Mayan' or 'Aztec." The Aztecs and Mayans used the pyramids for blood-letting and human sacrafice, but the Olmec people they inherited the pyramids and giant stone heads from did not.
Walter Neves is the first Scientist to Make a Connection
The site is at Serra Da Capivara in remote northeast Brazil. This area is now inhabited by the descendants of European settlers and African slaves who arrived just 500 years ago. But cave paintings found here provided the first clue to the African looking people who we now call Olmec. Dr. Walter Neves has measured hundreds of skulls, the next step was to reconstruct a face from Lucia's skull (the name scientists gave this 20 year old, African looking woman who died 11,000+ years ago in South America.) First, a CAT scan of the skull was done, to allow an accurate working model to be made. Then a forensic artist, Richard Neave from the University of Manchester, UK, created a face for Lucia. The result was surprising: "It has all the features of a negroid face," says Dr Neave. Click here to see his lab
