A Link Between Chinese and American Cultures? The Olmec and the Shang

The continent of Asia at the western edge of the Pacific Ocean and the Americas at the ocean's eastern edge lie 15,000 kilometers apart. Today, a US-resident Chinese scholar believes he has found evidence in ancient writing that 3000 years ago, a lost people of the Shang Dynasty went to Columbus's "New" World. . . .

Flying east from Mexico City over countless volcanic peaks, in slightly less than an hour we reach Villahermosa ("The Beautiful City") by the Gulf of Mexico. As we disembark we are met by a rush of humid air which reminds us of the steamy heat of Taiwan's high summer.

The adventure of an ancient civilization

In the open-air museum of Parque La Venta, gigantic trees tower into the sky everywhere. As soon as we go in through the gate, in a sandy enclosure we see several monkeys hanging playfully from exercise bars, for this tropical park doubles as a miniature zoo. It is also one of the places where Mexico's earliest civilization, the Olmec, once flourished.

Following the markers on the ground into the jungle, we embark on the adventure of exploring an ancient civilization. In the midst of the greenery, a stone monument carved with human figures rises out of the ground. A stone altar is decorated with the figure of a priest, sitting cross-legged and wearing an ornate headdress; his head stands out in sharp relief. But what is the most astonishing of all is surely the several colossal human heads carved out of granite, each of them around two meters high and weighing up to twenty tons. The heads are adorned with helmets and all have narrow eyes, broad noses, thick lips and deep, solemn brows.

It is a Sunday, so the park is full of people, with whole families, young and old, out together. In the park we see many Caucasian sightseers, but we black-haired, yellow-skinned visitors from Taiwan seem to attract more attention. Adults nod and smile to us visitors from afar, while children steal inquisitive glances with their bright, black eyes. When we ask to take their pictures among the enormous stone heads, they agree joyfully yet shyly.

Amid the lush green vegetation, the millennia-old relics seem to have become part of nature. But did the meeting between the black-haired, yellow-skinned peoples of Asia and the Americas only begin today?

Explosive evidence

Last year, in a book entitled Origin of the Olmec Civilization, Professor Mike Xu, a Chinese who teaches in the foreign languages department at the University of Central Oklahoma, proposed a hypothesis which aroused a storm of controversy in archeological circles. In Xu's view, the first complex culture in Mesoamerica may have come into existence with the help of a group of Chinese who fled across the seas as refugees at the end of the Shang dynasty. The Olmec civilization arose around 1200 BC, which coincides with the time when King Wu of Zhou attacked and defeated King Zhou, the last Shang ruler, bringing his dynasty to a close.

Furthermore, Xu had "explosive" evidence in the form of the written word. Over the past three years he has found some 150 glyphs on photographs of and real specimens of Olmec pottery, jade artifacts and sculptures. As well as himself leafing through dictionaries of ancient Chinese, he has also taken his drawings of these markings to be examined by mainland Chinese experts in ancient writing, and most have agreed that they closely resemble the characters used in Chinese oracle bone writings and bronze inscriptions.

"At first these experts all tried to send me away, saying they could not give an opinion on foreign artifacts," Mike Xu recalls. But after his repeated entreaties, they reluctantly took a look. The moment they saw his drawings, each of them asked him: "Where in China were these inscriptions found?" When they heard they came from America they were all dumbstruck.

"If these inscriptions had been found in excavations in China," says Chen Hanping, a research associate at the mainland's Historical Research Institute, "they would certainly be regarded as writing or symbols from the pre-Qin-dynasty period."

Ritual objects of Shang refugees?

A subsequent event further boosted Mike Xu's confidence. From June to October last year, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC staged a major exhibition on the Olmec civilization, with items loaned from Mexico. Mike Xu and Chen Hanping visited the exhibition together. Inside, they both stopped in front a group of jade statues. This exhibit, known as Offering No. 4, was found at La Venta in 1955, and comprises 15 human figures about six inches tall, carved from jade or serpentine, and arranged in a half-circle facing a figure carved from red sandstone. Behind the red figure are six jade "celts" (polished, chisel-shaped implements), on which incised symbols or writing are faintly discernible.

"Oh, I can see what's written on that one," Chen Hanping called out in surprise. "It says: 'The ruler and his chieftains establish the foundation for a kingdom.'" On another of the celts they could faintly make out "12 generations." Could this refer to the 12 Shang kings who ruled from the time when Pan Geng moved his capital from Shandong to Yin in He'nan, to when the Shang was destroyed by the Zhou? Might these really be ritual objects of a lost group of Shang people who had fled to the New World?

An academic minefield

After the exhibition was over, in early November last year the weekly magazine US News and World Report published an article entitled "A Tale of Two Cultures," which quoted Chen and Xu's hypothesis and discussed Offering No. 4. If Chen's theories proved right, the article said, this would not only be the earliest known writing in the New World, but would also mean that people from China settled there 3000 years ago. When the article was published, it immediately aroused a large response, with opinions ranging from support to outright rejection.

For instance, on an Internet forum devoted to discussion of Mesoamerican archeology, this topic elicited over 300 e-mail messages in the short space of two months. The passionate debate continued until early this year when the web site owner ruled that it should be continued in private.

Most of the opposing voices, on- and off-line, came from leading figures in current Mesoamerican research, who tended towards "nativist" or "independent invention" views. They maintained that the artifacts were the product of the American peoples' own ingenuity, and did not need outside intervention to explain them. For instance, Professor Michael Coe of the anthropology department at Yale University took the view that to link the marks on the jade celts with Chinese oracle bone writings was "insulting to the indigenous people of Mexico." Robert Bagley of Princeton University, an associate professor of Chinese archeology and art and an expert on Shang civilization, said that all the people proposing such a connection were themselves Chinese, and that "it no doubt gratifies their ethnic pride to discover that Mesoamerican civilization springs from China." Hence people in this camp labelled Mike Xu "the most dangerous person in Mesoamerican research."

Do the experts always know best?

But different views were also expressed. Betty Meggers, a senior research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, said that Mike Xu was a good choice as someone to take a fresh look at the relationship between Asia and the Americas, for firstly he was Chinese and likely to have a better grasp of Chinese writing, and secondly he was not an insider or expert archeologist, so he would not be limited by preconceptions and might notice things which others had missed. Ann Philips, a retired professor from the Spanish department at the University of Central Oklahoma, cited the example of how the Maya script was deciphered: for many years researchers could only puzzle over those exquisite human figures and other images, but could not interpret them; in the end it was an "amateur"-the painter Linda Schele-who interpreted the script from the content of the images themselves, and thus solved many mysteries about the history of Mayan dynastic succession. "Who can say that Xu is not another Linda Schele?" asks Philips.

This academic debate not only revolved around objective evidence, but also involved national sentiments and encroached on the academic turf of various researchers. This has always been a highly sensitive area, so perhaps it is not surprising that for a while a fierce battle of words raged. No wonder Mike Xu admits to having "blundered into an academic minefield."

Ancient cultures of the New World

In fact, long before Christopher Columbus "discovered"America, Mesoamerica and South America in particular had been home to highly developed cultures which had risen and declined by turns over several millennia.

The Maya people-whom virtually everyone has heard of-invented an advanced calendar and a hieroglyphic writing system. They were skilled mathematicians, and left behind mighty temples. Their culture arose on the Yucatan Peninsula in Eastern Mexico and spread southwards as far as Honduras. Meanwhile vast areas of South America were ruled by the Inca Empire, whose people are known for their skill as goldsmiths. But long before the Maya, around 1200 BC, the Olmec-Central and South America's first highly developed civilization-had arisen. At about the beginning of the Christian era it gave way to the Teotihuacan, who built the gigantic pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. But from the 13th century until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, the whole of Mexico was ruled by the Aztec empire (see chronology, p. 11). As well as being an endless source of wonder for people today, these ancient civilizations have also left behind many unsolved mysteries.

But just what kind of culture was the Olmec, which stood at the center of the debate?

Out of nowhere?

In 1850, some sugar plantation workers discovered an enormous sculpted stone head buried on the Mexican Gulf Coast. This was the beginning of the "reemergence" of the Olmec civilization. But even today, our knowledge of it is limited.

As far as archeologists can piece together the story, the Olmec civilization emerged around 1200 BC, when its people took up a sedentary lifestyle. Social classes began to form, and the common people came to be ruled by an elite. From the artifacts which survive today, we can see that the Olmec were outstanding stone carvers. The objects range from colossal granite heads, monuments carved with lifelike images, and altars, to exquisitely carved small jade human figures, celts, pendants and so on.

On these objects one often sees motifs which are a blend between jaguar and human faces; the corners of their roaring open mouths are slightly downturned. Legend has it that these "were-jaguars" were the descendants of a human woman who mated with a jaguar, and the cult of the jaguar became one of the shared motifs of other ancient Mesoamerican civilizations.

Even the famous Maya culture was strongly influenced by the Olmec civilization, and further developed its legacy in the areas of astronomy, architecture and sculpture. Thus the Olmec has been described as a "mother culture" which gave birth to the other ancient Mesoamerican civilizations including the Maya and the Aztec. But by the 4th century BC, the Olmec's power was in decline, and the last traces of the civilization date from around 100 BC.

"In fact, 'Olmec' was a name given to the inhabitants of the Gulf Coast by the Aztecs in the 15th century, and meant 'the rubber people,'" writes Professor Michael Coe of Yale University. "Today we don't know who these people were, or even what they called themselves."

Although we cannot call these ancient people by their right name, the artifacts and altars they left behind can be seen everywhere from the Gulf Coast region to the valleys of Mexico's central highlands and the Pacific Coast to the west, and even as far south as Western Guatemala. For people today the Olmec are a mysterious and intriguing people, who "came from nowhere and left no clue about their passing." Theories about their origins abound.

Common roots

The only thing on which all the scholars agree is that several tens of thousands of years ago the peoples of the old and the new worlds formed a single family: the black-haired, yellow-skinned Mongoloid race.

At the end of the last ice age, over 20,000 years ago, the lowered sea levels exposed the sea floor of the Bering Strait, which today is only 40 meters deep, and it seems certain that paleolithic Asians crossed this land bridge from Siberia to the North American continent.

In areas from north China northeastward and across the Bering Strait into North America, a particular type of microlithic "core tool" has been widely discovered. The further east one goes, the more recent the period in which this type of tool appears. In February of this year, a team of archeologists found a 12,500-year-old-site at Montevideo in Chile which is the oldest known American site of human habitation. There are also racial similarities between East Asians and Native Americans, such as sparse body hair, shovel-shaped incisor teeth, and the "Mongolian spot," a blue-black birthmark on the buttocks or lower back of babies, particularly boys.

However, when the last ice age passed, the sea flooded the land bridge across the Bering Strait, and from then on the old and new worlds were separate. Was there still any communication between these two regions? This is where the disagreements start. The mighty Pacific Ocean is 15,000 kilometers wide, and it really is hard to believe that several thousand years ago people were able to cross its stormy waters. Nonetheless, some Amerindian tribes have legends which say that their ancestors came from across the sea by jumping from stone to stone, and there are enough traces of similarity between the cultures on the two sides to spark off people's imaginations. Over the years, many people have looked to the sea for evidence.

Mix and match

As long ago as the 1920s and 30s, several scholars pointed out numerous points of similarity between the cultures of China's Shang and Zhou dynasties and those of Mesoamerica. For instance, the structure of the temples on top of Maya pyramids can be compared with that of Chinese ancestral temples, and the feathered serpent spirit worshipped in Mesoamerica is similar to the various human-headed, snake-bodied spirits such as Fu Xi and N* Wa which were known to the early Chinese. Even more striking is the traditional love of jade shared by peoples on both sides of the Pacific, and practices such as placing a jade bead or jade cicada in the mouth of the dead, or even painting jade corpse-amulets with the life-giving color of cinnabar.

As early as the 1970s, US researcher Betty Meggers pointed out close similarities between the social organization of the Olmec and the late Shang, and in the layout of their settlements. Both also had far-reaching trading networks, and both venerated jade and the tiger or jaguar. British sinologist Joseph Needham once wrote that any sinologist visiting Central or South America would have a sense of d嶴* vu. He said that although "nothing can in any way diminish the profound originality of the Amerindian civilizations," ". . . there is a multitude of culture traits which point to influences from, and contacts with, the Old World."

In China, some people have also inferred from ancient records that the Chinese discovered America. For instance, the Liang Shu (History of the Liang) from the 7th century AD mentions that in the Southern Dynasties period a monk named Huishen crossed the ocean and discovered a land named "Fusang," which Liang Qichao (1873-1929) believed to be today's Mexico. Others have tried to match the places described in the legends of the Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) with individual locations in the Americas. It has also been claimed that from Olmec statues it appears that they had the custom of manipulating children's skull bones into a more pointed shape, which was a practice also seen among tribes in northeastern China.

One of their own

35-year-old Mike Xu, who was born in Shanghai and now teaches Chinese language and philosophy at an American university, is neither an archeologist nor a historian. How did he get involved in this field?

There are both direct and indirect reasons. Four years ago, when Xu went to visit a large Indian fair in Oklahoma City, the Native American at the entrance took Xu for one of his own people and waved him in for free. This set Xu wondering whether he really did look like a Native American, and whether there were any cultural links too.

When he was teaching Pacific Rim Studies at the university, students would sometimes ask him about connections between the Americas and China. He never knew how to answer these questions, but they gradually aroused his interest in researching such matters. Also, his father is a neurological researcher who is very interested in the links between human DNA on the Asian and American continents. Thus when Xu began doing research outside his own field, perhaps there was an element of following in his father's footsteps.

As well as looking for links between writing systems of the Olmec and the Shang, Xu also looked for similarities in such areas as religion, agriculture, astronomy and calendar systems.

In his view, both peoples venerated their ancestors, practiced human sacrifice and worshipped the sun and rain spirits. Furthermore, the Olmec worshipped the cougar, the eagle and the snake, while the Chinese regarded the tiger as a symbol of strength, the people of the Shang used birds as clan totems, and wasn't the dragon, which Chinese people venerate, also derived from the snake?

In terms of astronomy, the settlements excavated at La Venta are arranged facing eight degrees west of north, while Shang sites face five degrees east of north. What is remarkable about that? In one of his articles Mike Xu writes that the "eight degrees" and "five degrees" are actually with reference to the magnetic north indicated by compasses, and not the true north pole. Thus both actually face true north. He believes that for both peoples to have known how to determine true north as long ago as 1200 BC is no coincidence.

The time of the rise of the Olmec civilization coincides with the fall of the Shang dynasty, and there are a number of similarities between the two cultures. On this basis, Xu boldly infers that some 5000 people of Shang sailed across the Pacific on bamboo rafts and landed in western Mexico; later, they gradually spread to the central highlands and the Gulf Coast, and built up a civilization of art, religion, architecture, agriculture and trade. Xu has even written a historical drama, Fallen Grace, which describes how the lost people of Shang may have crossed the sea.

Carried by the Kuroshio current?

Flights of fancy may carry one anywhere one pleases, but scholarly research requires evidence, and where is the evidence to be found? If jade artifacts can show a relationship between the Shang and the Olmec, then why were the bronze artifacts which are even more representative of the Shang dynasty not also brought along? And why is there no sign at all of another "trademark" of the Shang: turtle shells and animal bones used for divination and inscribed with written characters? Mike Xu calmly replies to this objection that it is not hard to imagine that in their rush to flee the Zhou onslaught, the Shang people would have been glad to escape with their lives-how could they have carried heavy bronzes with them? Furthermore, to continue the tradition in America would depend on people with sufficient knowledge of bronze technology having made the journey to the New World, and on finding suitable deposits of copper and tin ores. As for the oracle bones, the climate on Mexico's coast is wet and humid, and the soil is acid. Very few human bones from that period have survived-how could we expect turtle shells and animal scapulae to be preserved for so long?

The seafaring skills of the people of the Shang are another point of doubt. Archeological discoveries have shown that there was trading activity along China's coasts during the Shang era. But did the Shang have advanced ocean navigation skills? Did they have compasses? Ancient Chinese writings give no detailed account of these matters.

However, some have pointed to the Kuroshio current, a northern equatorial current which flows west to east along the east coasts of Taiwan and Japan. If boats followed this current, might they not indeed have been able to cross the ocean?

Chips off the same block

In contrast to these seemingly farfetched ideas, some recent archeological finds have shown that the Olmec culture did not appear "overnight." Many permanent settlements had developed previously.

"The advanced civilization of the Olmec was the product of interaction between different tribes," says Dr. Rebeca Gonz嫮ez Lauck, director of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. Most crucially, if people from the Old World really did come across the sea, why has no-one ever found a single artifact from the other shore as evidence of this? On the other hand, asks Paul Pettennude of the Maya Underwater Research Center, why didn't the Olmec influence the Shang in return? Perhaps at that time some of the lost people of the Shang could have sailed back across the Pacific to China and brought some cultural influences from the New World. . . .

But in any event, archeological sites from the Olmec and Shang cultures only began to be discovered at the end of the last century, and systematic excavations were not made until the 1930s and 40s. No-one can predict that in future new evidence will not come to light which will completely overturn today's views, or vindicate them.

In the eye of the beholder

As for the oracle bone writing which is crucial to Mike Xu's conjectures, just how credible is the evidence? The generally accepted view is that 3000 years ago the Olmec did not have a writing system, or at most had a few ideographic symbols. In fact a major reason why the Olmec are still shrouded in mystery is the of lack any decipherable script, which means that researchers can only piece together Olmec history from excavated pottery and jade artifacts.

If the marks incised on Olmec relics really were writing, and if they did closely resemble the writing of ancient China, this would be something quite remarkable.

When scholars here in Taiwan, on this side of the Pacific, overcame their initial surprise, they were as interested as the mainland scholars. After looking at over 100 characters hand-drawn by Mike Xu, they really did recognize many which were similar to the characters of oracle bones and bronzes. "Some are similar to particular pre-Qin characters, but it would take further research to determine their phonetic and semantic values," says Chung Po-sheng, head of the Chinese writing systems section at the Academia Sinica's Institute of History and Philology.

For the sake of caution, all the researchers hoped they could see photographs or rubbings of the original artifacts, because the hand-drawn characters could very possibly be inaccurate, or might even be unconsciously affected by the drawer's own convictions. Furthermore, most of the glyphs found so far are single characters. French priest Jean Lefeuvre, an expert in oracle bone inscriptions, hopes that Xu can find some characters joined together into phrases, for this would make research easier.

This is a reasonable expectation, but in fact things aren't so simple, because the only groups of characters found so far are those on the few jade celts from La Venta. Chang Kuang-yuan, head of the department of antiquities at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, examining black-and-white close-up photographs of the celts with a magnifying glass and leafing through dictionaries making comparisons, is still doubtful of the interpretation "The ruler and his chieftains establish the foundation for a kingdom."

Naturally there are many unsolved questions in the research of China's ancient writing too, but Chang still has the feeling that Xu's imagination may have been somewhat too fertile. "It's like when you look at clouds. If you see a cloud you think looks like a dog, the longer you look at it, the stronger the resemblance," says Chang. If you rush into something with too much enthusiasm, there is a risk that your field of vision will become ever narrower.

A diffusionist view

Is this the last word on the matter? Mike Xu evidently does not think so. He says that finding similar characters is only the first step, and that his research on the subject has only just begun. In his view, most researchers of Chinese writing have very little knowledge of American civilizations, while very few scholars of Mesoamerican archeology are versed in Chinese culture. There has never been any contact between the two fields of research, so it is hardly surprising if no-one ever made comparisons in the area of writing.

"I'm not saying that the American peoples are Chinese, but that at some point in history the Shang culture and writing was brought directly or indirectly into the New World," says Xu. Modern DNA studies have confirmed that the Native American and East Asian peoples are all Mongoloid peoples, and he hopes that DNA experts can do more detailed research into the relationship between America and China. Eventually he would like to see an exhibition of both cultures in which Olmec and Shang artifacts are exhibited, to let the public see for themselves.

In terms of archeological theory, Mike Xu is a "diffusionist." Diffusionist theories have it that there are direct or indirect links between various cultures, which may have been disseminated intentionally or unintentionally by way of trade, migration, missionary activity or colonization, and have generally been transmitted from more highly developed cultures to less developed ones.

Looking no further than China for examples, in the 17th century French Jesuit priests confidently affirmed that writing had come to China from Egypt via Greece, because both used pictographic characters, and in the early 20th century, theories that Chinese culture had its origins in more westerly regions were popular for a time, with many people suspecting that Chinese civilization had come from the Middle East. But later archeological finds disproved these ideas.

Great minds think alike?

In fact cultures have always influenced each other, and nobody develops in an absolute vacuum. But when similar developments appear in two places very far apart or at two different times, how does one explain it? Is it really due to contact, or is it simply that "great minds think alike"-that human beings confronted with similar environments produce similar responses?

Professor David Grove of the University of Illinois has commented that there are indeed many points of similarity between the Olmec and Shang cultures, but that this does not mean that the two were in contact. It is the same as the way "a whale looks like a fish, but in fact is a mammal." And pictographic writing systems are the result of past people's observation of the natural world. The moon and the sun as seen by different peoples are probably pretty much the same.

The internationally respected Chinese archeologist Chang Kuang-chih, former vice-president of the Academia Sinica, acknowledges that there are indeed many similarities between the ancient civilizations of Asia and the Americas. "But the very fact that the similarities are so numerous and so geographically widespread means that they do not look like the result of a chance contact. For me this makes diffusionist theories even harder to accept." Nonetheless, he says, if there is credible new evidence he will be happy to examine it.

Mainland Chinese historian Li Xueqin, who has written a whole series of essays on comparative archeology, still reminds us earnestly that in comparative research one must be very careful to avoid a completely diffusionist view, because when people in different locations and in different cultures reach similar stages in their historical progress, they may create the same or similar artisanal and artistic innovations, so one cannot simply regard all such similarities as the result of diffusion. But he also cautions: "At the same time, we must admit that the geographical range of people's activities in ancient times far exceeded what people today may imagine, and by various processes, cultural elements could be transmitted over very long distances."

Unfair to judge by modern standards

Looking at things on a still larger scale, Chang Kuang-chih has proposed a hypothetical "Mayan/Chinese cultural continuum" to explain the many similarities between Asia and the Americas.

He compares how in both Mayan culture (or the New World generally) and Chinese culture (or the Old World generally), the newly arising class societies were based on religious ritual. Their highly developed writing systems and beautiful sacrificial objects were used in the service of religion and politics, whereas the tools they used for material production had not advanced beyond the stone implements used in prehistoric times. Bonds of kinship were the basis on which society was maintained. These similarities point to a "continuum" of civilization.

In contrast, the writing systems which developed in Mesopotamia around 4000 BC served the needs of technology and commerce, and changes in the tools and methods of production brought about qualitative changes. After iron implements came into use, commerce and cities arose, and relationships of place superseded those of kinship in importance. But these changes were seen by later Western scholars as the only model for the origin of civilizations.

Thus Chang Kuang-chih conjectures that the Chinese and Mesoamerican civilizations may well have been "the products of the descendants of common ancestors at different times and in different locations." He conjectures that 20,000 or 30,000 years ago when Asians crossed the Bering Strait to America, the culture they carried with them may have been far richer than people today imagine.

"Their level of artistic and intellectual development may have been much higher than we can see from the very limited material available to us today in the form of stone implements," he says with a sparkle in his eye.

This hypothesis opens up a new path between the diffusionist and nativist theories, and also gives even greater scope to the imagination. When we think of peoples of the Old Stone Age, the images which come into our minds are generally on the lines of backward peoples who rubbed sticks to make fire, wore animal skins and drank blood. But when we measure people of the past by today's standards, is it not very easy to underestimate them? Many things may indeed have been impossible for people in those distant times, but why have ancient civilizations left behind so many unsolved mysteries and remarkable feats?

An unsolved mystery

Where did we come from, and where are we going? These are question people have probably always wanted to find the answers to. But what about the present?

Louis, a bronzed, muscular guide at Parque La Venta, is a descendant of the Maya from the Yucata, is a descendant of the Yucatan Peninsula. He says that in his more than a decade's experience as a guide, visitors from different nations have given him many "clues" by pointing out various from other cultures. For instance, it seems that some of the stone heads strongly resemble Africans, while in other statues people from India see the Buddha sitting cross-legged in meditation, or various yoga postures. More strangely, when one visitor from Bulgaria heard that the jaguar is known in the local Indian language as "balam," he told Louis that in his homeland there was a villagecalled Balam which had been founded by Genghis Khan. "But just where the Olmec really came from, I'll leave you to judge for yourselves after you've seen the relics," he said, leaving us in suspense.

Stranger, where are you from?

At the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City,  one Olmec statue after holds its mouth slightly agape in an eternal expression of surprise. Just what had they seen? What do they want to tell us? Have the Olmec people really lost their voice, or has it merely been drowed out by today's hubbub? What links are there between China and America? If ancient history is not reliable, then surely the fact that masses of Chinese came to Mexico in the late 19th century to build the railways, and fathered generation after generation of children with local women is "admissible" evidence of links between us? But again, what doesit prove?

This train of thought was interrupted by peals of laugher like silver bells, as a bustling crowd of fourth-year primary school children, led by their teacher, arrived on their annual school outing. They atared at these visitor from Taiwan, perhaps wondering why we looked " a bit like them, but not all that much like them."

When we asked if these artifacts seemed strange to them, they shook their heads and said no, these things were "part of their souls. "But when we asked which were their favorites, we got a profusion of different answers. Some liked the Maya jade face masks, others preferred the Teotihuacan pyramids. Last of all we asked whether they thought we looked like them. They all thought for moment, and finally concluded:"Our eyes are the same"-all those pairs of big, bright, black eyes. 

Six jade "celts" which make up part of Offering No. 4, excavated at La Venta, are incised with symbols which resemble hieroglyphic writing. Could this be the earliest known writing in the New World? And could it be related to the Chinese oracle bone script which existed at about the same time?

Chen Hanping interprets the markings on the left-hand celt as reading: "The ruler and his chieftains establish the foundation for a kingdom." But so far no interpretation has been offered for the other one. （rephoto-graphed by Mike Xu from a photograph by Victor Krantz, by permission of the Mexican government）

Mesoamerican Archeological Sites graphics: Liao Tzu-wen.

（top） The Jaguar Mosaic at La Venta is made up of 485 pieces of serpentine. It is thought to have been covered with layers of clay and sand as soon as it was finished, probably as part of a religious ritual.

（bottom） Mike Xu believes the ︺ shape at the top of the mosaic is a symbol meaning "sacrifice," and that there are five "rain" characters  in the center. The whole mosaic would have symbolized a prayer for rain to bring good harvests.

A priest wearing a jaguar helmet is encircled by a large rattlesnake.

A love of jade is common to peoples on both sides of the Pacific. This royal burial mask from a large Maya imperial tomb under the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque is covered entirely in green jade.

（left） This earthenware gui （a pitcher with three hollow legs） is a typical artifact of the Chinese late neolithic period, from the Dawenkou culture to the Longshan culture. This one is 4800 years old.

（right） Tripod vessels are also widely seen in Mesoamerica.

This 18-year-old girl's grandfather was Chinese. Her baby has a blue birthmark on its buttocks--the "Mongol spot," a characteristic feature of Mongoloid peoples. It will disappear naturally as the child grows older.

The strange and beautiful bronze artifacts of the Shang and Zhou dynasties were important state treasures. Pictured here is a zhaoyou wine vessel from the early Western Zhou. These were used in rituals to venerate the ancestors and invoke the spirits. （ courtesy of the National Palace Museum）

On pottery made by Native Americans in northwestern North America, one often sees motifs similar to the ferocious taotie animal-face patterns （top） found on bronze artifacts from China's Shang and Zhou dynasties. The two sides of the animal are depicted opposite each other, giving it two heads, two bodies and two tails. This can be seen as an early attempt to express a sense of 3-dimensionality. The lower picture shows a pattern from an Amerindian casket.

（top） The cross or ya （亞） character shape is often found on Chinese bronzes, and ya also appears in various phrases in oracle bone inscriptions. The shape is also sometimes combined with clan marks.

The gaping mouth of this carved beast from the Olmec site at Chalcatzingo symbolizes the threshold between life and death. Planted in the gaps at the four corners are "trees of the universe." The mouth also looks somewhat like a ya character. This has prompted Chang Kuang-chih to speculate that as Shang ancestral temples and sacrificial halls were also built in a cross shape, perhaps they too had trees planted at their corners. Mike Xu, meanwhile, believes the central shape is a ya, while  has the meaning of blessing, and  is the sun god.

The mighty temples built by the Maya fill people today with awe. Shown h ere is the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque. （courtesy of Mexican Trade Services）

An altar in Parque La Venta. What cosmic secrets does the priest whose head pokes out from the niche wish to reveal?

How many secrets of ancient civilizations still remain for later generations to probe? When will their masters' voices be heard again with clarity? Our picture shows a statue of a youth from the Mexican Gulf Coast Huastec civilization.