Conquest of Paradise, 374, is unsure that Columbus reached Iceland. The
Norse findings were known in Europe, according to James Duff, The Truth
about Columbus (London: Jarrolds, 1937), 9-13.
26 Van Sertima, They Came Before Columbus , 30. See also Irwin, Fair Gods
and Stone Faces, 126.
27 Von Wuthenau, The Art of Terracotta Pottery in Pre-Columbian Central
and South America, 50.
28 Jose Maria Melgar quoted in Jacquest Soustelle, The Olmecs (Garden City:
Doubleday, 1984), 9. Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Bernard Ortiz de Montellano, and
Warren Barbour summarize the case against African contact in “Robbing
Native American Cultures,” Current Anthropology 38 #3 (6/1997), 419-31.
29 Note 21 includes pro and con sources for Afro-Phoenician contact.
30 Quoted by Jan Carew, Fulcrums of Change (Trenton, NJ: Africa World
Press, 1988), 13.
31 For example, “Acknowledge Your Own History” by Jungle Brothers.
32 Phoenicians and Egyptians did not keep track of “races” in today’s terms
and ranged (as they do today) from light to dark.
33 A controversy rages over what impact these alleged newcomers had. Older
Eurocentric theories credited white visitors to the Americas with the ideas that
led to Olmec and Mayan civilizations. Pierre Honore, In Quest of the White
God (New York: Putnam, 1964), is a late example. A few authors believe the
black visitors to be the source of many Olmec skills and ideas. See Irving
Wallace, David Wallechinsky, and Amy Wallace, Significa (New York:
Dutton, 1983), 58. Most Mesoamericanists believe the Olmecs developed
entirely on their own. For an early statement of this criticism, see Gregory
Mason, Columbus Came Late (New York: Century, 1931). A fourth view holds
that the Afro-Phoenician contact might have triggered a flowering of Olmec
society. This view retains the potential for genius in both hemispheres.
34 Adventure is an “inquiry textbook,” composed of maps, illustrations, and
extracts from primary sources such as diaries and laws, linked by narrative
passages. Questions of this sort are the bane of inquiry books. Wrestling with
them would require abundant library materials, curricular time, and teaching
savvy.
35 Marble, Before Columbus, 25.