(continued)24 INTRODUCTION
An even more remarkable proponent of the Atlantis tale was the French physician and ad-
venturer Augustus Le Plongeon. During visits to Yucatán, Mexico, Le Plongeon became inter-
ested in the Mayan culture. An erroneous reading of one of the Mayan codices (scroll books) led
Le Plongeon to believe that he had found a lost history of Atlantis. The history allegedly de-
scribed how Atlantis was split by civil war, the losing faction fleeing the continent and going on
to found the Egyptian and Mayan civilizations. In contrast to other Romanticists, Le Plongeon ar-
gued that the Mesoamericans colonized Egypt rather than the reverse!
A few of the Atlantis advocates, such as the Scottish mythologist Lewis Spence (1925), at-
tempted to square the tale with scientific findings. But most of the believers in Atlantis were
hopelessly speculative. This was the case with Helena Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophy
religion, who claimed that one of the seven “Root Races” of humanity came from Atlantis. Upon
fleeing the sinking continent, she said, the Atlantis race gave rise to various groups of people,
among them Cro-Magnons, Semites, and the “handsome 8-feet tall” Toltecs of ancient Mexico!
The most outrageous of the Lost Continent Romanticists, however, was James Churchward,
who created a continent in the Pacific Ocean out of whole cloth. “Colonel” Churchward’s so-
called “Continent of Mu” was said to measure 5,000 miles long and 3,000 miles wide. About
80,000 years ago its inhabitants began to emigrate in waves, headed for the utmost bounds of
the world. One of these migratory groups, the so-called “Quetzals,” was made up of “stalwart,
young adventurers with milk-white skins, blue eyes, and light flaxen hair.” They settled in Yucatán
and gave rise to the great Mayan civilization.The romantic tradition lives on today, most strikingly in the preposterous writ-
ings of Erich von Daniken. Von Daniken has achieved a large following by propos-
ing that ancient astronauts from faraway galaxies visited the ancient Mesoamericans
and introduced them to many technological and ideological innovations. A princi-
pal piece of evidence for von Daniken’s theory is an image portrayed on the lid of a
tomb at the Mayan site of Palenque, Mexico (Figure A.10). Von Daniken argues that
this image can be none other than an ancient astronaut sitting at the controls, ready
for takeoff! Like so many Romanticists before him, von Daniken seems to assume
that the Mayas and other Mesoamerican peoples were incapable of creating com-
plex cultures on their own, and so needed enlightenment from faraway places.
The old Romantic notion that ancient Mesoamerica was deeply influenced by
peoples from Africa has resurfaced in a somewhat repackaged form. This may be
seen as part of an effort to better understand the rich cultural heritage of Africa and
to recognize the many contributions that Africans have made to Western civilization.
For some zealous proponents of African culture, the effort has evolved into a form
of Afrocentrism. They have speculated that the Mesoamerican cultures were influ-
enced by Africans who came to the Americas before Spanish contact, introducing im-
portant elements of the African cultures to the Mesoamerican peoples. According to
one claim, the main African influence occurred during the time of the Olmecs (ca.
900–400 B.C.), as suggested by the reputed African-like facial features of large stone
heads carved by Olmec artists.
Like many other Romantic notions, the idea of an African origin for the
Mesoamerican civilization stems more from ideological agenda than from scientific
evidence. To date there is no credible evidence to support the claim that Africans
somehow influenced the Olmecs or any other pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican peoples.