Mendes Correa theory: ancient settlement of South America through Antarctica

Mendes Correa's alternative theory about the ancient settlement of South America through Antarctica

Lost Civilizations (@lostcivilizations)

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lostworlds

 · 5 Dec 2023

According to traditional archaeology, the majority of Native Americans are of Asian origin and their ancestors arrived in the New World through the current Bering Strait and the so-called "ice-free corridor", located in present-day between Alaska and northern Canada, during their expansion from northern Asia to America, which occurred in two phases, one 40 millennia ago and the other 13 millennia ago.

Although even genetics has indeed proven the predominance of Asian characters (blood groups and other genetic characteristics) in the majority of the natives of the New World, the mystery of the journey made by those ancient travelers is not at all resolved, in addition to the reasons that prompted them to undertake such risky adventures.

One of the most brilliant researchers of the 20^th century, the Frenchman Paul Rivet, was the one who supported the polygenetic theory, which, in my opinion, offers an exhaustive answer to the problem of American settlement. Paul Rivet relied on the fact that several archaeological studies carried out in Alaska and northern Canada did not discover remains of the ancient passage of the North Asians, but only evidence of Neolithic settlement.

If those ancient colonizers passed through the prairie called today Beringia and, therefore, through Alaska and Canada, why were no Paleolithic traces and evidence found?

Paul Rivet, in his famous book The Origins of American Man, analyzed other possible flows of expansion towards the New World: particularly, that of the Melanesian colonizers (who, according to him, sailed across the Pacific Ocean), that of the North Asians (who sailed around the Asian coasts, then slowly colonizing the current Aleutians and the northwestern coast of the North American continent, thus entering the New World) and that of the Australians, who, according to the Portuguese Mendes Correa (1888-1960), could have reached the Southern Cone on an incredible journey through Antarctica, during a period in which it enjoyed an optimal climate, with temperate warmer than the current one, around the sixth millennium BC.

Paul Rivet's theses that support the polygenetic theory are not based only on assumptions, but are the result of profound linguistic and ethno-cultural studies that bring to light many affinities between the peoples of Melanesia and Australia with certain indigenous peoples. of the New World.

In particular, when talking about the theory of the settlement of the New World from Australia, it should be noted that already in the 19^th century several scholars such as Professor Moreno and Dr. Hultkrantz had analyzed some human skulls from Patagonia, discovering several similarities with Australians skulls. Indeed, the typical Patagonian skull, dolichocephalic, or elongated, with a low and narrow forehead, is completely similar to that of the ancient Australian aborigines. Also some blood group tests of Australian natives and indigenous people from the Southern Cone (Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego), such as Onas, Fueginos and Haush, showed a strange affinity, since 75% of all the peoples studied belonged to blood group O.

Even other sciences have indirectly confirmed the similarity between these two groups, such as ethnography and linguistics; Just like the Australians, the Fuegians did not know pottery and the hammock; both used wooden canoes, covered themselves with animal fur, and engaged in very similar religious ceremonies. In any case, linguistics is what presents the almost definitive evidence of these extraordinary similarities, since, between the Chon languages ​​(Selk'nam or Onas, Tehuelches and Puelches) and the Australian ones, more than 90 affinities were found, especially between terms that refer to parts of the body and words in common use.

Here are some examples:

Some linguists maintain that Chon derives from Australian, but that it separated from the main group at a very ancient time.

The Australian influence in America is noticeable, above all, in the Southern Cone.

Ethnographic, anthropological (the study of ancient skulls) and linguistic evidence suggest that this colonization really happened, although the number of settlers was low. The crucial question is: how and when did Australians arrive in the Southern Cone?

Paul Rivet discarded the hypothesis of navigation across the Pacific, as carried out, on the other hand, by the inhabitants of Melanesia and, in more recent millennia, by those of Polynesia. Australians were never great sailors. The hypothesis of coastal navigation through northern Asia and Alaska is also ruled out, because, if this had been the case, evidence of their stay on the American coasts of the northern Pacific would have been found.

Furthermore, it is illogical to think that the ancient Australians crossed the entire American continent from north to south, without leaving any trace, to settle at the most distant point from their supposed initial landing, that is, the Southern Cone. So the only hypothesis that deserves to be studied and deepened is that of the Portuguese anthropologist Mendes Correa.

If you look at Antarctica on a polar projection map, you see that the southern tip of the New World (55 degrees south latitude) is not very far from Graham Land (the tip of Antarctica located approximately at the 63^rd southern parallel). Furthermore, it is noted that between the Australian continent and the Antarctic there are a series of islands (Tasmania, Auckland, Campbell, Macquarie, Scott, Balleny) that could have served as a natural bridge between the two.

The fact that Antarctica is inhospitable and icy today does not mean that in the distant past it could not have had a different climate. First of all, we must consider that around the ninth millennium BC, the enormous global catastrophe known as the universal flood occurred, or the melting of the glaciers in the northern hemisphere, with the consequent floods and climatic disorders.

Then the climate became drier and warmer. It could have been just during a period of optimal climate in which the Antarctic polar cap shrank noticeably (sixth millennium BC), freeing the continent's coasts of ice, in which brave Australian navigators, perhaps by chance, reached the shores. In Antarctica they found a cold climate, but not extreme. Probably due to terrible floods during the Great Flood, several Australians found themselves trapped on islands that were previously linked to Australia, such as Tasmania or Macquarie. Some of them built improvised boats to try to return to dry land, but the winds and currents swept them in the opposite direction: Antarctica.

We do not know how large the group of Australians who first set foot on the Antarctic continent was, but it is assumed that it was a very restricted one. We also do not know how long they remained there, perhaps no more than one or two generations. It is believed that they fed on marine mammals and aquatic birds. Some of them, after having arrived by chance at Graham's Land, may have seen logs and remains of plants coming from the nearby Tierra del Fuego and, in this way, they tried their luck, crossing a stretch of sea of ​​approximately 800 kilometers.

In my opinion, Mendes Correa's hypothesis could be plausible. On the other hand, it is also interesting to consider other indirect indications of an ancient settlement of Antarctica.

In 1513, the Turkish admiral Piri Reis drew a map of the world (which can currently be seen in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul) that was for many years a real puzzle for historians and geographers. In it, first of all, there are several islands represented, such as Las Malvinas, officially discovered only in 1592. The most fascinating detail is, however, the coastline of South America, which continues towards the east almost perfectly outlining the coast Antarctica, corresponding to the current lands of Queen Maud, which in 1513 were buried under hundreds of meters of ice, and still are. This detail is very strange, not only because Antarctica was officially discovered by Imperial Russian Navy Captain Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen on January 27, 1820, but also because only with modern instruments can the exact topography of a coast covered by the ice be observed.

In 1966, researcher Charles Hapgood proposed that someone had drawn a map of ice-free Antarctica between the 12^th and 3^rd millennium BC. In 1513, Piri Reis would have drawn up his map based on the old one he had in his possession, or on a copy of it.

The mysterious Piri Reis map would indirectly prove that at least the Antarctic coasts were truly ice-free in the immediate period after the flood. But who mapped the ice-free Antarctic thing? They could have been ancient Sumerian, Phoenician or Carthaginian navigators, but for now we do not have enough elements to be able to answer this question.

However, it should be mentioned, in addition to all the above, that some critics of this theory maintain that the lower part of the Piri Reis map substantially represents the coast of South America up to Tierra del Fuego (coasts explored by Amerigo Vespucci on his third voyage in the year 1502).

In any case, Mendes Correa's hypothesis, supported by linguistic, ethnographic and morphological anthropology studies (analysis of skulls), can, in my opinion, be considered true: the Antarctic coast was free of ice in the millennia following the flood, and this allowed the brave Australian travelers to reach Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia.

For now, the definitive proof of this fascinating theory is missing, that is, an archaeological find, currently impossible, since the Antarctic coast that the Australians would have traveled, Marie Byrd Land (which is, strangely, the only Antarctic territory that has not been claimed by any country) is buried under hundreds of meters of ice.

Perhaps in the future, if radar search techniques through the ice and the depths of the subsoil are perfected, we will be able to take a step forward in this fascinating story from our past.

YURI LEVERATTO