Whether the ancient American settlers possessed writing is a subject that, at the dawn of the 21st century, continues to provoke heated debates among specialists, who even today continue to deny this possibility. However, when examining the native peoples of this continent, it is observed that they possessed a very advanced culture, where the element of writing occupied an essential place. The scarcity of documentation is explained in part by the colonizing action that destroyed hundreds of records, considering that they were dealing with pagan and idolatrous elements.
Some evidence of this form of communication, which escaped the colonial yoke, became part of museum collections, as well as private hands, which makes it more difficult to follow this process; which with the advent of discovery was somewhat interrupted, although it functioned through elite writers, many of whom hid precious testimonies in inaccessible places, to avoid their annihilation "by the white man."
In the last century, new discoveries in the region revealed a certain form of writing, although in many cases unintelligible and difficult to translate, mostly composed of symbolic and ideographic elements. This type of writing was especially detected in certain South American cultures, developed especially in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. In addition to these components, this writing showed a certain mathematical and astronomical relationship, as well as binary elements, which are only now being detected, which speaks of a complex and developed thought.
Deciphering this type of writing requires breaking away from established canons and embarking on a different path, and therefore very few linguists decide to risk dealing with this type of characters, which are still largely unknown, which is partly explained by the lack of preparation, coupled with the lack of academic interest in this material. Despite these obstacles, a new generation of Americanist scholars, eager to scrutinize this forgotten past, is emerging, challenging the old schools that do not take into account the new times.
One of these daring men is a young Ecuadorian scholar, Manuel Palacios, who silently works on these incomprehensible writings, where fabulous secrets await to be revealed.
I begin with a taboo question: Is it possible to speak of a writing system on the American continent?
In America there was a proto-writing (in the formal sense). Each symbol conveyed one or several ideas, and the combination of different symbols resulted in a broader idea (a story), or a more specific one. Let us not forget that their writing was functional, and the combination had to have those qualities.
Examples abound: Andean tocapus, stone tablets from the Hopi culture, Sioux leather books, textiles from the Kuna Indians, kellkas, which are books made of banana leaves, tankas from the Paracas culture, tablets with hieroglyphic writing from Easter Island, Mayan and Aztec glyphs, to name a few.
There are also numerical and geometric systems such as the quipus, the perforated tablets of the Kitus, the nepohualtzintzin or Aztec abacus and the wampums of the North American tribes.
It is not utopian to say that accounting and writing systems existed in America; it would be far from reality to affirm the opposite.
An ideographic writing in America would indicate a civilization of the conceptual type.
Prehistoric American writing is concrete, the idea had to be expressed without hesitation, it had to fulfill its function. Evidently their writing system had the same patterns, and as I continued to go back through alphabetic and syllabic structures, arriving at ideograms, I realized that an idea or several ideas could be synthesized, and that the relationship of these basic forms that make up an ideogram or logogram remains in our genetic memory.
To cite an example, the symbol of the erect phallus gives a clear idea of sexuality, and the act of penetration is also associated with conquest and birth. These ideas are closely linked to the worldview of the people who created the symbols. America is not far from this process, and the evidence found and that will continue to be found will attest to this.
Perhaps one of the most representative examples of conceptual writing is found in the collection of the late Dr. Javier Cabrera, who died without seeing his work recognized. I am referring to the controversial Piedras de Ica.
The ideograms on the Ica stones make us question the logic of linear evolution.
As I understand it, from a geological perspective, approximately 60 million years ago there were changes in the planet's tectonic plates, which caused some territories to sink and others to rise (mountain ranges and plateaus), however the Ica Valley was apparently little altered, since it borders the Nazca plate, like other areas of the South American coast, which creates ideal conditions for the conservation of fossil and archaeological specimens, which would highlight that the remains found here are much older than those that can be found in the Andes mountain range.
The story of Dr. Cabrera is not an isolated one, great beings have closed their eyes without seeing their work recognized. There is an adage that says: “Victory has many fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” In the case of the Glyptoliths and the work of Dr. Cabrera in general, it is quite the opposite, despite the rejection and attempts by academics to discredit it, it is and will be a legacy for new generations, eager to seek and find the truth, without dogmas or prejudices.
About your translation system Who are your references in this field?
Well, I am self-taught, and I consider that my training can be compared to the way a bee makes honey. My translation system is the product of many references and at the same time of none. It sounds contradictory, but let me explain.
I learned to decipher when I learned to listen. My wife and son helped me a lot in this. When he cried, sometimes I was upset that I couldn't understand him, but she knew exactly just by listening to him what was happening, what he needed. When I asked her how I could do it, she answered: It's a mother's love that makes me understand what he wants.
At that time, I was making comparisons between different similar alphabets such as Runic, Iberian, Tifinagh, Brahmi, and the scripts of the Anatolian region in general. I tried to reach out to experts to share opinions, and “fortunately” – as I will explain later – at best I received no reply, or attempts to dissuade me, and leave it to those who knew. Or simply the question: Archaeologist or Linguist?
And when I refused, they responded: We can't waste time!
However, this forced me not to stagnate and go back a little further, looking at an extensive list of Anatolian Luwian logograms. It was always believed that synthetic scripts had no possibility of combination, but in my case I was able to see that not only can they be combined, but at the same time, they are much more versatile. Returning to the example from the previous answer: an erect phallus, when simplified, is a line. A volcano, which is the king of the mountains, is simplified into an equilateral triangle, and of course this symbol is also sometimes used to refer to the king of heaven, and to the monarch of a certain people.
A key text that also helped me in my task is Syntax of the Image by Donis A. Dondis, which deals with photography, graphic and industrial design, and art. This book helped me understand a little about how compositions work, visual literacy, and the way we assimilate culture and symbols.
The Inca quipus and Mayan hieroglyphics are some of the representatives of the so-called lost American writing, however, their decipherment remains a mystery.
This is because governments do not set priorities, sometimes it seems that it is more important to spread colonial art than pre-Columbian cultural manifestations. Those who do not know the past are destined to repeat the same mistakes, and this is true. At the dawn of the conquest, the evangelizers surely saw in the Mayan codices and Inca quipus a threat to their interests and hence their desire to destroy them. I wonder: what story did these writings tell? Perhaps those that are still preserved in oral form, and speak of cataclysms, the sinking of continents and migrations in different periods, all of this from antediluvian civilizations?
The key point is to LISTEN. And as I gave the example of the mother with the child, listening is closely linked to LOVING the subject, in this case the land. The problem is that – and I know I will be criticized for this – many of those who try to translate love recognition and money more than others, and are not interested in listening to what those who have lived there say, but only in imposing their erudition.
The ancestral writing that emerged as a way of recording the impressions of the man-nature and man-man relationship, requires LISTENING for its decoding, and being repetitive, who more than the one who wakes up in the mornings smelling the air that comes from the ocean and the Andes, who by birth or adoption has made this, his beloved land.
Regarding the decipherment of Inca writing, it should be noted that a reference is the work done by Williams, on the TOCAPUS or geometric designs generally used in textiles, to which he attributes a consonantal value. As for the Mayan glyphs, perhaps the most interesting attempt at decoding, and not only because of the youth of the researcher, is that of David Stuart, with whom I agree on the diversity of meanings, and the possibility of combining them, although he also maintains that they are not considered logograms but syllables.
I follow a logical principle in both cases. Most likely, they were telling a story, or simply expressing an idea in 10 to 20 words.
What methodology would you apply to decipher them?
Following my system, the first thing I would do is reduce them to their basic forms. This is not arbitrary, it is the product of years of effort and research. In the case presented here, I have only simplified the hieroglyphics that express a basic idea.
Then, and even if you think I am evading the question, I would dedicate myself to listening to the symbol in particular, its relationship with the entire inscription in general. Here it is also important to know the worldview, and the historical-social circumstances in which this inscription was made.
Having the basic characters (points, lines, curves, circles), I see how they interact, I analyze the possible readings. I usually work doing 3 types of translation, a general and quick one (bird's eye view), a detailed and specific one (reading each character as a whole), and finally an intuitive translation, based on the two previous ones.
What is different about my system is that I do not try to decipher to or from a particular language, but from the symbol to the idea, taking into account, as I said before, the worldview (set of opinions and beliefs that make up the general image or concept of the world that a person, era or culture has, from which they interpret their own nature and that of everything that exists). But to my surprise, sometimes the most important thing is just to listen, to America, to the Andes, to our ancestors and teachers.
Going back into the history of ancient American writing, the first studies that were carried out showed a diversity of languages, as if many cultures had known about this continent in ancient times, and had visited it, leaving records of these incursions through certain writings, which many consider controversial. Thus we find Sumerian, Hittite, Phoenician, and Semitic samples, to mention a few, with the difference that their writing system is much more archaic in America than in their places of origin, a kind of proto-writing. How can this be explained?
Many scholars, such as Brasseur de Bourbourg, to name one, have established parallels between cultures in Europe, Asia and Africa with American cultures. In America (named not in honor of Alberic Vespucci, but in honor of Amorrica, the ancestral name of this continent), in different discoveries made, we find ideographic writings, many of them related (as can be verified using my system), which are prior to the so-called “evolution of writing” known.
Prehistoric globalization must have been imminent, not only because the Americans were excellent navigators and had the means (Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki expedition could be consulted), but also because geologically it is proven that the cataclysms and movements of tectonic plates that legends speak of did exist. Although the influence over time went both ways, philological evidence proves that the writing systems from which the writings in Europe and Asia originated, had their origin in America.
In America there were some primitive cultures that have not been studied. I think that a great obstacle is the lack of brotherhood among the American peoples. I see that each one wants to impose their culture, ancestors and beliefs, minimizing the others. We have seen this since the conquest, and I do not want to argue about the matter.
This, combined with the low value we place on our history, has been the reason why thousands of pieces of immense cultural value are in the hands of private collectors, in the best of cases, and in other cases, adrift in black market auctions.
I understand that you are working on deciphering the Crespi Collection, a cursed collection if there ever was one.
I am focusing on the Crespi Collection for the reasons explained throughout this interview. The decipherment based on my system has been extremely fruitful in the Pyramid and Jaguars Plate. I am currently in the task of identifying and simplifying the greatest number of ideograms. The biggest impediment is not having good photographic records of the pieces in this Collection.
The translation of the mentioned plaque says: At the time when the lunar civilization lived on earth (it gives a clue about the date related to the ABILITY to be able to see the Puma Constellation from both hemispheres, since the Moon was very close), many large cities (around 200) were confederated under the apparent leadership of a king, these people were migrations from the disappeared Atlantis. This king had the power to use the force of the elements and the energy of the planets, through words, prayers and invocations. Apparently the geothermal energy of the volcanoes was used in different ways, but then the people gathered on the slopes of a majestic and enormous volcano (perhaps the central one) and the king selfishly demonstrated the power of his word over the volcano, unfortunately, for the crowd that watched. Blinded by power, he was unable to understand the limits and the volcano erupted, spreading lava everywhere and creating a cloud so high and thick that it could even be seen from space.
Some who had power or were priests or scribes, prayed to heaven, to Mother Moon, to make it rain to dissipate that immense cloud that did not let the sun appear and show them where to go.
Believe me, when I was able to translate this plaque, after trying for more than a year, I was overwhelmed. A key message looms: Balanced nature sustains, but if we unbalance it for our selfish interests, then we will be the architects of our own destruction.
Your decipherment coincides in part with the work of the late Italian researcher Gabriele Baraldi, who in his later years dedicated himself to translating the Crespi collection. He spoke of the empire of the Southern Cross Constellation, and suggested an Atlantean connection.
My decipherment system is based on simplifying an ideogram to its minimum expression and then combining it, with the aim of going towards the concept, not towards a language. I am doing it in related groups, currently the Luwian logograms (which are Anatolian), characters from Mohenjo Dharo, the Rongo-Rongo script from Easter Island, and the Oceanian Islands in general.
Baraldi is a researcher who I feel very close to. Through conversations with experts I have approached his work in an intuitive way. I know that he found a link between the Hittite hieroglyphics and the Tupi-Guarani linguistic group. I relate this to what Brasseur de Bourboug said about the Caras of Ecuador. He believed that they belonged to that race of navigators whose traces are found in the old and new continents and that history designates as Carians in Europe and Asia; and as Caribs and Guaranis in America. Brasseur bases his work on toponyms, suffixes, etc.
Atlantis was geographically divided into 4 parts, its symbol was the cross (+), I noticed that when this symbol (X) was turned, it was indicating a migration from Atlantis. That is why both symbols are recurrent in pre-Columbian inscriptions. If we observe the iconography of the American peoples, both symbols are related to a royal lineage or race, a clear example are the tocapus or textiles recorded by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala.
I know that, despite not having any specific training in these fields, many academics write to you, interested in your discoveries. This speaks of an openness, albeit unofficial, on a subject as controversial as ancient American scripts. After all, the decoding of these scripts is still in its infancy.
My self-taught development has covered many areas, and in this specific case I have tried as much as possible to seek help from experts, without achieving results. However, when I started publishing on my site the compilations of Carian, Magyar and Brahmi, among other information, I have noticed some approach and collaboration on your part.
It is true, my system is capable of reducing ideograms to basic ideas, this would apparently be applicable to any type of conceptual writing, but it is necessary to know the worldview, the historical and social circumstances, in which that plate, glyph was engraved.
I am grateful to all those who have written to me to comment or criticize my work, as it is a clear sign of the openness you speak of.
American cultures have not left us a written history to remain forgotten in museum cellars, but to teach us their knowledge, successes and failures. Its dissemination and study must be multidisciplinary, there must be no selfishness or unilateral positions, but dialogue, debate and agreement.
NOTE: I would like to thank Prof. Debnarayan Acharyya, Debora Goldstern (Argentine researcher), Ruth Rodíguez Sotomayor (Ecuadorian researcher, who classified the Parakas textiles as Tankas) for their crucial help in my research.
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