World’s oldest university?

Press, 28 August 1984, Page 26

World’s oldest university?

NZPA-Reuter Mexico City An elephant, a Chinese junk and a Hindu god make an American anthropologist, Neil Steede believe he may have found the site of the world’s oldest university. The objects are drawings on bricks excavated in the late 1970 s from the Mayan settlement of Comalcalco in Tabasco, southern Mexico. Mr Steede says the implication is that travellers from Africa and the Far East were visiting the area before 700 AD. ’fiiis and a number of other clues at Comalcalco point to the possibility that it was an international centre of learning, he says. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest university in the world is probably the University of Karueein, founded in 859 AD. in Fez, Morocco. Mr Steede’s theories modify traditional thinking that the indigenous cultures of the Americas descend, from Asiatic tribes who crossed the Bering Straits thousands of years before Christ The idea of travellers sailing to , the new world from Asia and Africa is new. Mr Steede, aged 34, first came across the bricks in 1979. “I was looking at the inscriptions on these things

and realised that some, quite clearly, were not Mayan,” he said. “There were formulations that looked more like some kind of writing than classical Mayan hieroglyphs — and it was obvious too that they weren’t mere scribblings or magic signs.” After ploughing through reams of red tape and the disbelieving attitude of the Mexican authorities, Mr Steede finally obtained permission to photograph the bricks. Drawings he made from those 4612 pictures were sent to the epigraphic society in San Diego, California, a private body, which confirmed the presence of languages such as Tibetan, Phoenician, Libyan, Chinese and Burmese among others. “So what did this mean? A virtual Tower of Babel in the Americas?” asked Mr Steede. In general, linguists believe he is right and archaeologists say he is wrong — and the debate continues. One problem is that all the inscriptions appear to date from the first century to 400 AD. whereas the site — encompassing some 360 pyramids and one of the few in Mesoamerica built entirely of fired bricks — dates from 700 to 900 AD.

Some of the bricks may have been brought from an earlier site, Mr Steede suggests. The archaeologists also hold to their belief that Indians of the Americas were descended from Asiatic tribes which had crossed the Bering Strait into Alaska before heading south. “I don’t deny that, but I believe there were also great influxes of people who came by boat at much later times,” Mr Steede said. Pictures such as a Chinese junk, an Egyptian barge and a Phoenician sailor dropping anchor lend weight to this theory, he said. Some Mayan hieroglyphs, too, show overseas nobles being welcomed with gifts and ceremony, tending to suggest the locals knew a visitor was coming and that he was worthy of a reception. On some of the bricks Mr

Steede noted a combination of Mayan hieroglyphs and Arabic or Manding (African) script, in one case apparently serving as translations of each other. Archaeologists ask why such a site had not been found before in the old world and suggest it unlikely that all these scripts and races came together at the same time and the same place. This, says Mr Steede, is pure conservatism and does not take his evidence into account The idea of the site being an early seat of learning is based on the repetition of so many of the symbols, the poor quality of some of them, and the fact that carefully inscribed bricks should have then been used as mere building material “It suggests that this was some form of language school and that the students did' their homework and practice on these bricks,” he said. Evidence has been found

at the site that the teaching of two Mayan specialities, trigonometry and geometry, was also carried on at Comalcalco. Mayan waterways had previously been found in neighbouring Guatemala and Mr Steede believes it is quite logical that there should have fen a place to teach budding engineers. Mr Steede’s main task now is to gather support for his theories. This involves seeking more expert opinion on what he already has and continuing research at the Mayan site. Of the 366 identified temples there, only eight have fen partially excavated and just one completely uncovered. “If we have all this from just one half per cent of one site, I think it is quite reasonable to assume we will find a lot more to back the theory that the Mayans of southern Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras had extensive contacts with overseas societies,” he said.