ADDENDA to Indian Ocean Seafaring

Sea Lanes and Navigation from Maputo Harbor to Bali, Indonesia

Oceans could be crossed long ago, by adhering to the four cardinal directions, due North, South, East and West. Ships went from one known point of land to another, then turned 90 degrees to the next cardinal direction and continued to the next known point of land, and so on. (Some translations of Plato’s Critias describe crossing the Atlantic in this fashion. Funny how this is becoming less and less available!)

Knowing this N,S,E,W ability, we can find kindred cities across the water from each other by making a vertical or horizontal line between them. Check this out; on the west coast of Ireland is Achill Island. (“Achill” is pronounced AH-kull, and means Eagle. Achlles was so named.) Directly west across the Atlantic from Achill Island is Eagle River in Labrador, Canada. River names are the oldest names in any region of the Earth. To me this is encouraging information, showing a long-established seafaring connection between Achill Island in Ireland, and Eagle River, Labrador.

The sea route between Maputo Harbor, Mozambique, and Bali, Indonesia would not be such a simple line. It would necessitate going due east from Maputo to the coast of Australia, then travelling northeast along the coast to a place named “Direction Island”. (Now, how did it get THAT name, I wonder?) The northern tip of Direction Island is at the exact longitude as the sea lane east of Bali. There, the ship could dock and enjoy the island, or continue on to Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, China or beyond.

The route between Bali and Maputo Harbor, prior to the Mother Tongue

When the labial consonant was invented, the Mother Tongue rapidly emerged from the limited First Language. The labial proto-consonant’s' myriad possibilities of making different discrete sounds, thus endless possible vocabulary, began the creation of the immense vocabulary of the Mother Tongue.

The marker in time for the debut of the M.T. is the purported fact that the nerve to the tongue “suddenly expanded to today’s size about half a million years ago.” The tongue's sophistication is what allows the production of our wide variety of consonant sounds. For the tongue to have “suddenly” expanded to today's size, it indicates that the Mother Tongue emerged very suddenly, causing everyone to chatter happily almost overnight . This corresponds with the idea that the labial proto-consonant appeared all at once, not by aeons of trial and error as did the velar proto-consonant.

For the nerve to the tongue to suddenly be today’s size, people must have been producing sounds as rapidly and distinctly as we now do. i.e., modern speech (the Mother Tongue) would be globally used. And that's exactly what is shown in the collection of the labial-based set of words, i.e., that mankind was “suddenly” totally smitten with the ability to speak, especially as it pertains to ourselves, but equally if not more importantly, as it allows great innovations in manufacture of all kinds. (Hard evidence of this manufacturing is recorded in the labial-proto=consonant collection.)

REGARDING REVOLUTIONS IN SEAFARING

Walking across the ultra-flat Peruvian pampas at night would be much like sailing the ocean at night. Ships routinely stopped at Peru to get repairs and be equipped, because there the ocean current swerves westward across the Pacific. When a navigator first experienced the qualities of the ultra-flat and expansive Peruvian pampas, including the super-clear air revealing the night’s stars all the way down to the horizon, he could envision a practice that would greatly intensify his grasp of the stellar configurations of the night sky as they existed close to a bearing he needed to follow.

He would scout out a distant peak very close to the same stellar orientation as an important coastal destination across the Pacific. He would mark his starting point on the pampas, then walk as perfectly straight as possible toward that peak. To achieve this straightness, he would need to keep his eyes glued to the peak and absorb the movements of the stars surrounding it, and not look at his feet (invisible anyway in the night’s darkness). He would be entranced with the clarity he was achieving.

After much practice, he would test his capabilities by beginning his walk quite a distance away from the initial starting point. He would then try to return to the correct orientation by aligning the stars properly around the peak of his goal. To align the stars he would move side to side, seeing which way brought the peak closer into position, then he’d keep moving that way until his original alignment was achieved.

This practice would almost tattoo the stars into his mind. A line would arise on the surface of the pampas from his track left by perfectly straight walking. Evidence of foot traffic still exists in the Nazca lines, says author Evan Hadingham, who walked one of the lines at night.

For extra durability of the new grasp on the stars’ alignments, animal-shaped mazes would be created to purposely disorient the navigator. After a period of walking in these mazes, becoming hugely disoriented, he returns to straight walking toward his destination. By this, the stars are even more indelibly emblazoned into this memory, much as workouts with weights increases the muscles’ strength.

News would travel fast among navigators. Like magic, some navigators began appearing impossibly early at certain far-flung destinations across the Pacific. Many navigators and captains sojourned in Nazca to practice the straight lines, and then in Ingenio for the animal mazes. Over the centuries these congregating Canani gave rise to the two contracted place names ~ Nanasca and Ingenio ~ while their expert steps created lines for every Pacific destination beginning at Peru.

To read more, borrow or buy the book Lines to Mountain Gods: Nazca and the Mysteries of Peru by Evan Hadingham. His description of his experience of walking one of the lines at night gives much insight into the possible reasons for their existence.

Thank you for being here! As always, please feel free to . . .

Kim Salisbury Bodfish, California