Untitled - UTSC Humanities Research Projects server - University of ...

Mediterranean Reception in the Americas 305
considered that the American inscriptions followed a different
path of evolution, preserving, however, the essential traits and
meanings of the original scripts. He supposed that many drawings
and works of cave art were, in fact, stylized representations
of ancient letters and writings, his favourite objects of analysis
being Marajoara ceramics (Fig. 12.2). 24 The ‘deciphering’ of
these signs led to the identification of Greek, Hebrew, and
Phoenician names and writings.
The fourth step (up into the stratosphere) was to compare the
resulting names and sentences, discovered in encoded Indian
inscriptions, with their corresponding references in Greek,
Punic, and Hebrew inscriptions, and also the Bible and classical
Greek literature. As an example, we can study how he read the
inscriptions on a large rock found in Rio Urubu, on the
Amazon, which he transliterated, translated, and interpreted
as a set of votive formulas dedicated to Zeus (Figs. 12.3 and
12.4). His two volumes contain hundreds of such cases.
Aiming to clarify the history of the first Mediterranean presence
in Brazil, supposedly in the early Iron Age, Ramos
brought in many names of Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, and
Phoenician gods, patriarchs, tribal leaders, heroes, priests,
temples, and shrines. The Amazonian and American materials,
taken as a collection of cryptographic writings, were unveiled in
direct accordance with what the author-reader had found in his
own experience with ancient materials, within the Mediterranean.
He did not, on the other hand, find any trace of native
American Indian myths or names, any vestige of the linguistic
families of American Indians, or even any name not belonging
to the Mediterranean repertoire.
Ramos admitted that there was no case of continuity between
the older colonization from the Mediterranean and the post-
Renaissance occupation, but attempted to persuade his readers
that the history of civilization in Brazil was longer than they had
realized. The Indians discovered by the early explorers were
not wild barbarians, cannibals, and savage warriors, but the
24 The Marajoara is a style of ceramics typical of the Aruans, who belonged
to the linguistic group Arwaq (Aruaque), inhabitants of the Ilha de Marajó
(Northern Brazil). It is considered typical of pre- (and post-)Columbian art in
Brazil.