There is change in the air in London. We have decided to downsize the office to keep costs down. Gavin is busy writing another book on early voyages to the New World, but with a slightly different angle than that explored previously. In the meantime, Frank Lee has taken over as Commercial Director of the 1421 operation. Frank was managing director of China regional headquarters of two U.S. information technology companies and is now engaged in venture investment in carbon reduction, bio-fuels and new media content development.  Frank has been a friend of ours since 2004. His passion for cross-culture understanding, as well as his wealth of experience in the business world will be of great help in pushing our research projects forward in these somewhat trying times. We wish him the best of luck!
 
We will strive to continue as before, researching, writing, and of course responding to correspondence directed to our website, as well as disseminating new information as and when we receive it. Ian Hudson, who has been working with Gavin now for over 6 years, will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the office. Ian will also deal with the majority of correspondence and hopes he will be able to keep his head above water over the coming months - please be patient if he does not respond to your emails immediately!

We are pleased to announce that SKY Motion Pictures have bought and exercised the option to make the 1421 & 1434 movies. For more information, please visit www.skympg.com We greatly look forward to seeing the cameras rolling!

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new book by Emeritus Professor John L. Sorenson and Emeritus Professor Carl L. Johannessen which seems to provide a series of smoking guns in relation to the subject of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic trade. In World Trade and Biological Exchanges Before 1492 they postulate that "...124 tropical plants and animals were transported across oceans to and from tropical continents by early tropical mariners. This encyclopaedic volume summarizes the research of Professors Sorenson and Johannessen, opening up new avenues of research and challenging the current ideas of how species were dispersed across the world oceans.

A plant, especially a domesticated one, cannot evolve twice on two opposite continents; they require a DNA source. It takes finite time for it to spread. Eighty-four tropical plants were transported from America to the tropical Old World used now by us. The early mariners selected crops from highlands and shorelines, wet and dry climates, took them to the Old World, and planted them in the appropriate ecological locations. Only 13 plants came to America from Old World locations.

The sailing that maintained medicinal plants in Egypt and Peru during two separate 1, 400 year periods implies continual maritime trade. The most ancient exchanges by mariners were two species of hookworms originating from Southeast Asia. They were found in mummies in Brazil but not in North America. This indicates that diffusion of various types occurred in order to bring these parasites to Brazil over 7,000 years ago.

This research will allow scientists and teachers to openly reassess their current notions of the history of civilization and the interaction between peoples in ancient times..."
 
To purchase this book please visit the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/World-Trade-Biological-Exchanges-Before/dp/0595524419  

Dr Tan Ta Sen's International Zheng He Society in Singapore, is pleased to make available to visitors to their website two papers from the book edited by Prof. Leo Suryadinata on Admiral Zheng He and Southeast Asia (2005 ), published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and International Zheng He Society (Singapore). Available on their website www.chengho.org now are the following:

(a)  The first article is by Dr Tan Ta Sen - "Did Zheng He set out to colonize Southeast Asia?" Dr. Tan responded to and took issue with the paper by Dr. Geoffrey Wade on "Ming China and Southeast Asia in the 15th Century: a reappraisal." Dr. Tan lists the arguments by Dr Wade accusing Zheng He's expeditions as being expansionist and colonialist.  He proceeds to systematically refute them point by point.

(b)   The second paper is by Mr. Chung Chee Kit, President of The Friends of Admiral Zheng He.  The paper is title "Longyamen is Singapore. The Final Proof?" and appears as Chapter 9 in Prof. Suryadinata's book.
To read both papers please click here http://www.chengho.org/events/reports.php

We will next month be sending you details of the Society's Zheng He Conference, to be held in Malacca in July 2010.  

Charlotte Harris Rees, author of Secret Maps of the Ancient World, continues to research about the early arrival of Chinese to America. In March she and her brother Hendon Harris, III, took a trip to some locations that are believed to be stops on a 2000 B.C. Chinese survey of the Americas.  According to Rees the Chinese descriptions match up too accurately for one to deny Chinese had been there. One can read about that trip at www.asiaticfathers.com/gold.htm   Charlotte spoke at the University of London, SOAS in April. She has plans for appearances in Rhode Island, New York City, and North Eastern U.S. in September and Portland, OR and the U.S. West Coast in October. She is currently trying to book additional speeches in those areas. Visit her website at www.HarrisMaps.com   to view her schedule or to book her for a speech.

The discussion over the authenticity of the Vinland map rages on! As writes John Archer of Reuters:

"... Controversy has swirled around the map since it came to light in the 1950s, many scholars suspecting it was a hoax meant to prove that Vikings were the first Europeans to land in North America -- a claim confirmed by a 1960 archaeological find.

"All the tests that we have done over the past five years -- on the materials and other aspects -- do not show any signs of forgery," Rene Larsen, rector of the School of Conservation under the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, told Reuters.

The Vinland Map is not a "Viking map" and does not alter the historical understanding of who first sailed to North America. But if it is genuine, it shows that the New World was known not only to Norsemen but also to other Europeans at least half a century before Columbus's voyage..."

Please click here for more information:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56G58320090717

And finally...
It seems 300-700 year old skulls are turning up in Australasia. Here is a report of a non-indigenous one found in Sydney, Australia. Radiocarbon-dating carried out by Waikato University shows the skull predates European arrival on Australia's east coast by 500 years. For more information please visit this link:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/64552/non-aboriginal-skull-sydney-700-years-old