Pre-Colonial Chinese Settlements in Australia: New Evidence at Gympie adds credence to Zheng He's explorationsn 

by Bruce L. Raphael

To: Beijing University: Research Dept. Fellows in Archaeology/ref: Admiral Admiral Zhong He

Overview: I have been conducting active research in Australia since 1984 to further a position that the Chinese were one of several pre-colonial cultures who founded temporary settlements along Australia's coastlines. More and more evidence in Australia demonstrates that in pre-colonial Australasia (before 1770) maritime nations knew about Australia and made visits and temporary habitation there.

In this review, I will discuss why non-colonial finds in the Maryborough Lake district around Gympie indicate a Ming Dynasty habitation in the early 15th century A.D.

The ethnography of the Gympie area near Fraser Island has been preserved by the Green family who demonstrated a well organized archive of local Aboriginal stories and in-situ evidence that was largely unspoiled when the first wave of Europeans arrived in the 1860's. Brett Green comments: " My great-great grandfather had a propensity to studying ancient cultures and came from England to pursue his dream. He arrived in Maryborough and settled in Gympie during the search for gold. Subsequently, he found a pristine temple and mound complex and noted the ideograms and structures in his sketches." I first visited the Gympie Pyramid site in 1984 and studied the copious notes with Brett for years to come. Recently he brought to my attention the newest find at Gympie:

Denga coins on the site that would be dated to 1385-1400 A.D.

My Background: I minored in Asian Studies in college at Connecticut College in New London in 1974. I majored in Oceanographic Studies at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research through the University of Hartford in the USA in 1975. For as long as I can remember I have been a keen collector and student of rock art and joined AURA in Australia, Rock Art Research Association headed by Robert Bednarik. He mentored me in my study of cyclons, an arcane area of Aboriginal artifacts that are sacred to the clans of N.S.W.. It was my hypothesis that the engraving on the conical long stones were not of Aboriginal origin, as the Aboriginals do not engrave or carve linguistics, but use painted icons for lifestyle management: food gathering and sacred places for meetings.

I continued my study of epigraphy with the help of Yale graduate , Charles Boyle who was familiar with the scripts on the cyclons. He was a teacher in epigraphy and geology. His life pursuit was documenting in situ evidence in New England of pre-colonial settlements of North Sea migrations from Ireland circa 700 A.D..

My work in Australia continued in 1984 when I was introduced to the Gympie site. In later years I was given field notes on anomalous megalithic structures that are found throughout Australia.

My co-writer and mentor Rush Allen had made further inroads to the Gympie location in so far as it's latitude and longitude for studying the motion of the Milky Way from 700 BC to 1400 AD based on the movement of Sirius at the Summer Solstice. (see Australian grid map #3)

In 1993 I focused on Far North Queensland, where clan elders directed to me to a certain site in a canyon near Port Douglas. Many field trips were taken to the canyon where I studied the megalithic array of stone pillars called menhirs. My first task was to set up a grid and focus on the zenith and the ecliptic at this latitude and longitude. I found the placement of the menhirs to describe one constellation that was most important to the Chinese navigator and that was CARINA, the keel of the great ship Argo Navis. The lead star of Carina is CANOPUS, called Lao Jen. The shape fit the cast of the keel. Canopus was positioned at the place where the greatest stone of all the 7 was placed, high on Lighthouse Mountain visible for 4 kilometres in any direction!. Canopus was the lighthouse star for positioning charts in southern waters by latitude.

(www.geocities.com/worldtree_2000 see evidence). Rush Allen further refined the latitude and longitude zenith circa 3200 BCE that would reveal more star stories and importance to the latitude and longitude. (see photo 1)

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In November 1985, I conducted a three week dig on a mound near Cooktown where Middle Eastern artifacts were found to include a Mycenaean pottery shard and a miniature carved Horus figurine in limestone. The project was under the guidance of an Australian field researcher Marilyn Pye from Sydney. (see photo of Lost Pyramid Story Australia #4)

Larger

The owner of the land became impatient and asked us to conclude our activities and move on.. An unusual feature of this mound was that it was positioned exactly due north from the Canopus stone at a distance of about 68.68 nautical miles. The Canopus stone had another feature that linked it to the same latitude as the Temple Platform of Tiahuanco currently dated to around 800 BCE.

My education continued with my association with Brett Green, South Queensland resident and regional ethnographer who in the tradition of his great, great grandfather upheld the local Aboriginal folk lore and stories brought to him by the Gaba-speaking clans of the Lake District.

In 1984 when I visited the site, it was overgrown in high grass, with a retaining wall still in tack, large stone bowl at the summit, artifacts and an anomalous Ape Statue that were all found on the land. Brett Green's great grandfather had first unspoiled viewing of the mound pyramid complex and kept detailed notes and drawings. When Brett received the copious files in 1974 he saw for the first time a temple court yard with unusual carvings and animal motifs and obelisk like columns. There were also entry ways into the mound. The Aboriginal clan held this site as taboo and stayed clear of the area.

Brett Green took great care from his youth to study the regional histories that involved the anthropology of Frazer Island, a key gateway for maritime journeymen seeking fresh water and access to landfall from within the coral reef. Out-of-place artifacts have been catalogued over the years by Mr. Green and detailed with the local Aboriginal histories in his book Mystery of the Gympie Pyramid.

In December 2004, two New South Wales prospectors searching for gold unearthed unidentified ancient coins amongst rocks in the northeastern quadrant of the Gympie Pyramid site. They were found under 9 inches of soil amidst other metallic debris. Brett Green's organization the Dhamurian historical Research Society was alerted to the discovery by an E-bay auction in late January 2005. The society obtained the coin for their archives and the search for information on the coin began.

The coin joined a growing folder of lost-and-found artifacts also discovered over the past 100 years at Gympie:

1. unusual statues of Hindu origin 2. 600 year old lead fishing weight found at nearby Fraser's island, identified as a 16th century item from North of Spain 3. evidence of wood remains of pre-colonial ships that were awash in sand and surf 4. curved sword blade 5. and an antimony mine located near the pyramid complex that was 're-opened' and examined in 1950.

By January 2005 the results of the society's investigations were in. a consensus was reached by 5 professional organizations to include: The Russian Numismatic Society, The Pskov Museum, the Canadian Society for the study of Egyptian Antiquities, numismatic experts from England and America and an Australian Archaeologist from the Q.I.T in Brisbane, confirmed the coin as a "15th century A.D. silver "DENGA" and is quite rare.

The ethnography on these coins :

It comes from the Feudal State "Kingless" period in Russian history 1389 - 1462 A.D. ,

when the Mongol-Chinese controlled the borders of early Russia Pskov Russia was where

the coins were minted c. 1400-1500 A.D. The alphabet signage on the coin is a "Cyrillic" form of "old Church Slavic and it appears to display a mint-makers mark.

The obverses of all coins for the Pskov period are the same and depict a head with a 'crowned' head and a sword. The symbolism depicts an image of an earlier Prince named Dovmont-Timothy of Pskov, "The Saint". The size of the pure silver coin is also consistent with the European dark ages and that size is like a three pence. Importance lies in the set silver weight size for such coins evolved on a pattern set for early coin/weight sizes.

The legend on the coin according to linguists reads by line: a) Den b) Gapsk c) Ovsk d)AIA

e) the final line is not identified. It then reads: "DENGA of PSKOV" or Den'ga Pskovskaya in Russian. Pskov was an ancient trading city so its coinage moved all over the world with other trading nations. The "DENGA" and other silver coins became currency anywhere in the world. It is well established that the early Russian provinces traded with China extensively in those days (14-16th centuries) and that silver was more valuable than gold in many parts of Asia.

The Society sees a strong connection between the coin, the sword, the lead weight and other artifacts all being connected to the period of 1389 - 1462. The official gold rush in Australia specifically in Gympie began around 1857 - 1900. Russian immigrants and Chinese mine workers arrived around that time. The Aborigines of the Gympie Lakes region were cannibalistic and kept many foreigners from venturing from the camps.

The Admiral Zheng He connection

The society with my help wishes to confirm some important information. The map found in Macao brought a closer inspection of the Chinese explorations of Emperor Zhu Di's Admiral Zheng He and his fleets of oceangoing ships. I posted the map depicting the Far North Queensland coast with Chinese scripts on my website in 1996 and created the World Tree Database to file my findings and sketches. The map is part of the Chui Hiao ('Atlas of Foreign Countries" and other sixth-century scrolls telling of voyages of junks to Australia. Also details are provided in the Classics of Shan Hai Jing.

The importance of the Frasier Island and Tin Can Bay area is that it would provide freshwater resources for one of Zheng He's admirals Zhou Mann whose long distance maritime trips to Australia required , food provisions and with the feature of Gympie being saturated with gold veins an important locale for mining exploration. Could the Aboriginal stories talking about 'strange gods' who dug for the 'yellow stone' and 'cooked tree leaves' (eucalypt) have any connection to the Chinese fleets' arrival on these shores?

To this story the Society has added in support of this research another find of an ancient

a) Chinese 'teapot' found on the shoreline east of Gympie 20 years ago. It has a "green dragon" copper design from the Ming period. It has 3 legs suggesting it is a wine pot, not a teapot. Copper or bronze was used for easy warming of the wine over heat.

b) the remnants of an old jade necklace and two jade carved objects were found amongst the stone ruins in bush land near Tin Can bay in the late 1990's. Does the jade necklace resemble those worn by those captains who were in the Admiral's fleet? The captains of his navy are said to have been Taoist priests who wore such necklaces.

c) Is there a connection of the 'Antimony mine' and the Chinese? Yes. In use more than gold.

d) Was Zheng He descended from the Mongols of Eastern Russia? Answer: The Admirals forebears

were Persians who migrated from Syria to Bokhara in the 8th century A.D.. They remained there until Genghis Khan sacked the city. Then they migrated to Yunnan.

e) The last Mongol stronghold in 1402 was in Yunnan at the fortress of Hunyang. Emporor Zhu Di had captured Kunyang and has Zheng He and his family castrated.

f) Was the term "Denge" used for early Chinese coinage? Yes-it is Mongolian for 'money' and is in use in Central Asia today.

Mr. Green is a bona fide ethnographer and detailed in his book, Spirit Warrior, the oral legends of the 'cultural heroes' who had over time visited the shores near Fraser Island. In one of them they describe large vessels that appeared from the clouds. The heroes were dressed in unusual clothing with helmets and fire power to shoot down birds.

Much of the supporting evidence for China's great exploration of world cartography is now found in the book 1421 by Gavin Menzies. Gavin Menzies is a naval commander of the British fleet and began accruing data on China's cross cultural fertilization of plants and animals during their stopovers in hundreds of ports worldwide. In the early years of research Marilyn Pye, suggested that there were some features of the Gympie Pyramid complex that had South American features, namely the original sandstone-wall that was numbered and re-erected around the Unitarian Church originally came from the mound site. Many of the stones have a feature of the 11 angle stone design known by the Incas at Cuzco and Macchu Pichu. From the evidence of iron smelting at Sarina, Queensland

I am suggesting that the wall construction could have been part of Mycenaean maritime exploits. Further Brett Green noted that stone statues of a creature that appeared as part dog, part monster were found and photographed near the Gympie Pyramid Hill. They resembled the now extinct mylodon. This gentle herbivore was very large and was found in Australia and in Peru during the time of the Moche habitation and during the maritime explorations of Zheng He circa 1420 A.D..

I saw a clay facsimile of this creature at the Beijing Museum featuring Peruvian collections.

(see pictures at: http://farshores.org/am06gp.htm

Gavin Menzies adds an important piece of missing data on the Chinese voyages to Australia in the 15th century. was it reserved for just the scientific fleet's exploration? Descriptions of common journeys were described as "the north coast of the Great South Land of Chui hiao" was described as lying thirty thousand li, about twelve thousand miles from China and being in the south temperate zone, where seasons are opposed to those in the northern hemisphere. It was inhabited by a race of small black people identified by Australian anthropologist Norman B. Tyndale as Aborigines from the mountains above Cairns in north Queensland.

(see: K.G. McIntyre's The Secret Discovery of Australia, Souvenir, Melbourne, 1977)

Connecting the Dots: If I could describe my field investigation and the timelines that connect Australia to secret places in the world, I would mention South Yemen, East India, Southwestern China and Egypt. These places are connected to mysteries of the world between 2300 BCE and 700 A.D.

My fascination for the Ming Dynasty started a few years ago while I began studying Buddhism of Japan in the 14th century A.D.. I found an artifact in a New York Chinese collector's shop of antiquities of China that were being brought over from China for museums and collectors.

Mr. Yu Ming of Yu Ming Antiques on 28th Street had displayed this clay figurine in his window. It was there that I found the clay figurine about 8 inches high and 13 inches long that depicts a " Spyscout" of the governor's palace sitting on a Good Luck Lion (picture #2).

Mr. Ming the owner of the shop describes this clay piece as the protector of the governor's house as many of them were positioned along the roofs highest edge from north to south.. He showed me one of the governor's residences being dismantled during a development project. It was said that these icons were able to move around on another dimension and report back to the Emperor of events that were going to happen. The rider was wearing a hat that resembled the Mongolian style fashion worn by the governor's men.

Current to this story, is Brett Green's luck to find evidence of a iron foundry on the Gympie Pyramid Site. Sadly the government decided to place a 4 lane highway through the mound site, but the recent find has put a slow-down to the final destruction of the Gympie mystery. .

The challenge continues to grow as I have recently found strong evidence of a Chinese 15th century Script used on the stele's at Gympie. They are called NAXI and were used by the Chinese People who inhabited southeast China near Guangzhou. It was in April 2006 that I decided to take up long standing invitation by my friend Hao Dan Wu to come to Beijing.

In early November 2006, I had the unexpected joy to visit Baoding home to the the 2000 year old famous tomb of Prince Liusheng and his Princess Wan. The region in the summer is a resplendent Eden of waterfalls, caves and orchards. The tomb entrance was discovered by accident during a search for water on a local mountain top. The tomb was said to have taken 30 years to construct and used stone and molten copper to seal the entrance (see photos of Baoding's famous tomb of the Eastern Han District circa 200 BCE).

Bruce L. Raphael brura2718@yahoo.com Archivist, writer and explorer for World Tree 2000 and Eye of Siloam.net Publications: Let the Truth Be Known ^ A True Story of Cosmic Proportions

footnote 1:

Columbus reaches America with Chinese Nautical Chart: (from People's China Daily July 28, 2006

In his book entitled "The 1421 Heresy, An Investigation into the Ming Chinese Maritime Survey Of the World", U.S. historian Chao Chien presents historical evidence and points out that Chinese fleets had circumnavigated and charted the earth long before Europeans. European Navigators including Christopher Columbus used Chinese nautical charts to make sea journeys. Chao Chien was born in China and later worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He spent 2 years collecting nautical charts and maritime logs from major libraries and universities. Evidence indicates that the strength of the Chinese maritime fleets began long distance journeys during the Song Dynasty around 1100 AD.

Footnote 2:

At my geocities website I show a map that was transcribed by Portugeuse Monks in Macao around 1630 during the studies and work of Chinese culture by the Ricci Monastry. This Chinese map shows the exact topography and coastline of Far North Queensland south of Cape Tribulation.

Footnote 3:

For Naxi Scripts: http://www.ancientscripts.com/naxi.html

CHINA 2007: Ground Level Awareness Part 1