Churchward and Radio Days at WNYC

Before he wrote about the Lost Continent of Mu, James Churchward spoke on WNYC on a variety of topics. Recently, the WNYC blog celebrated the 87th anniversary of one of James' broadcasts (WNYC and the Land of Mu or [My-mu.com guestblog].

The article also mentioned Churchward’s original WNYC broadcast scripts that are to be published in an electronic format.

In a 'pre-my-mu.com' website, I had collected the various clippings from James' scrapbooks concerning his radio broadcasts and assembled them on a single page. While the clippings were nice, the page did not make the cut, because there was no really no substance to them. Again, I am grateful for the invaluable assistance of Historian (and all-around good guy) Yannis Deliyannis to provide the 'substance.'

Therefore, I need to announce the rebirth of a new/old webpage aptly (I believe,) called 'Radio Days'.



A review on his January 30, 1925 broadcast, printed 87 years ago today read as follows:

Review: Talking of elocutionary stunts and all that, Colonel Churchward at WNYC used the words delicious fish. He did it without making a mess of it, but we "defy anyone to say these two words five times in succession quickly without hashing them. (Brooklyn NY Daily Eagle, January 31, 1925).

In addition to outlining the James' entire appearances on WNYC, there are also some pictures of James from that time period that are different from his normal portrait contained in front of all his books. I must admit, the one I am most looking forward to reading about is 'Hunting Pygmies in Central America.' (My only question: What were they going to do when they found them?)



Jack Churchward

Mexican 'Chinaman' Statues

James Churchward described, as part of his materials on William Niven's Mexican discoveries, a small statue of what he termed, a 'Chinaman.'

From Lifting the Veil on the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men page 114:


RELICS FROM NIVEN’S LOWEST CITY 1. Egyptian head. 2. Ancient Grecian vase. 3. A toy. 4. Little Chinaman

From Lifting the Veil on the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men, pages 215-218

THE LITTLE CHINAMAN
"This image proves with indisputable evidence that the people who lived ages ago in the Valley of Mexico knew and were familiar with the Mongolian type. The ruin in which I found the Chinese image was in the remains of the third or lowest civilization thirty feet down from the surface in the pit which I had dug at San Miguel Amanda, near Haluepantla, nineteen miles from the national palace in Mexico City. The first (upper) civilization, marked by a cement floor, and walls of a concrete building I found at a depth of eight feet. Eleven feet below this was the second (middle) civilization of about the same grade of development as the first, and 30 feet 3 inches from the surface of the ground I came on a bed chamber, or tomb, I do not know which, in the third stratum of ruins, which contain the finest artefacts I have ever seen in Mexico. I am inclined to think the room was thirty feet square, its walls were made of concrete and crushed down to within a foot of their bases. Below was a tomb. In the center, on a raised rectangular platform, also of concrete, lay the skull and some of the bones of a man who could not have been more than five feet in height. His arms were very long, reaching almost to the knees, and his skull was decidedly of a Mongolian type. Around his neck had been a string of green jade beads. Green jade is not a Mexican mineral.
"Lying beside the body was a string of 597 pieces of shell. I say string, but the buckskin thong which had once born them was long since rotted to dust, and the wampum, or money, lay as if it had fallen from a string. With this money lay the greatest find of all - the little Chinaman.
"It is the first of its kind ever found in Mexico, though Mongoloid types persist in sufficient numbers among the Indians of all Mexico to convince anyone that the Indian blood of the country originally came from Asia.
"His oblique eye-slits, padded coat, flowing trousers and slippers make him a present-day Chinaman in all respects, except for the queue which is lacking. The Chinese did not, however, adopt the queue until they had been conquered by the Tartar hordes from the north.
"The little statuette is about 7 inches high, and where the arms are broken off, the clay of which the image is made shows red and friable in the center; outside, however, the clay has metamorphosed into stone, so that it can be chipped with the hammer only with the greatest difficulty. It is about 3 1/2 inches in width across the chest and 1 1/2 inches in thickness through the abdomen. In the ears are huge rings similar to those worn by the Chinese today, on the head is a skull cap with a tiny button in the center, almost exactly like the caps of the mandarins of the Empire, which has now become a republic. The coat, which is loose and of a type still worn by the Chinese, is shown fastened with a frog and a button, while on the breast is a circular plate or ornament, evidently covered with a layer of beaten gold, but worn bare by contact with the earth of unknown ages. Each arm is broken off at the shoulder, and the opening of the entire tomb has failed to disclose the missing hands. This Chinese image was not made by Aztecs. It had been buried in the earth in the Valley of Mexico' for thousands of years before the Aztecs set foot on the plateau. The Aztecs were newcomers in Mexican history, the blood-thirsty conquerors of the great civilized and organized races of Mexico, who ravaged with fire and sword the cities built by the Toltecs, Ohmecs and Mayas. The Aztecs did not build; they took buildings from the builders by force of arms.
"The little Chinaman furnishes exactly the link for which we have been searching. He says without speaking that the most ancient tribes of Mexico were offshoots of the Mongoloid. "Near the skeleton, but off the platform, lay a flower vase about 15 inches high, undoubtedly filled with Xochitl, the yellow sacred flower of practically all of the ancient races of this country."

This passage is from Chapter 11 ("Niven's Buried Cities") of Lifting the Veil on the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men. Almost the entirety of the chapter is contained in an article in one of James Churchward's scrapbooks and is published as a footnote in "Lifting the Veil on the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men". This account provides that the grave and statue were from San Miguel Amanda, near Haluepantla. It is unfortunate that the source and date of the article were removed from the article.

As reported in the "The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser" on January 11, 1913 in an article entitled, "Discoverers of America: Chinese First to Land," Niven must have found another 'chinaman' statue. The article describes that Niven, while digging at the base of the great pyramid at 'Tootihuacan(Teotihuacan)' under three levels of civilization. It is described almost exactly the same as the 'chinaman' statue in the 1926 Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men.

One aid to help decipher the mystery is also included in one of James' scrapbooks. The following map (source and date also removed) provides the locations of ancient ruins and includes the location of Azcapotzalco, "where traces of a Mongoloid civilization were uncovered by William Niven."



The map also distinctly shows that Teotihuacan is in another location, so perhaps the placement of the artifacts from Teotihuacan was derived with the intent of bolstering the importance of the discovery, and saving them from having to write/type 'Azcapotzalco.'

This 'chinaman' statue has been referenced in recent literary works also. The artifact was used by Gavin Menzies to show 'Chinese influence in Central America,' however that opinion is not unanimous. Mr. Menzies' statue is the version discovered at Teotihuacan and it is even included on the People's Daily (official information organ of the People's Republic of China.) Jason Colavito provides an analysis of the statue on his website and indicates that far from being a 'chinaman' or an Asian figure, the artifact shows Mexican influences.

So, when is a 'chinaman' statue not Chinese? - when it is Mayan.

Jack Churchward

The Silver Hook - Part 2

In an online article entitled, "L.L.Bean Combines Heritage and Innovation with 100th Anniversary Catalog Covers," a vintage L.L. Bean catalog image from 1933 is shown and at the bottom of the cover are the words "The Silver Hook."






Readers may remember the my-mu.com blog posting entitled, "James Churchward Painting Surfaces... The Silver Hook," which has all the same elements as the 1933 catalog cover, except that James' painting is dated in 1904, twenty-nine years before the cover on the L.L. Bean catalog.

Have a great day!

Did Churchward Give Niven A Bad Name in 1926?

While researching for my next book, "Lifting the Veil on Copies of Stone Tablets Found by William Niven," I was reacquainted with the implication that James Churchward was responsible for sullying the reputation of Niven by publishing images of his tablets in the 1926 cult classic, "Lost Continent of Mu."
While I certainly have no quarrel with Mr. Wicks or Mr. Harrison; if James' translations/interpretations of the tablets really provoked the controversy that overshadowed Niven's other great accomplishments, does James bear responsibility?

From the preface of Buried Cities, Forgotten Gods, William Niven's Life of Discovery and Revolution in Mexico and the American Southwest, the biography of William Niven:

By 1910 Niven's interests shifted to the Valley of Mexico,
where he was the first person to recognize that a stratigraphic
approach to the valley's archaeology had chronological impli-
cations. In 1921 Niven unearthed the first of what would be-
come a collection of more than twenty-six hundred inscribed
stone tablets from various sites in the Valley of Mexico. Because
they are unlike any other artifacts recovered from the valley,
their authenticity is still not fully resolved. The controversy
over these inscribed tablets, especially after a number were
published by James Churchward in his occultist The Lost Conti-
nent of Mu (1926), provides a valuable look at the divergent
views regarding the origins and development of native Ameri-
can cultures current during the 1920s and' 30s.

The same book provides that James never met or corresponded with Niven until after Niven wrote him a letter dated September 19, 1927 (page 238,) which is after the publication of the 1926 "Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men." Prior to James' correspondence with William Niven, James' only access to Niven's discoveries would have been through newspaper articles written on the subject. James would have had to see them somewhere before he could include them in the 1926 book. As shown in my book, "Lifting the Veil on the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men", almost the entirety of chapter 11 is contained in one article in James' scrapbook, along with the only images shown of Niven's tablets, which indicates that Niven's promotion of his Mexico City discoveries (in a newspaper article) was ultimately responsible for their inclusion in the 1926 "Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men."

From Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men page 114:


RELICS FROM NIVEN’S LOWEST CITY 1. Egyptian head. 2. Ancient Grecian vase. 3. A toy. 4. Little Chinaman

From Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men page 221:


Courtesy of the Dearborn Independent
TABLETS FROM NIVEN’S MEXICAN BURIED CITIES. SECOND CITY


From Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men page 222:

Courtesy of the Dearborn Independent
TABLETS FROM NIVEN’S MEXICAN BURIED CITIES. SECOND CITY

Another random fact is William Niven and James Churchward were mentioned in a 1931 article entitled "Tracing the First Love Story Back to Ancient Mexico" from the Newspaper Features Service:

"In despair, only a few weeks ago, Niven sent it to Colonel James Churchward of London, distinguished traveler, explorer and archaeologist, and member of the Royal Society. Colonel Churchward has spent fifty years of his life delving far into antiquity, a great part of this time in learning the most ancient languages of man in India and Thibet.

Colonel Churchward was delighted to be entrusted with the task of deciphering what was
so closely related to a literary work of his on a continent which he holds has been submerged in the Pacific – and he was greatly gratified to find himself wholly familiar with the symbols used. These symbols were in use many thousands of years before the time of Moses.

One might wonder the source of such an article (included in James' scrapbooks) that paints 'Colonel' James Churchward in such high standing. The readers will have to answer the question themselves.

From James' scrapbook under "Niven's Buried Cities":


Newspaper clipping from James Churchward's Scrapbooks


Subsequent publication of Niven's discoveries in the 1931 "Children of Mu," 1931 "Lost Continent of Mu" and the 1933 "Sacred Symbols of Mu" are a direct result of Niven sending rubbings or tracings of the tablets to James for interpretation. While I can't vouch for the veracity of the translations, James simply engaged in what he was asked to do, interpret the tablets. None of the tablets were discovered after James became aware of them, so there can't be any accusations James Churchward is involved in any hoax concerning these tablets (other than he may not have translated them properly.)

It should be mentioned that James Churchward was not the only one to hazard a guess as to the meaning of the tablets that Niven found. As mentioned in Buried Cities, Forgotten Gods, William Niven's Life of Discovery and Revolution in Mexico and the American Southwest, Ludovic Mann (1869-1955), Glascow archaeologist, wrote to Niven:

Quite similar carvings have been found in the Old Hemisphere...
Buried Cities, Forgotten Gods, William Niven's Life of Discovery and Revolution in Mexico and the American Southwest, page 233

and John Cornyn (1875-1941), specialist in Aztec literature, deciphered the iconography on the some of the tablets and placed them in the context of a Mexican cultural discoveries.
Buried Cities, Forgotten Gods, William Niven's Life of Discovery and Revolution in Mexico and the American Southwest, page 236

Although Niven's Guerrero collections are now in the American Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, and elsewhere, the location of his finds from Santiago Ahuizoctla, Hacienda de Leon, Remedios, and Chimpala (the tablets discussed in Copies of Stone Tablets Found by William Niven at Santiago Ahuizoctla near Mexico City) is unknown. Other researchers continue to search for these tablets, but it appears (for now), that the only way we have to research them is to look at the available images that remain (see below.) The tablets existed, that part is assured. Whether or not those that created them had the same meaning as interpreted by James Churchward is quite another matter.


From 'Children of Mu' (facing page 41)

btw, Buried Cities, Forgotten Gods, William Niven's Life of Discovery and Revolution in Mexico and the American Southwest has more photographed tablets than James Churchward shows in his books.

Certainly more is to be written about James' 'translation' of William Niven's discovery of 2600 tablets, especially if (and when) they again surface. Hopefully, the sensationalism will subside soon thereafter and permit an opportunity for serious academic research that will answer the questions. As indicated earlier, a knowledgeable expert already recognized and identified elements of Niven's discoveries within standard Mexican cultural iconography. Just because the tablets are connected to the lost continent of Mu should not imply they are a hoax or should not be studied to ascertain the truth. Such a bias helps keep people in the dark about early Mexican history and stifles discussion.

Jack Churchward