Mu The Lost Continent

by **LordMaya** Thu May 29, 2008 1:38 pm

Mu is the name of a hypothetical lost continent, which is thought to have been located in the Pacific Ocean before it sank beneath the waters, similar to Atlantis and Lemuria, with which it is sometimes identified.

General acceptance by the scientific community of the theory of plate tectonics ended any scientific basis for the once popular belief in sunken continents. Plate tectonics explains that continental masses are composed of the lighter SiAl (silicon/aluminum) type rocks which literally float on the heavier SiMg (silicon/magnesium) rocks which constitute ocean bottoms. There is no evidence of SiAl rock in the Pacific basin.

The idea of Mu first appeared in the works of the antiquarian Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908), a 19th century traveler and writer who conducted his own investigations of the Maya ruins in Yucatán. He announced that he had translated the ancient Mayan writings, which supposedly showed that the Maya of Yucatán were older than the later civilizations of Greece and Egypt, and additionally told the story of an even older continent of Mu, which had foundered in a similar fashion to Atlantis, with the survivors founding the Maya civilization.

Le Plongeon actually got the name "Mu" from Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg who in 1864 mistranslated what was then called the Troano Codex using the de Landa alphabet. Brasseur concluded that the word 'Mu' (that he thought he had found) referred to a land submerged by a catastrophe. Le Plongeon then turned this into a sunken continent whose Queen Moo fled to Egypt and founded a civilization there. Other refugees supposedly fled to Central America and became the Mayans

This lost continent was later popularised by James Churchward (1851–1936) in a series of books, beginning with Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man (1926), The Children of Mu (1931), The Lost Continent Mu (1931), and The Sacred Symbols of Mu (1933). Churchward claimed that Mu was the home of the advanced Naacal civilization. The books still have devotees, but they are not considered serious archaeology, and nowadays are found in bookshops classed under 'New Age' or 'Religion and Spirituality'.

Churchward began his book The Lost Continent Mu with his claim that, “All matter of science in this work are based on translations of two sets of ancient tablets,” which apparently he and a colleague were the only ones who knew how to translate. Churchward’s theory, especially what it would imply, is a complex one that would require more evidence than two texts found out of archaeological context to warrant any merit. In his attempt to create a vivid description of an ancient yet lost civilization capable of explaining the greatness of the “white” race, Churchward connects several civilizations. He includes Egypt, Greece, Central America, India, Burma and others, as well as Easter Island. These are all cultures that are known for their megalithic art and architecture and have been a topic of interest for scholars for centuries. Churchward and others made comparisons of these different cultures in an extremely vague fashion, and his facts were definitely biased according to current knowledge and research of Easter Island.

Churchward claims that the origin of these ancient peoples is the lost continent of Mu. This lost civilization “flourished in the mid-Pacific and then was completely obliterated in almost a single night.” Symbols from throughout the world are used as proof of this lost continent in Churchward’s argument. There is a common theme of birds, the relation of the Earth and the sky and especially the Sun. Churchward claims the king of Mu was Ra and he relates this to the Egyptian god of the sun, Ra, and the Rapanui word for Sun, ra’a, which he incorrectly spells ‘raa.’ These symbols of the Sun which, according to Churchward, prove the existence of Mu, are also found in “Egypt, Babylonia, Peru and all ancient lands and countries – it was a universal symbol.”

Citing W.J. Johnson as his opinion of the best authority on Easter Island at the time, Churchward notes the pukao found on top of some Moai (statues) on Easter Island, and incorrectly describes these cylindrical stones as “spheres” that “show red in the distance.” Churchward claims that symbols of the sun are found “depicted on stones of Polynesian ruins” such as on top of the giant statues of Easter Island. He asserts that the pukao “represent the Sun as Ra.” Pukao, however, are widely accepted to be a representation of a ceremonial headdress. Another anomaly is that he considered that some pukao are made of "red igneous rocks, and some are red sandstone". All pukao known today are made from red scoria which is an igneous indeed volcanic stone, but there is no sandstone or other sedimentary stone on the island.

The Ahu of Easter Island are described by Churchward as being “platform-like accumulations of cut and dressed stone,” and were left in their current positions “awaiting shipment to some other part of the continent for the building of temples and palaces.” Interestingly, in Churchward’s discussion of other architectural evidence of the great civilization of Mu, he cites the pillars “erected by the Maoris of New Zealand” as an example of this lost civilization’s handiwork. Churchward accredited all megalithic art in Polynesia to the people of Mu. He also stated that any Polynesians left there after the cataclysm were merely the survivors of Mu that adopted “the first cannibalism and savagery” in the world, and were not the original members of the lost civilization of Mu, responsible for these great works. Churchward and Graham Hancock both date this cataclysm to have occurred around 10,000 B.C., and authors such as Bramwell and Scott-Elliott claim the cataclysmic events began 800,000 years ago and persisted until the last catastrophe dating to precisely 9564 B.C. However, all scientific dating methods indicate that humans did not inhabit Easter Island until 300 CE or later.