Mark McMenamin

Mark A. McMenamin is an American geologist. He teaches at Mount Holyoke College. The focus of his professional activity lies in the field of paleontology, and its central object of research is the Ediacaran fauna. Its just as comprehensive as unusual research methods have been sometimes criticized, but in several cases, his critics were in the light of new evidence, the validity of its approaches admit.

Phönizierforschung and diffusionism

In addition to his research interests include McMenamins the history of the Carthaginians, with one of its focuses is in the field of numismatics. So that went back to his studies of figures on previously unknown Carthaginian gold coins that were minted for Hannibal's occupation forces in Calabria, to the conclusion that the long- controversial route of the commander and his army at their legendary crossing of the Alps they have passed close to the Matterhorn. This route is located north of the most commonly proposed march -way, and this could also explain the complete surprise of the Italians, as the Carthaginian army suddenly appeared in the plains of Italy.

Much more explosive in terms of the conventional understanding of Greco-Roman antiquity, appear other numismatic evidence, which have already been presented by McMenamin 1996/97. You could support the controversial for decades, diffusionist assumption of presence of Carthaginian sailors in North America. These were, inter alia, to to several ancient Carthaginian gold coins - probably about 350 BC. marked - should be on what miniaturized world maps to see that not only the southern coasts of Europe above Sardinia and Sicily show next to India but also America.

He also refers to more than half a dozen finds of copper coins scattered across Nebraska, Georgia and Connecticut, have been discovered in North America. These coins show, according to McMenamin the image of a horse Punic, Phoenician palm ( with exposed roots, as they should be transplanted ) and an enigmatic inscription in the Punic language. That these coins - if authentic - have come only recently across the Atlantic there, seems unlikely, so that they actually suggest a Carthaginian presence in ancient America. Together with the fact that in 1778 it was reported in the Azores on findings of Carthaginian coins of gold and base metal, this evidence suggested that it was the Carthaginians possible to selectively cross the Atlantic.

Bibliography

  • Mark AS McMenamin The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the Earliest Complex Life, New Ed, Columbia University Press, Oct 2000, ISBN 0-231-10559-2.
  • Mark A. S. McMenamin McMenamin, Dianna Schulte. The Emergence of Animals: The Cambrian Breakthrough. Columbia University Press Jan 1990 ISBN 0-231-06646-5.
  • Mark AS McMenamin McMenamin, Dianna Schulte Hypersea: Life on the land. Columbia University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-231-07530-8.
  • Mark AS McMenamin Carthaginian Cartography: A Stylized Map exergue. Meanma Press, 1996, ISBN 0-965-11361-2.
  • Mark A. S. McMenamin Science 101: Geology. Collins, Jun 2007, ISBN 0-060-89136- X.
  • Mark AS McMenamin Paleotorus: The Laws of morphogenetic evolution. Meanma Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-893882-18-8.
  • Mark AS McMenamin: Cambrian cannibals: Agnostid trilobite ethology and the earliest known case of arthropod cannibalism. In: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. 42, No. 5, 2010.
Ediacara biota Punics Classical antiquity Trans-cultural diffusion Georgia (U.S. state)
551312
de