Megalithic walls of the Mediterranean, Lehi and South America

Obviously, in some countries, such as those of the Mediterranean, ancient terraced regions were essential to the overall development of the community. While irrigation systems currently represent an indubitable added value for several Mediterranean countries, in times past, the Mediterranean was ringed with such terraces that served several purposes—one of which was a common defense.

Ancient dry stone walls in the Mediterranean—it is hard to attack uphill for any great distance

 

In fact, this value goes beyond their original function of expanding their growth area and creating new areas for cultivation. Well-known are hydrological functions performed by these systems, including control of erosion, stabilization of the slopes, and the possible reduction of the volumes of surface runoff.

In addition, these dry-stone walls played a strategic role in the conservation and maintaining of local identity—providing an obvious marking of local political control. At a national level, the terraced agricultural systems fell within the scope of those specific for the time and needs of the community. It was envisaged that these Ayni or local communities maintained through effort of local defense, that the local communities, where possible, would come together against attack.

Throughout the Mediterranean, it has been found that those dry stone walls were erected using a unit of measurement of 1.536 centimeters, the exact same that that was used in the construction of similar works in other Mediterranean countries, such as Italy and Grease. In all these areas the same techniques were applied, matching the terraces built by the Quechua people of Andean South America.

However, only in South America were there signs of battles with clear changes of land between them. A survey carried out on dry-stone walls of the central Andes allowed Scientists to recognize that those walls were also erected using a unit of measurement of 1.536 cm, the same that was used in the construction of similar works in Italy and Greece.

The close similarities between the megalithic walls—and in particular the polygonal walls—that are found in the eastern Mediterranean as well as South America, are not thought to be the result of chance but of frequent exchanges or knowledge between cultures, or a similar development source.

Many historians claim this building similarity was first developed by the Pelasgians, a name associated with pelag-skoi, meaning "flatland-inhabitants, or specifically "inhabitants of the Thessalian plain,” a civilization that preceded the Greek period.

Left top and bottom: Mediterranean dry block walls; Right top and bottom: Similar construction of dry block walls in Andean Peru 

 

Styles of building, art, and design were spread across large distances through Minoan trade, a civilization that covered the period from 3000 to 1450/1100 BC. This culture was particularly notable for its large and decorative buildings that were up to 4 stories high, featuring elaborate plumbing systems and extensively decorated with frescoes. Through their traders and artists, the Minoans' cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades in the Greek Archipelago; the old kingdom of Egypt, which were the pyramid builders; copper-bearing Cyprus, an island country in the eastern Mediterranean; Canaan, a name corresponding to ‘the Levant,” an area that is the main setting for most of the Bible, including Israel; Anatolia (modern-day Turkey); and the Levantine.

It is believed by many that it was the Minoans who spread the knowledge of the dry block construction, which would have been the time befor Lehi and no doubt known by him, and likely by Nephi, Sam and Zoram.

However, some specialists are against this exchange idea, claiming that those walls were not prehistoric or even very ancient. Some of these Italian scholars firmly maintain that polygonal walls are works built by the Romans during their territorial conquests, around 275 BC, after Lehi left Jerusalem.

In 1946 Giuseppe Lugli, professor of ancient Roman topography at the University of Rome, wrote on the similarity of the megalithic walls in Italy and Greece were attributed by many people to the Pelasgians. "Now it has been suggested that the Pelasgians have nothing to do with the large polygonal fortifications and that they are not as old as previously believed. The comparison with the walls of Tiryns and Mycenae is purely technical and presents no historical and ethnic relationship." These same ideas were expressed in 2011 by Eugenio Polito, who reiterated what was already stated by Lugli, namely that the polygonal walls in central Italy were built by the Romans during the period of their territorial expansion; therefore they are not works of people who came from other parts of the Mediterranean sea (Giuseppe Lugli, Roma antica: il centro monumentale, G. Bardi, Rome, 1946).

On the other hand this os a belief not shared by non-Italian historians. In fact, only in the Central Andes is there evidence of a rapid change between the simplest techniques in which stone tools were used in slightly shaping blocks, to fully developed skills in working with dry stones and creating the magnificent walls and structures found in both the Mediterranean and Andean Peru.

This is a factor consistent with Lehi bringing such technique with him when leaving Jerusalem, tying together the building techniques of the eastern Mediterranean and South America. Thus, the polygonal walls of South America are attributed by many writers to the Incas, although the Inca domain was very limited in time (1450-1532) in relation to the complexity of the structures in question—they simply would never have had the time to build the magnificent rock walls and structures found in Andean South America.

Polygonal blocks of rock found around the eastern Mediterranean in ancient walls

 

In comparing the polygonal walls of Alatri, Mycenae, Cusco, one is often surprised by the rare similarity of building techniques. Yet, despite this, most academics strongly deny that there have been contacts that could lead to the transmission of those techniques from one place to another, so distinct and apart—and claim they were separate development cultures. In doing so, they deny the existence of Lehi’s voyage.

As already mentioned, the use of a unit of measurement for the lengths quite distinct from those used by the Romans, Etruscans and Greeks make plausible the idea that the authors of these buildings were the Pelasgians, who dominated the Aegean area before the arrival of Indo-Europeans at the beginning of the second millennium BC. The same Pelasgians, according to Herodotus, reached central Italy coming from Asia Minor. For this reason, this unit was called "Pelasgian finger."

Left: Mediterranean polygonal walls, Right: Andean South America polygonal walls

 

As many historians point out, megalithic civilization polygonal block walls have a long history in the eastern Mediterranean as they do in Andean South America, which is most unusual without some type of common contact.

Only by means of precise measurements of the space that should be occupied by the blocks they could perfectly fit one another. Examining the polygonal walls of some cities of Lazio, Tuscany and Abruzzo, it was possible to establish that the megalithic builders adopted for the sides of the polygons a unit of measurement equal to 1.536 cm, quite distinct from the units adopted afterwards by various people of the Mediterranean coasts. Those builders also adopted a sexagesimal division of the right angle, different from the nonagesimal subdivision that has come down to us.

Similar results were found on the Milos island and at Athens. Therefore, those works have preceded not only the Roman and Etruscan civilizations but also the Greek one.

Since the indigenous population of Greece, before the arrival of Indo-European-speaking populations, consisted of the Pelasgians, as is evidenced by the most ancient literature, and the highest concentration of cities with walls similar to those we are treating is found in Argolis peninsula, many researchers think that the cities equipped with polygonal walls present on Italian territory were founded by Pelasgians coming from the basin of the Aegean Sea. For this reason it seemed appropriate to call "Pelasgian finger" the unit of measure employed in Italy and Greece (Roberto Mortari, Megalithic Civilizations in the Mediterranean Area and South America, Sapienza University of Roma, Science Della Terra, 2003)

In both areas these native builders not only built bridges, but became known for their outstanding capabilities. It is interesting that while the Romans built the most outstanding roads and bridges in Europe, the ancient Peruvians built the most outstanding roads and bridges in the Americas. In both cases using the same, identical measurement.

While historians are baffled by the similarity of these walls halfway around the world from each other, the voyage of Lehi, and building of the Nephite Nation gives us a clear understanding.