CROATIANS SAILED TO NEW WORLD BEFORE COLUMBUS AND VIKINGS

Croatian Weekly, October 8, 1999

Zagreb

Andrija Zeliko Lovric bases his theory on recent archeological finds of Islamic coins and Glagolitic writing in Paraguay.

A theory that Croatian sailors, in the service of the Moorish caliphs, probably reached the coasts of the Americas not only before Columbus, but also before the Vikings themselves, may be corroborated by exceptional indicators. One of the chief adherents of this theory is Andrija Zeljko Lovric. He presented his paper on the latest archeological finds of Islamic coins and Glagolitic writing in Paraguay on the second day of the symposium called The Islamic World in the Twentieth Century, held in the Zagreb Islamic Center.

The paper speaks of 61 plates with inscriptions written in the Glagolitic alphabet which have been found during the past decade on the cliffs of the Amambay massif in Paraguay, dating back to pre Columbine times, from the seventh to fourteenth century. Previous explorers did not understand the script and believed it to be Viking runes.

Lovric lists numerous data contributing to the theory that the traces lead to Croatian sailors. First of all, among all Slav peoples that used the Glagolitic alphabet, only the Croats were renowned as sailors and, technically speaking, the only ones who could have reached America. In addition, the Glagolitic script was used the longest by Croats. Second, American anthropologists believe the writers of these plates to have participated in the construction of the first early American town of Taiwanaku, where the statues of Guarani rulers bearing Croatian coats of arms on their chests were found.