"It is perfectly possible to find individuals in Tabasco today who have faces not unlike those of the colossal heads, whose features also somewhat recall the large stone carvings of the Cham cultures of Cambodia, another country that still has a Negroid aboriginal population."

The quote is from Nigel Davies, The Ancient Kingdoms of Mexico (1991, Penguin).

Davies is not suggesting that these monuments are portraits of Africans who came to ancient Mexico as conquerors or shipwrecked sailors, as is sometimes theorized. In fact, he sees no reason to doubt that they were carved by Native Americans.

That some Mexican ancestors had facial features we associate with Africa is no suprise. Many scientists believe that all human beings descend from a common ancestress who lived in Africa.

As Davies says, "Negroid peoples of many kinds are to found in Asia as well as Africa, and there is no reason why at least a few of them should not have joined those migrant bands who came across the Bering land bridge that joined north-east Asia and north-west America for so many millennia."