Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact

For modern theories on how the Americas were first settled, see Settlement of the Americas.

Theories of Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact are those theories that propose interaction between indigenous peoples of the Americas who settled the Americas before 10,000 BC, and peoples of other continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, or Oceania), which occurred before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean in 1492.

Many such contacts have been proposed, based on historical accounts, archaeological finds, and cultural comparisons. However, claims of such contacts are controversial and debated, due in part to much ambiguous or circumstantial evidence cited by proponents. Only one instance of pre-Columbian European contact – the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada c. 1000 AD – is regarded by scholars as demonstrated.^[1] The scientific responses to other pre-Columbian contact claims range from serious consideration in peer-reviewed publications to dismissal as fringe science or pseudoarcheology.

Confirmed Norse trans-oceanic contact

Main article: Norse colonization of the Americas

L'Anse aux Meadows

Norse, or Viking journeys to North America are supported by both historical and archaeological evidence. A Norse colony in Greenland was established in the late 10th century, and lasted until the mid 15th century. In 1961, archaeologists Helge and Anne Ingstad uncovered the remains of a Norse settlement at the L'Anse aux Meadows archaeological site on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland, Canada. A connection is frequently drawn between L'Anse aux Meadows and the Vinland sagas. These are written versions of older oral histories that recount the temporary settlement of an area to the west of Greenland, called Vinland, led by a Norse explorer, Leif Erikson. It is possible that Vinland may have been Newfoundland. Finds on Baffin Island suggest a Norse presence there after L'Anse aux Meadows was abandoned although it has also been suggested that these might be indigenous Dorset culture artifacts.^[2]

Few sources describing contact between Native Americans and Norse settlers exist. Contact between the Thule people, ancestors of the modern Inuit, and Norse between the 12th or 13th centuries is known. The Norse Greenlanders called these incoming settlers "skrælingar". Conflict between the Greenlanders and the "skrælings" is recorded in the Icelandic Annals. The Vinland sagas, recorded hundreds of years later, describe trade and conflict with Native peoples, who were also termed skrælings, but may have been an entirely different people. Archaeological evidence for contact in Greenland is limited, but seems to indicate that the Norse did not substantially affect indigenous adaptations, technologies, or cultures.

Around 80 Icelanders today have a genetic marking of an Amerindian woman who may have settled in Iceland in the 11th century. It is hypothesized this may have been a woman taken back to Europe by early Norse explorers of the Americas.^[3]

Possible Polynesian trans-oceanic contact

Between 300 and 1200 CE, Polynesians in canoes spread throughout the Polynesian Triangle going as far as Easter Island, New Zealand and Hawaii, and perhaps on to the Americas. The sweet potato, which is native to the Americas, was widespread in Polynesia when Europeans first reached the Pacific. Sweet potato has been radiocarbon-dated in the Cook Islands to 1000 CE, and current thinking is that it was brought to central Polynesia c. 700 CE and spread across Polynesia from there.^[4] It has been suggested^[5] that it was brought by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back, or that South Americans brought it to the Pacific. It is unlikely that the plant could successfully float across the ocean by natural means.^[6]

Chicken bones found at the site El Arenal near the Arauco Peninsula in Chile support a pre-Columbian introduction of chicken to South America.^[7] The bones found in Chile were radiocarbon-dated to between 1304 and 1424, before the arrival of the Spanish. DNA sequences taken were matched to those of chickens in American Samoa and Tonga, and dissimilar to European chicken.^[8][9][10] However, a later report in the same journal looking at the same mtDNA concluded that the Chilean chicken specimen clusters with the same European/Indian subcontinental/Southeast Asian sequences, providing no support for a Polynesian introduction of chickens to South America.^[11]

Geneticist Erik Thorsby and colleagues have published two studies in the peer-reviewed journal Tissue Antigens that evidence an Amerindian genetic contribution to the Easter Island population, determining that it was probably introduced prior to European discovery of the island. ^[12][13]

Archaeological theories

A team of academics headed by the University of York's Mummy Research Group and BioArch,^[14] while examining a Peruvian mummy at the Bolton Museum, found it had been embalmed using a tree resin. Before this it was thought that Peruvian mummies were naturally preserved. The resin, found to be that of an Araucaria conifer related to the 'monkey puzzle tree', was from a variety found only in Oceania and probably New Guinea. "Radiocarbon dating of both the resin and body by the University of Oxford's radiocarbon laboratory confirmed they were essentially contemporary, and date to around CE1200."^[15]

In 1995, archaeobotanist Hakon Hjelmqvist published an article in Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift presenting evidence for the presence of chili peppers, a New World crop, in Europe in the pre-Columbian era.^[16] According to Hjelmqvist, archaeologists at a dig in St Botulf in Lund found a Capsicum frutescens in a layer from the 13th century. Hjelmqvist thought it came from Asia. Hjelmqvist also claims that Capsicum was described by the Greek Theophrastus (370–286 BCE) in his Historia Plantarum, and in other sources. Around the first century CE, the Roman poet Martialis (Martial) mentioned "Piperve crudum" (raw pepper) in Liber XI, XVIII, allegedly describing them as long and containing seeds (a description which seems to fit chili peppers but could also fit long pepper, which was well known to ancient Romans), though this description is missing from at least some versions of the epigram.

Traces of coca and nicotine found in some Egyptian mummies have led some to speculate that Ancient Egyptians may have traveled to the New World. The initial discovery was made by a German toxicologist, Svetlana Balabanova, after examining the mummy of a female priestess called Henut Taui. Follow-up tests of the hair shaft, performed to rule out contamination, gave the same results.^[17] The significance of these finds lies in the fact that both coca and tobacco plants are indigenous to the Americas and thought not to have existed in Africa until sometime after the voyages of Columbus.^[18][19] Subsequent examination of numerous Sudanese mummies undertaken by Balabanova mirrored what was found in the mummy of Henut Taui.^[20] Balabanova suggested that the tobacco may be accounted for since it may have also been known in China and Europe, as indicated by analysis run on human remains from those respective regions. Balabanova proposed that such plants native to the general area may have developed independently, but have since gone extinct.^[20] Other explanations include fraud, though curator Alfred Grimm of the Egyptian Museum in Munich disputes this.^[20] Skeptical of Balabanova's findings, Rosalie David Keeper of Egyptology at the Manchester Museum had similar tests performed on samples taken from the Manchester mummy collection and reported that two of the tissue samples and one hair sample did test positive for nicotine.^[20] Sources of nicotine other than tobacco and sources of cocaine in the Old World are discussed by the British biologist Duncan Edlin.^[21] Mainstream scholars remain skeptical, and do not see this as proof of ancient contact between Africa and the Americas, especially as there may be possible Old World sources.^[22][23] Two attempts to replicate Balbanova finds of cocaine failed, suggesting "that either Balabanova and her associates are misinterpreting their results or that the samples of mummies tested by them have been mysteriously exposed to cocaine."^[24]

A re-examination in the 1970s of the mummy of Ramesses II revealed the presence of fragments of tobacco leaves in its abdomen. This became a popular topic in fringe literature and the media and was seen as proof of contact between Ancient Egypt and the New World. The investigator, Maurice Bucaille, noted that when the mummy was unwrapped in 1886 the abdomen was left open and that "it was no longer possible to attach any importance to the presence inside the abdominal cavity of whatever material was found there, since the material could have come from the surrounding environment."^[25] Following the renewed discussion of tobacco sparked by Balabnova's research and its mention in a 2000 publication by Rosalie David, a study in the journal Antiquity suggested that reports on both tobacco and cocaine in mummies "ignored their post-excavation histories" and pointed out that the mummy of Ramesses II had been moved five times between 1883 and 1975.^[23]

Another discovery in the mummy of Ramesses II also led to suggestions of early contact. This was an adult Lasioderma serricorne, a beetle also known as the 'tobacco beetle'. It was first described in American dried plants in 1798 but not recorded as a species until 1886. It may be of tropical origin and has been found in Tutankhamun's tomb, Bronze Age Akrotiri and Amarna.^[23]

Linguistic theories

Two lexical items may be shared by Polynesian languages and language of South America. One is the name of the sweet potato, which was domesticated in the New World. Easter Island kumara and Hawaiian ʻuala may be cognate with Quechua and Aymara k’umar ~ k’umara. A possible second is the word for 'stone axe', Easter Island toki, Mapuche toki, and further afield, Yurimangui totoki 'axe'. The word for sweet potato, at least, "constitutes near proof of incidental contact between inhabitants of the Andean region and the South Pacific", though the word for axe is not as convincing. That is, there appears to have been trade between Polynesia and South America, but not a mass movement of peoples.^[26]

Fringe theories

Several scenarios of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact have been proposed without gaining acceptance in mainstream scholarship.

Medieval

14 and 15th century Europe

Authors Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight claim that these carvings in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland depict Indian corn (maize).^[27]

Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and feudal baron of Roslin (c. 1345 – c. 1400) was a Scottish nobleman. He is best known today because of a modern legend that he took part in explorations of Greenland and North America almost 100 years before Christopher Columbus. William Thomson, in his History of Orkney, wrote: "It has been Earl Henry's singular fate to enjoy an ever-expanding posthumous reputation which has very little to do with anything he achieved in his lifetime."^[28] Henry was the grandfather of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, the builder of Rosslyn Chapel (near Edinburgh, Scotland). The authors Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight believe some carvings in the chapel to be ears of New World corn or maize in the chapel.^[27] This crop was unknown in Europe at the time of the chapel's construction, and was not cultivated there until several hundred years later. Knight and Lomas view these carvings as evidence supporting the idea that Henry Sinclair, travelled to the Americas well before Columbus. Specialists in Mediaeval architecture interpret these carvings as stylised depictions of wheat, strawberries or lilies.^[29][30] Sinclair's voyage is supposed to have taken more or less the same route as that of the Norse, i.e. across the North Atlantic, by Iceland and Greenland, and some conjecture that this is evidence that this route was never forgotten.

Some have conjectured that Columbus was able to persuade the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon to support his planned voyage only because they were aware of some recent earlier voyage across the Atlantic. Some suggest that Columbus himself visited Canada or Greenland before 1492, because according to Bartolomé de las Casas he wrote he had sailed 100 leagues past an island he called Thule in 1477. Whether he actually did this and what island he visited, if any, is uncertain. Columbus is thought to have visited Bristol in 1476.^[31] Bristol was also the port from which John Cabot sailed in 1497, crewed mostly by Bristol sailors. In a letter of late 1497 or early 1498 the English merchant John Day wrote to Columbus about Cabot's discoveries, saying that land found by Cabot was "discovered in the past by the men from Bristol who found 'Brasil' as your lordship knows".^[32] There may be records of expeditions from Bristol to find the "isle of Brazil" in 1480 and 1481.^[33] Trade between Bristol and Iceland is well documented from the mid 15th century.

Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés records several such legends in his General y natural historia de las Indias of 1526, which includes biographical information on Columbus. He discusses the then-current story of a Spanish caravel that was swept off its course while on its way to England, and wound up in a foreign land populated by naked tribesmen. The crew gathered supplies and made its way back to Europe, but the trip took several months and the captain and most of the men died before reaching land. The ship's pilot, a man called Alonso Sánchez, supposed to be from somewhere in the Iberian peninsula (Oviedo says different versions have him as Portuguese, Basque, or Andalusian), and very few others finally made it to Portugal, but all were very ill. Columbus was a good friend of the pilot, and took him to be treated in his own house, and the pilot described the land they had seen and marked it on a map before dying. People in Oviedo's time knew this story in several versions, but Oviedo regarded it as myth.^[34]

In 1925 Soren Larsen wrote a book claiming that a joint Danish-Portuguese expedition landed in Newfoundland or Labrador in 1473 and again in 1476. Larsen claimed that Didrik Pining and Hans Pothorst served as captains, while João Vaz Corte-Real and the possibly mythical John Scolvus served as navigators, accompanied by Alvaro Martins.^[35] Nothing beyond circumstantial evidence has been found to support Larsen's claims.^[36]

Arabic

Early Chinese accounts of Muslim expeditions state that Muslim sailors reached a region called "Mu-Lan-Pi". "Mu-Lan-Pi" is normally identified as Spain, though some fringe theories hold that it is instead some part of the Americas.^[37][38] The sources for this claim are Ling-wai tai-ta (1178) by Chou Ch'ii-fei and Chu-fan chihg (1225) by Chao Jukua, together referred to as the "Sung Document".

One supporter of the interpretation of "Mu-Lan-Pi" as part of the Americas was historian Hui-lin Li in 1961,^[37][38] and while Joseph Needham is also open to the possibility, he doubts that Arabic ships at the time would have been able to withstand a return journey over such a long distance across the Atlantic Ocean and points out that a return journey would have been impossible without knowledge of prevailing winds and currents. Needham states that there is no evidence that these were known five centuries before the Portuguese used them.^[39]

Semitic

Cyrus H. Gordon believed that Jews, Phoenicians, and other Semitic groups had crossed the Atlantic in antiquity, ultimately arriving in both North and South America.^[40] This opinion was based on his own work on the Bat Creek inscription^[41] Similar ideas were also held by John Philip Cohane, Cohane even claimed that many geographical names in America have a semitic origin.^[42][43]

Irish and Welsh legend

The legend of Saint Brendan, an Irish monk, involves a fantastical journey into the Atlantic ocean in search of Paradise in the 6th century. Since the discovery of the New World, various authors have tried to link the Brendan myth with an early discovery of America. The voyage was recreated in recent times by Tim Severin.

According to British legend, Madoc was a prince from Wales who explored the Americas as early as 1170. While most scholars consider this legend to be untrue, it was used as justification for British claims to the Americas, based on the notion of a Briton arriving before other European nationalities.^[44] A memorial tablet erected at Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay, Alabama reads: "In memory of Prince Madog, a Welsh explorer, who landed on the shores of Mobile Bay in 1170 and left behind, with the Indians, the Welsh language." One tribe which was said to be Welsh-speaking was the Mandan.

Barry Fell claims that Ogham writing has been found carved into stones in the Virginias,^[45] but grave doubts about these claims have been raised^[46] and none of these finds have ever been confirmed by credible linguists, epigraphers, or archaeologists.

Carthaginians and Romans

See also: Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head

Evidence of contacts with the civilizations of Classical Antiquity – primarily with the Carthaginians and the Roman Empire, but sometimes also with other cultures of the age – have been based on isolated alleged archaeological finds in American sites that originated in the Old World.

Roman presence in the Canary Islands

The established presence of Romans and probably Phoenicians in the Canary Islands has led some researchers to suggest that the islands may have been used as a stepping-off point for such journeys, as the islands lie along the same favorable sea route taken by Columbus on his first voyage to the Americas.^{[citation needed]}

Carthage

Using gold obtained by expansion of the African coastal trade down the west African coast, Carthage minted gold staters in 350 BC bearing a pattern, in the reverse exergue of the coins, interpreted as a map of the Mediterranean with the Americas shown to the west across the Atlantic. ^[47] Reports of the discovery of putative Carthaginian coins in North America are based on modern replicas, that may have been buried at sites from Massachusetts to Nebraska in order to confuse and mislead archaeological investigation. ^[48]

Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head

The "Roman" Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head

A small terracotta Roman head, showing a beard and European-like features, was found in 1933 (in the Toluca Valley, 72 kilometres southwest of Mexico City) in a burial offering under three intact floors of a pre-colonial building dated between 1476 and 1510. The artifact has been studied by Roman art authority Bernard Andreae, director emeritus of the German Institute of Archaeology in Rome, Italy, and Austrian anthropologist Robert von Heine-Geldern, both of whom stated that the style of the artifact was compatible with small Roman sculptures of the 2nd century.^[49]

The identification of the head as Roman work from the II-III century A.D. has been further confirmed by Bernard Andreae, a director emeritus of the German Institute of Archaeology in Rome, Italy. According to Andreae "[the head] is without any doubt Roman, and the lab analysis has confirmed that it is ancient. The stylistic examination tells us more precisely that it is a Roman work from around the II century A.D., and the hairstyle and the shape of the beard present the typical traits of the Severian emperors period [193-235 A.D.], exactly in the ‘fashion’ of the epoch." (Andreae cited in Domenici 2000: 29). On the other hand, an examination of the field notes of the archaeologist in charge of the excavation as well as the site itself have not revealed, in either case, signs of possible disturbances of the context (Hristov and Genovés 1999).^[50]

In 1995 a thermoluminescence age test was performed at the Forschungsstelle Archäometrie in Heidelberg, Germany which set the age limits for the head at 1780 ± 400 B.P.. In 1999, anthropologists Romeo Hristov and Santiago Genovés re-examined the evidence and came to the conclusion "A review of the circumstances of this discovery did not demonstrate any sign of possible post-Columbian intrusion and permits the acceptance of the object as the first hard evidence from Mesoamerica to support pre-Hispanic transoceanic contacts between the Old and New Worlds." ^[51][52] If genuine and if not placed there after 1492 (the pottery found with it dates to between 1476 and 1510)^[53] the find provides evidence for at least a one-time contact between the Old and New Worlds.^[54]

According to Michael E. Smith ^[55] of Arizona State University, the late John Paddock, a leading Mesoamerican scholar, used to tell classes he taught the artifact was planted as a joke by Hugo Moedano, one of the students who originally worked on the site. Despite speaking with individuals who knew García Payón (the original discoverer) and Moedano, Smith says he has been unable to confirm or reject this claim. Though Smith remains skeptical, he concedes the possibility the head was a genuinely buried Postclassic offering at Calixtlahuaca cannot be ruled out at this time.^[56]

Amphorae

In 1982, Brazilian newspapers reported that fragments of amphorae had been recovered by treasure hunter and underwater archaeologist Robert F. Marx, from the bottom of Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Elizabeth Lyding Will of the University of Massachusetts identified the finds as being Roman, manufactured at Kouass (Dehar Jedid) in Morocco, and dated them to the 3rd century. A bottom survey by Harold E. Edgerton, an MIT researcher, located what Marx thought to be remains of two disintegrating ships. These claims were disputed when Américo Santarelli, an Italian diver living in Rio de Janeiro, revealed in a book that he had 18 such amphorae made by a local potter, and had placed 16 of them himself at various places in the bay. He said that he intended to recover the encrusted amphorae later, to decorate his house at Angra dos Reis. Marx claimed that the Brazilian government prevented any additional research and that the Brazilian Navy dumped sand over the site in the bay to ensure that no further artifacts would ever be recovered, a charge the Navy denied. Marx was prohibited from working in Brazil after Brazilian officials accused him of selling contraband goods, and all permits for underwater exploration and digging were cancelled pending revised legislation.^[57]

Others

Claims of contact have often been based on occurrences of similar motifs in art and decoration, or on depictions in one World of species or objects that are thought to be characteristic of the other World. Famous examples include a Maya statuette claimed to depict a bearded man rowing, a cross in bas-relief at the Temple of the Cross in Palenque, or a claimed depiction of a pineapple in a mosaic on the wall of a house at Pompeii.^[58] Nevertheless, most of these finds can be explained as the result of mis-interpretation. The Palenque "cross", for instance, is almost certainly a stylized maize plant; and the Pompeii "pineapple" has been identified as a pine cone from the Umbrella pine tree which is native to the Mediterranean area. ^[59]

The dubious Bat Creek inscription and Los Lunas Decalogue Stone have led some to suggest the possibility that Jewish seafarers may have come to America after fleeing the Roman Empire at the time of the Jewish Revolt.^[60]

The Fuente Magna, also known as the Fuente Bowl, is a large stone vessel, resembling a libation bowl. It is asserted to have been found in the 1950s by a worker from the CHUA Hacienda near Tiwanaku, west of La Paz, Bolivia.^[61] The inscription has been claimed to contain Sumerian writing, and is said to resemble that on the later found Pokotia Monolith.^[62][63] It resides in a small museum in Calle Jaén, La Paz, Bolivia; Museo de metales preciosos "Museo de Oro".^[64]

Africans

Several Olmec colossal heads have features that some diffusionists link to African contact.

See also: Olmec alternative origin speculations

Proposed claims for an African presence in Mesoamerica rest on attributes of the Olmec culture, the presence of an African plant species in the Americas, and interpretations of certain European and Arabic historical accounts.

The Olmec culture existed from roughly 1200 BCE to 400 BCE. The idea that the Olmecs are related to Africans was suggested by José Melgar, who discovered the first colossal head at Hueyapan (now Tres Zapotes) in 1862 and subsequently published two papers that attributed this head to a "Negro race".^[65] Authors such as Ivan van Sertima propose that these statues depict settlers or explorers from Africa.^[66]

North African sources describe what some consider to be visits to the New World by a Mali fleet in 1311.^[67] According to these sources, 400 ships from the Mali Empire discovered a land across the ocean to the West after being swept off course by ocean currents. Only one ship returned, and the captain reported the discovery of a western current to Prince Abubakari II; the off-course Mali fleet of 400 ships is said to have conducted both trade and warfare with the peoples of the western lands. It is claimed that Abubakari II abdicated his throne and set off to explore these western lands. In 1324, the Mali king Mansa Musa is said to have told the Arabic historian, Al-Umari that "his predecessors had launched two expeditions from West Africa to discover the limits of the Atlantic Ocean."

According the abstract of Columbus' log made by Bartolomé de las Casas, the purpose of Columbus’ third voyage was to test both the claims of King John II of Portugal that “canoes had been found which set out from the coast of Guinea [West Africa] and sailed to the west with merchandise” as well as the claims of the native inhabitants of Hispaniola that “from the south and the southeast had come black people whose spears were made of a metal called guanín…from which it was found that of 32 parts 18 were gold, 6 were silver, and 8 copper.”^{[68] [69]}

In his book They Came Before Columbus African Studies professor Ivan van Sertima of Rutgers University assembled what he viewed as evidence in support of a pre-Columbian African presence in the Americas. His work has been criticized in a lengthy 1997 Journal of Current Anthropology article titled "Robbing Native American Cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs".^[70]

Chinese

Some researchers have argued that the Olmec civilization came into existence with the help of Chinese refugees, particularly at the end of the Shang dynasty.^[71] In 1975, Betty Meggers of the Smithsonian Institution argued that the Olmec civilization originated due to Shang Chinese influences around 1200 BCE.^[72] In a 1996 book, Mike Xu, with the aid of Chen Hanping, claimed that celts from La Venta bear Chinese characters.^[73][74] These claims are unsupported by mainstream Mesoamerican researchers.^[75]

Fresco of woman holding flower similar to Frangipani from Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, 5th century

A group of Chinese Buddhist missionaries led by Hui Shen before 500 CE claimed to have visited a location called Fusang. Although Chinese mapmakers placed this on the Asian coast, more recently some have argued, by selecting elements which are similar to some elements of the California coast, that this was America.^[76]

In his book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, the British author Gavin Menzies made the controversial claim that the fleet of Zheng He arrived in America in 1421.^[77] Menzies' assertions have been found to be unconvincing by professional historians.^{[78][79][80][81]} Menzies sees stylistic similarities between the decorative motifs of ancient China and those of the ancient Maya, and the high value that both placed on jade.^[77]

Indians

An image in a temple in southern India depicts a goddess holding what is claimed by some to be maize,^[82] a crop native to the Americas; the image is usually taken to be a native grass like sorghum or pearl millet, which bear some resemblance to maize, or a mythical fruit bearing pearls known in Sanskrit as "Muktaphala".^[83]

Japanese

Pottery associated with the Valdivia culture of coastal Ecuador dated to 3000–1500 BCE was said by Smithsonian archaeologist Betty Meggers to exhibit similarities to pottery produced during the Jomon period in Japan. Chronological and other problems have led most archaeologists to dismiss this.^[84][85] The suggestion has been made that the resemblances (which are not complete) are simply due to the limited number of designs possible when incising clay.

Alaskan anthropologist Nancy Yaw Davis claims that the Zuni people of New Mexico exhibit linguistic and cultural similarities to the Japanese.^[86] The Zuni language is a linguistic isolate, and Davis contends that the culture appears to differ from that of the surrounding natives in terms of blood type, endemic disease, and religion. Davis speculates that Buddhist priests or restless peasants from Japan may have crossed the Pacific in the 13th century, traveled to the American Southwest, and influenced Zuni society.^[86]

Mormon archaeology

Izapa Stela 5

Main article: Archaeology and the Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon states that some ancient inhabitants of the New World are descendants of Semitic peoples, all of whom sailed from the Old World.

Mormon apologetics groups such as the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies attempt to vindicate these ideas.

Though discovered and documented first in the 1930s, Izapa Stela 5 is particularly noteworthy because of the controversy created by the proposition by Professor M. Wells Jakeman in 1953 that the stone was a record of the Book of Mormon tree of life vision,^[87] which he considered of Old World origin.

Trans-oceanic travel from the New World

Túpac Inca Yupanqui, the tenth Inca emperor, is said to have led an expedition lasting between nine months to a year into the Pacific Ocean around 1480, which discovered two islands.^[88] It has been suggested that the islands he visited are the Galápagos,^[88] or possibly Polynesian islands (Easter Island).^{[citation needed]} The story says that he brought back gold, brass, and the skin and jaw of a horse, none of which would have been found on islands in the south Pacific.

According to Bartolomé de las Casas, two dead bodies that looked like those of Indians were found on the Portuguese Flores Island in the Azores. He said he found that fact in Columbus' notes, and it was one reason why Columbus presumed that India was on the other side of the ocean.^[89]

In Ferdinand Columbus' biography of his father Christopher, he says that in 1477 his father saw in Galway, Ireland two dead bodies which had washed ashore in their boat. The bodies and boat were of exotic appearance, and have been suggested to have been Inuit who had drifted off course.^[90]

Notes

1. ^ "''L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada'' (Parks Canada. 2007)". Pc.gc.ca. 2011-01-28. http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index_e.asp. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
2. ^ ""Vikings visited Canadian Artic" Canada.com May 27, 2009". Canada.com. http://www.canada.com/technology/science/Vikings+visited+Canadian+Arctic+research+suggests/1635865/story.html. Retrieved 2011-02-03. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "First Americans 'reached Europe five centuries before Columbus voyages'". Telegraph.co.uk. 2010-11-16. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8138884/First-Americans-reached-Europe-five-centuries-before-Columbus-voyages.html. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
4. ^ VAN TILBURG, Jo Anne. 1994. Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology and Culture. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press
5. ^ Langdon, Robert. The Bamboo Raft as a Key to the Introduction of the Sweet Potato in Prehistoric Polynesia, The Journal of Pacific History, Vol.36, No.1., 2001
6. ^ "Batatas, Not Potatoes". Botgard.ucla.edu. http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Ipomoea/index.html. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
7. ^ Storey et al., p. 10335.
8. ^ Whipps, Heather (June 4, 2007). "Chicken Bones Suggest Polynesians Found Americas Before Columbus". Live Science. http://www.livescience.com/history/070604_polynesian_chicken.html. Retrieved 2007-06-05. 
9. ^ "Polynesians beat Spaniards to South America, study shows" by Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times, 5 June 2007
10. ^ Storey et al., "Radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a pre-Columbian introduction of Polynesian chickens to Chile", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10.1073/pnas.0703993104, 7 June 2007
11. ^ Indo-European and Asian origins for Chilean and Pacific chickens revealed by mtDNA. Jaime Gongora, Nicolas J. Rawlence, Victor A. Mobegi, Han Jianlin, Jose A. Alcalde, Jose T. Matus, Olivier Hanotte, Chris Moran, J. Austin, Sean Ulm, Atholl J. Anderson, Greger Larson and Alan Cooper, "Indo-European and Asian origins for Chilean and Pacific chickens revealed by mtDNA" PNAS July 29, 2008 vol. 105 no 30 [1]
12. ^ Molecular genetic studies of natives on Easter Island: evidence of an early European and Amerindian contribution to the Polynesian gene pool
13. ^ Further evidence of an Amerindian contribution to the Polynesian gene pool on Easter Island
14. ^ "28801_April08.indd". York.ac.uk. 2010-12-02. http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/magazine/aprilmag08.pdf. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
15. ^ From the University of York Magazine, page 9, April/May 2008
16. ^ Hjelmqvist, Hakon. "Cayennepeppar från Lunds medeltid". Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift, vol 89: pp. 193–. 
17. ^ "http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/ethnic/mummy.htm"
18. ^ Cocaine – Encyclopedia.com (2007)
19. ^ Tobacco – Encyclopedia.com (2007)
20. ^ ^{a b c d} "Curse of the Cocaine Mummies" written and directed by Sarah Marris. (Producers: Hilary Lawson, Maureen Lemire and narrated by Hilary Kilberg). A TVF Production for Channel Four in association with the Discovery Channel, 1997.
21. ^ "A look at the Evidence for Cocaine in Mummies". Thehallofmaat.com. http://www.thehallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=45. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
22. ^ "The Stoned Age?". Hall of Maat. http://www.thehallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=45. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
23. ^ ^{a b c} Buckland, P.C., Panagiotakopulu, E "Rameses II and the tobacco beetle" Antiquity 75: 549–56 2001
24. ^ Counsell, D. C., "Intoxicants in Ancient Egypt? Opium, nymphea, coca, and tobacco," in David, Ann Rosalie, ed. Egyptian Mummies and Modern Science, Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN:978-0521865791 p.213
25. ^ Bucaille, M. Mummies of the Pharaohs: Modern Medical Investigations NY: St. Martin’s Press pp 186-188
26. ^ "Genetic relations of South American Indian languages". In Adelaar & Muysken, eds, The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
27. ^ ^{a b} Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas. The Hiram Key. Fair Winds Press, 2001 ISBN 1-931412-75-8.
28. ^ "Earl Henry Sinclair". Orkneyjar. http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/historicalfigures/henrysinclair/. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
29. ^ Mark Oxbrow & I. Robertson. Rosslyn and the Grail. Mainstream Publishing, 2005 ISBN 1-84596-076-9.
30. ^ Historian Mark Oxbrow, quoted in "The ship of dreams" by Diane MacLean, Scotsman.com, 13 May 2005
31. ^ "It is most probable that Columbus visited Bristol, where he was introduced to English commerce with Iceland." Bedini, Silvio A. and David Buisseret (1992). The Christopher Columbus encyclopedia, Volume 1, University of Michigan press, republished by Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-13-142670-2, p. 175
32. ^ Seaver (1995) p.222
33. ^ Seaver, K.A.(1995) The Frozen Echo Stanford University Press ISBN 0 8047 3161 6 p.221
34. ^ Columbus, Christopher; Cohen, J. M. (translator) (May 5, 1992). The Four Voyages, pp. 27–37. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044217-0.
35. ^ Soren, Larsen. (1925) The Pining voyage: The Discovery of North America Twenty Years Before Columbus.
36. ^ Thomas L. Hughes, The German Discovery of America: A Review of the Controversy over Didrik Pining’s Voyage of Exploration in 1473 in the North Atlantic in: German Historical Institute Bulletin, No. 33 (Fall 2003)
37. ^ ^{a b} Joseph Needham & Colin A. Ronan (1986). The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China. 3. Cambridge University Press. pp. 119–20. ISBN 0521315603 
38. ^ ^{a b} Hui-lin Li; Li, Hui-lin (1960–1961). "Mu-lan-p'i: A Case for Pre-Columbian Transatlantic Travel by Arab Ships". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (Harvard-Yenching Institute) 23: 114–126. doi:10.2307/2718572. JSTOR 2718572 
39. ^ Joseph Needham & Colin A. Ronan (1986). The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China. 3. Cambridge University Press. p. 120. ISBN 0521315603 
40. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/09/obituaries/09GORD.html
41. ^ Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., and Mary L. Kwas, "The Bat Creek Stone: Judeans In Tennessee?" Tennessee Anthropologist Vol. XVI, No. 1, Spring 1991
42. ^ Cyrus Herzl Gordon, Before Columbus; links between the Old World and ancient America, Crown, 1971, p. 138
43. ^ http://www.jstor.org/pss/677086
44. ^ Williams, Gwyn A (1979): Madoc: The Making of a Myth. London: Eyre Methuen
45. ^ Sisson, David (September 1984). "Did the Irish discover America?". The Saturday Evening Post. Retrieved July 23, 2006.
46. ^ Oppenheimer, Monroe; Wirtz, Willard (Spring 1989). "A Linguistic Analysis of Some West Virginia Petroglyphs". The West Virginia Archeologist 41 (1). http://cwva.org/ogam_rebutal/wirtz.html. Retrieved 2007-08-08. 
47. ^ McMenamin, M. A. 1996. Carthaginian Cartagraphy: A Stylized Exergue Map. Meanma Press, South Hadley, Massachusetts; McMenamin, M. A. 1997. The Phoenician World Map. Mercator's World 2(3):46-51; Scott, J. M. 2005. Geography in Early Judaism and Christianity. Cambridge University Press, pp. 182-183.
48. ^ McMenamin, M. A. 2000. Phoenicians, Fakes and Barry Fell: Solving the Mystery of Carthaginian Coins Found in America. Meanma Press, South Hadley, Massachusetts.
49. ^ "Roman 'head' found in Mexico". Econ.ohio-state.edu. http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/calix.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
50. ^ "Roman head found in America". Unm.edu. http://www.unm.edu/~rhristov/calixtlahuaca.html. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
51. ^ Romeo Hristov and Santiago Genovés (1999).MESOAMERICAN EVIDENCE OF PRE-COLUMBIAN TRANSOCEANIC CONTACTS. Ancient Mesoamerica, 10, pp 207-213
52. ^ "http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=43757"
53. ^ Forbes, Jack D. The American Discovery of Europe University of Illinois Press; 16 April 2007 ISBN 978-0-252-03152-6 p.108
54. ^ Hristov and Genovés (1999).
55. ^ "http://www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/"
56. ^ "http://www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/tval/RomanFigurine.html
57. ^ Simons, Marlise (June 25, 1985). "Underwater Exploring is Banned in Brazil". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9402E2DA1139F936A15755C0A963948260&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/S/Salvage. 
58. ^ "NEARA 36-2 first draft.indd" (PDF). http://www.neara.org/jett/precolumbiantransoceanic.pdf. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
59. ^ Jashemski, Wilhelmina (2002). The natural history of Pompeii. Cambridge University Press. p. 81. ISBN 9780521800549. http://books.google.com/?id=3xfjyTqqR7IC&pg=PA81&dq=%22Domenico+Casella%22+pineapple#v=onepage&q=%22Domenico%20Casella%22%20pineapple&f=false. 
60. ^ Biblical Archaeology Review, July–August, 1993.
61. ^ Pontificio Istituto biblico, Pontificio Istituto biblico. Facoltà di studi dell'antico oriente (1987). Orientalia, Volume 56. University of Virginia. 
62. ^ Alberto Marini (1985). "A Sumerian Inscription of the Fuente Magna, La Paz, Bolivia". Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers 13: 9. http://epigraphy.org/volume_13.htm. ^{[unreliable source?]}
63. ^ "Fuente Magna Bowl on Flickr (side view)". Flickr.com. http://www.flickr.com/photos/41766098@N03/3896401412/. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
64. ^ bkreykenbohm, gneubert. "Museo de Or". Bolivialine.com. http://www.bolivialine.com/bolivia/museums_la_paz_1.htm#museodeoro. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
65. ^ Stirling, p. 2, who cites Melgar, Jose (1869) "Antigüedades mexicanas, notable escultura antigua", in Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística, época 2, vol. 1, pp. 292–297, Mexico, as well as Melgar, Jose (1871) "Estudio sobre la antigüedad y el origen de la Cabeza Colosal de tipo etiópico que existe en Hueyapan del cantón de los Tuxtlas" in Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística, época 2, vol. 3, pp. 104–109; Mexico.
66. ^ Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. ISBN 1-56584-100-X.
67. ^ Joan Baxter (13 December 2000). "Africa's 'greatest explorer'". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1068950.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-12. 
68. ^ Morison, Samuel Eliot (1963). Journals & Other Documents on the Life & Voyages of Christopher Columbus. New York: The Heritage Press. pp. 262,263. 
69. ^ Thacher, John Boyd (1903). Christopher Columbus: his life, his work, his remains, as revealed by original printed and manuscript records, together with an essay on Peter Martyr of Anghera and Bartolomé De Las Casas, the first Historians of America. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. pp. 379, 380. 
70. ^ Gabriel Haslip-Viera; Bernard Ortiz de Montellano; Warren Barbour, "Robbing Native American Cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs", Current Anthropology, Vol.38 (3), June 1997
71. ^ This theory is mentioned in the history book The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (1963) by William H. McNeill
72. ^ Meggers.
73. ^ Xu, Origin of the Olmec civilization.
74. ^ Dr. Mike Xu's Transpacific website, comparing Olmec and Chinese Shang period artifacts.
75. ^ See for example Grove (1976).
76. ^ Feder, Kenneth L., Frauds, Myths and Mysteries, Third Edition, Mayfield Publishing Company, 1999 pp. 103–104
77. ^ ^{a b} Menzies, Gavin. 1421: The Year China Discovered the World (Transworld Publishers, 2003).
78. ^ "The 1421 myth exposed". http://www.1421exposed.com/. Retrieved 2007-03-22. 
79. ^ "Zheng He in the Americas and Other Unlikely Tales of Exploration and Discovery". Archived from the original on 2007-03-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20070317044419/http://www.csicop.org/sb/2004-09/tales.html. Retrieved 2007-03-22. 
80. ^ "1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies". http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/arb/article.php?article=201. Retrieved 2007-03-22. 
81. ^ Finlay, Robert (2004). "How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America". Journal of World History 15 (2). http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jwh/15.2/finlay.html. 
82. ^ J. Huston McCulloch (7 February 2001). "Maize in Pre-Columbian India". Archaeological Outliers. http://econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/maize.html. Retrieved 2008-08-13. 
83. ^ Payak, M.M., and Sachan, J.K.S. 1993 "Maize Ears Not Sculpted in 13th Century Somnathpur Temple in India." Economic botany. APR 01 1993, vol. 47 no. 2, P. 202-
84. ^ Valdivia, Jomon Fishermen, and the Nature of the North Pacific: Some Nautical Problems with Meggers, Evans, and Estrada's (1965) Transoceanic Contact Thesis Gordon F. McEwan, D. Bruce Dickson American Antiquity, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jul., 1978), pp. 362–371.
85. ^ Prehistory of the Americas By Stuart J. Fiedel pp 188–189.
86. ^ ^{a b} Davis, Nancy Yaw (200). The Zuni Enigma. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-32230-0, ISBN 978-0-393-32230-9
87. ^ *Brewer, Stewart W., (1999); "The History of an Idea: The Scene on Stela 5 from Izapa, Mexico, as a Representation of Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life", (p. 12)
88. ^ ^{a b} Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa. "TUPAC INCA YUPANQUI SETS OUT, A SECOND TIME, BY ORDER OF HIS FATHER, TO CONQUER WHAT REMAINED UNSUBDUED IN CHINCHAY-SUYU". In Sir Clements Markham. History of the Incas. Sir Clements Markham. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20218/20218-8.txt.  – see note 104
89. ^ De Las Casas, Bartolomé; Pagden, Anthony (September 8, 1999). A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indias. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044562-5.
90. ^ Seaver (1995), p.208

See also

• Davenport Tablets
• Diffusion (anthropology)
• Institute for the Study of American Cultures
• Kensington Runestone
• Maine Penny
• Newport Tower
• Timeline of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
• Vinland map
• Westford Knight
• Columbian Exchange

References

• Ashe, Geoffrey, The Quest for America (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971);
• Fagan, Brian M. The Great Journey. Thames and Hudson. 1987);
• Feder, Kenneth L. (1999) "Frauds, myths, and mysteries: science and pseudoscience in archaeology" (3rd ed., Mountain View, Calif. : Mayfield Pub. Co., 1999)
• Fell, Barry (1984) America B.C. : Ancient Settlers in the New World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984)
• William J. Hamblim Archaeology and the Book of Mormon (Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, 1993), Volume 5, Issue 1, pp. 250–272, Text ;
• Gerol, E. Harry Dioses, Templos y Ruinas.
• Guernsey, Julia (2006) Ritual and Power in Stone: The Performance of Rulership in Mesoamerican Izapan Style Art, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, ISBN 978-0-292-71323-9.
• Hey, J. (2005). "On the number of New World founders: A population genetic portrait of the peopling of the Americas". Public Library of Science Biology 3: e193. 
• Holst, Sanford (2005) Phoenicians – Lebanon's Epic Heritage, Cambridge & Boston Press, Los Angeles, California.
• Howgaard, William (1971) The Voyages of the Norsemen to America (New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1914, Kraus Reprint Co., 1971);
• Hristov, Romeo H. and Santiago Genovés T. (2001) "The Roman Head from Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca, Mexico: A Review of the evidence", Paper prepared for the 66th—Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans (2001).
• Huyghe, Patrick (1992) Columbus was Last: A Heretical History of who was First (New York: Hyperion, 1992; Anomalist Books, 2005)
• Ingstad, Helge Westward to Vinland (New York: St. Martins, 1969);
• Johnson, Adrian America Explored (New York: The Viking Press, 1974);
• Jones, Gwyn A History of the Vikings (Oxford University Press, 1984);
• Jones, Peter N. American Indian mtDNA, Y Chromosome Genetic Data, and the Peopling of North America. Boulder: Bauu Press. 2004;
• Lawrence, Harold G. (1962). African Explorers of the New World. John Henry and Mary Louisa Dunn Bryant Foundation. ISBN B0007HV7US. 
• Arlington Mallery and Mary Roberts Harrison, The Rediscovery of Lost America (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1979);
• Marcus, G. J., "The Conquest of the North Atlantic" (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980);
• Mowat, Farley (1998) The Farfarers (Toronto, Key Porter Books, 1998) ISBN 1-55013-989-4;
• Frederick J. Pohl, The Lost Discovery (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1952);
• Frederick J. Pohl, The Viking Explorers (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1966);
• Gary A. Rendsburg, "'Someone Will Succeed in Deciphering Minoan': Minoan Linear A as a West Semitic Dialect," Biblical Archaeologist, 59:1 (1996), pp. 36–43, esp. p. 40.
• Seaver, K.A.(1995) The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America ca A.D. 1000–1500 Stanford University Press ISBN 0 8047 3161 6
• Smith, Michael E. "The 'Roman Figurine' Supposedly Excavated at Calixtlahuaca", accessed December 2007.
• Sorenson, John L. and Johannessen, Carl L. (2006) "Biological Evidence for Pre-Columbian Transoceanic Voyages." In: Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World. Ed. Victor H. Mair. University of Hawai'i Press. Pp. 238–297. ISBN 978-0-8248-2884-4; ISBN 0-8248-2884-4
• Sorenson, John L.; Raish, Martin H. (1996) Pre-Columbian Contact with the Americas Across the Oceans: An Annotated Bibliography. 2v. 2d ed., rev., Provo, Utah: Research Press, ISBN 0-934893-21-7.
• Sorenson, John L. and Johannessen, Carl L. (2009) World Trade and Biological Exchanges Before 1492, Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, ISBN 978-0-595-52441-9;
• Stirling, Matthew (1967) "Early History of the Olmec Problem", in Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, E. Benson, ed., Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
• Storey, Alice A.;Ramırez, Jose Miguel; Quiroz, Daniel; Burley, David V.; Addison, David J.; Walter, Richard; Anderson, Atholl J.; Hunt, Terry L.; Athens, J. Stephen; Huynen, Leon; Matisoo-Smith, Elizabeth A. (2007) "Radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a pre-Columbian introduction of Polynesian chickens to Chile", in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 19, 2007, v. 104, n. 25, pp. 10335–10339.
• Van Sertima, Ivan (1976). They Came Before Columbus. Random House. ISBN 0-394-40245-6. 
• Von Wuthenau, Alexander (1975). Unexpected Faces in Ancient America: The Historical Testimony of Pre-Columbian Artists. Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-51657-8. 
• Wauchope, Robert (1962) Lost Tribes & Sunken Continents. University of Chicago Press.
• Williams, Stephen (1991) "Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory", Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 0-8122-8238-8/0-8122-1312-2.
• Man across the sea: Problems of Pre-Columbian contacts (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1971).
• Report of Severin's trip in the National Geographic Magazine, Volume 152, Number 6 (December 1977).

Further reading

• Erik Wahlgren The Vikings and America (1986, 2000) ISBN 0-500-28199-8.
• Cyrus H. Gordon Before Columbus; Links Between the Old World and Ancient America (1971) ISBN 0517504413

External links

• Paper given at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (2001) on The Calixtlahuaca Head
• The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies (Transcript of television broadcast)
• A look at the Evidence for Cocaine in Mummies by British Biochemist Duncan Edlin
• Thomas Hughes: "The German Discovery of America: A Review of the Controversy over Didrik Pining’s Voyage of Exploration in 1473 in the North Atlantic", in: GHI Bulletin, Nr. 33 (Fall 2003)
• Robbing Native American Cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs, an article from Current Anthropology
• Plant Evidence for Contact between Africa and the New World by Professor Bernard Ortiz de Montellano
• Goodbye Columbus? The Pseudohistory of Who Discovered America
• Archives of Cultural Exchanges