Who do you think visited America before Columbus?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

I think the definites would be (of course) the Vikings, the Basques, the Bristolian fishermen (circa 1470), the Malians, the Chinese, the Henry Sinclair expedition of 1398 and the Portuguese. Possibles would include (for me) the ancient Celts, the Phoenicians, the Irish, the Arabs and perhaps the Romans. I'm not convinced on the Prince Madoc story. What do you lot think?

[Loonman]

1. I'd say the Vikings

But the Clovis people were here 11,200 to 10,900 years ago. The Anasazi whom the Hopi have kinship with flourished around 1600 BC.

[Burma Jones]

6. Aliens, Jesus, Bob Dobbs, the Lost Tribe of Isreal

Ronald Reagan, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Odysseus, Lord Krishna, Julia Child and my Ancestors, so get off my land.

[terrya]

2. I'm sure that the Vikings did.

I don't know about the rest.

Terry

[SaveElmer]

10. And they still Haven't won a Super Bowl!

Oh...sorry wrong Vikings ! :-)

[ewagner]

3. Not familiar with the Prince Madoc story

But from what I've read, I think there was a very good chance that the Celts paid a visit or tow to North America......

[Loonman]

4. Yep, Dighton Rock

http://members.skyweb.net/~channy/dighton.html

[Screaming Lord Byron]

8. The Westford Knight would be another one

http://groups.msn.com/insearchofTheGrail/photoalbum1.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=16

Too eroded to be sure, but it would seem to be a relic of the 1398 Sinclair expedition.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

9. The Prince Madoc story is usually used to back up the 'Welsh Indian' claim

Many early European settlers reported encountering Welsh speaking natives in remote areas. The story goes that they are the remnant of the descendents of the Prince Madoc expedition which left Wales in 1170 heading West, which was never heard of again. I believe the stories have been pretty convincingly debunked.

[ewagner]

11. Thanks for the links

I feel totally stupid for not knowing about these sites but they are very interesting.

Again thank you for enlightening this cheesehead.

[PVnRT]

5. JESUS CHRIST

HE visited AMERICA to BLESS IT and make it known that AMERICA RULED THE WORLD AND ALL WHO DISAGREE SHALL BE PUT TO THE SWORD.

That's probably what Pat Robertson thinks.

[Loonman]

7. No, that's what Joseph Smith thought

Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum.

[CanuckAmok]

28. I read a non-Mormon book called "He Walked the Americas"...

About Jesus supposedly visiting the Native Americans in the Waco, Texas area during the three days between his crucifiction and his resurrection.

It was a very interesting, albeit farfetched, read.

[BL_Zebub]

29. Uh, I know exactly where JC was for those three days, and it wasn't Waco!

Humidity factor's about the same though :evilgrin:

[CanuckAmok]

37. Tucson?

n/t

[Loonman]

40. It's a Hopi legend, actually

From the mystical facet of Hopi spirituality.

[CanuckAmok]

41. Yes, that's the one...

...I'd like to read more about it, one day...

[Loonman]

42. Yeah, it is interesting

Just do a google search on Hopi legends.


Interesting stuff.

[jimbo fett]

12. There's evidence on the Chilean coast that humans migrated back and

forth to the "new world" going back to prehistoric times.

They uncovered a temporary settlement that carbon dated back around 14,000 years and the items they found there came from many parts of the world.

It may be hard to believe but there may have been a small but active world-wide maritime trading culture for thousands of years prior to conventional wisdom.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

13. History is a subjective record written by the survivors.

There are pieces of evidence that suggest earlier voyages and navigations going back thousands of years. People scoffed at the Leif Erikson sagas before they discovered the site at L'anse aux Meadows.

[Beaker]

45. at the end of the last ice age- about 12,000 years ago-

the ocean levels rose about 400 feet...it's very likely that a lot of evidence of just such a culture is under a bit of water.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

46. You mean Bimini, perhaps?

[Shananigans]

14. Aliens

Definately the aliens.

[Bridget Burke]

15. Oscar Wilde said that America had often been discovered....

before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.

Charles Michael Boland's "They All Discovered America" introduced me to the pre-Columbian discovery stories back in the 60's. It recounts most of the tales without succumbing to hysteria. ("They were, like, Templars & they hid the Holy Grail in Canada, Man!")

Even many academics have discarded the strict dogma that groups of hunters came across the Bering strait & evolved into the Clovis culture, which evolved into all the cultures found when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

16. Columbus' voyage coincided with the rise of print as a viable media

he also had very prestigious backers who wished to exploit his discoveries for imperial purposes. Previous 'discoverers' either died enroute or soon after (like Sinclair), or had good reasons to keep the secret (the Bristolians, who having discovered the best fishing grounds in the North Atlantic, the Grand Banks, weren't going to start bragging about their find)

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. The Asians who first came to the Americas through Alaska

about 50,000 years ago and ended up becoming native.

[LynneSin]

18. Who was here before America was discovered

I mean, this wasn't an empty piece of land filled with trees, wild animals and clean water.

Native Americans were here first!!!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

19. Yeah. That's why I specified 'visited'.

:)

[Superfly]

20. How about the G*ddamned native Americans?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

22. I specified 'Visited' in the sense of visiting.

I'm counting native people as indigenous. I suppose you can say the also travelled from overseas, having crossed the Bering Land bridge, but that was so many thousands of years ago, I consider them indigenous.

[Superfly]

24. OK...but COlumbus sure as hell did not discover

any terran feature on this planet. How can a person "discover" something, if there are already people there?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

26. Damn right, I have very little respect for Columbus.

He wass a latecomer. I don't think I've ever said he discovered anything, other than a few maps that told him exactly where to go.

[Superfly]

27. Oh, I think he was an able seaman and navigator

but who wasn't back then?

[CaptainClark23]

21. Brendan the Navigator

Probably landed in Newfoundland. Irish monks set up monasteries across the North Atlantic.

Ogham inscriptions have been found as far South and West as West Virginia.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

23. True. Irish monks definitely reached Iceland and Greenland

There are stories of monks on Newfoundland, which would be the next logical step.

[CanuckAmok]

25. Herb and Margie Heppner, of Smiths Falls, Ontario.

They've been going to America every year since before anyone can remember.

[ironflange]

30. Hey, SLB, sounds like you have read "The Farfarers"

Damn good read! Mighty interesting stuff, scrupulously researched by Farley, as always.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

35. Actually, no. Sounds like I should though.

I've read a lot on the subject, but I don't think I've read that one.

[ironflange]

44. Read it, it's extremely interesting

All about how the poor islanders were forced to keep one step ahead of the Vikings, all the way across the Atlantic.

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[ironflange]

33. Aw, crap

I keep setting this guy off. Sorry.

[ProfessorGAC]

32. Depends Upon Planet Of Origin

If you mean the progenitors of you puny humans, than probably the Vikings or the Irish exploratory monks.

However, my people were on this world in the North American continent several times during what you would refer to as prehistoric. (Prehistoric, that makes me laugh!)

So, actually, i think it was us. But, you'll never give proper credit to an alien species, will you?
The Professor

[Screaming Lord Byron]

38. But the real question is...

did you bring the Funk?

[ProfessorGAC]

39. Yes. We Are, Indeed, Reponsible for Bringing The Funk . . .

. . .to the nascent humans. Unfortunately, it took you humans nearly 50,000 years to catch the cool. The pace here is so slow!
The Professor

[TrogL]

34. Presumably the ancestors of the ethnic group now called "native Americans"

[Screaming Lord Byron]

36. Yeah. Across the land bridge from Siberia about 40,000 years ago

I was meaning more recent visits by sea. No deliberate slur on native folks.

[dawn]

43. The Chinese, the Phoenicians, the Vikings. nt

[corporatewhore]

47. GROVELBOT!!!!