Talk:Pre-Columbian contact hypotheses

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Others[edit]

There's various claims of Roman contact, including recent discovery of a probably replica sword[1] and claims about Byzantine/Roman[2] visitors.

More about Phoenicians on Wikipedia at[3]. Annquin (talk) 21:00, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

  • I came across the suggestion that 'fishermen and others out of Bristol' followed the shoals of fish and were aware of future-America but did not generally mention it as others would muscle in on it - and Christopher Columbus touring for support got some information from them.

Probably 'category of possible but no proof.' 82.44.143.26 (talk) 17:45, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

Why claims are made[edit]

Could mention something about the history of claims being used for imperial purposes: many European nations manufactured claims in the 15th and 16th century to bolster ambitions in the New World. Also linked to more general nationalism and cultural aggrandisement. --Gospatric (talk) 09:57, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

Polynesian contact[edit]

This is one of the more plausible theories out there and deserves a mention. There is some material evidence which suggests so.

Also Greenlanders have managed to reach Scotland in the past by kayak. Sometimes alive.-Albannach (talk) 13:45, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

More examples[edit]

  • More claims of pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New Worlds "the other way" (i.e. travel from the New World to the Old) include:
    • apparently there's a legend about an Inca emperor (not sure if he was the emperor, but definitely a noble) who went on a journey somewhere and came back with slaves and the pelt of a horse
    • a widely-broadcast claim (but thoroughly seen as nonsense) that two Native Americans ended up in what is now Holland in 60 BCE, based on a translation of a Latin text referring to "Indians"
  • Also other claims of pre-Columbian travel from the Old World to the New:
    • Some botanical evidence: e.g. claims of cannonball trees nearly a thousand years old in India and their prominent place in Hindu symbolism which "couldn't" have arose in about 500 years, alleged depictions of maize, chilli peppers and sunflowers on temple carvings in India and Indonesia, and the alleged presence of coconut husk in South American artifacts and depictions of coconut palms in South American art - promoted, for example, by Victor H. Mair's "Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World"

--82.8.191.148 (talk) 17:31, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

As the inhabitants of the Americas were not known as 'Indians' until much later, and the Indian subcontinent was on the Silk Road network, the probability is that such persons came along that route (possibly as a result of contacts made in the wake of Alexander the Great's army's travels and subsequent interactions). Anna Livia (talk) 14:12, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

Japan -> Pacific Northwest Contact[edit]

Post-Columbus, there were many cases of Japanese sailors being blown across the Pacific to the Americas. You can read about the best-known case here. The odds this started right as the Europeans were there to observe is unlikely. However, the impact of this contact seems minimal. --50.175.138.90 (talk) 00:09, 30 April 2024 (UTC)