71–80 of 93 posts
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Interesting. Can you recommend a book about this?
I recently finished 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. http://www.amazon.com/1493-Uncovering-World-Columbus-Created... Highly recommended!
"The unearthing of a stone used in iron working on Newfoundland, hundreds of miles south from the only known Viking site in North America, suggests the Vikings may have traveled much further into the continent than previously thought." Newfoundland is an island! I understand that there may be an implicit assumption that they most likely had to touch the continent before getting there but this isn't neither a fact (on…
> Newfoundland is an island! I understand that there may be an implicit assumption that they most likely had to touch the continent before getting there but this isn't neither a fact (only a speculation) nor "much further into the continent". Then look to the Icelanders that made repeated trips over hundreds of years to the east coast of Canada (Labrador coast) for timber & trade with the locals. Newfoundland is inte…
Put your statement next to "much further into the continent than previously thought" when we're really talking about an island settlement!
I am more interested in whether there is any way of find a connection between Columbus and the Vikings. I've read stories before about how Columbus went to Norway and got info there about the Viking exploration. But what I've read just seemed like wild speculation then. Something more solid would have been nice. The reason why that is relevant is that the Viking discovery of America is of no significance if it didn't…
Thor Heyerdahl had this theory , Columbus did not go to Norway but his family is of the Norwegian Nobel Bonde family. They lost a power struggle, and had to go abroad, to Genova . This as I recall is based on a book written by a family member of Columbus, think the brother(if he had one). Stating that the name of the family is not from Italy, but it a Latinifaction of the original language from where the family is fr…
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I recently finished 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. http://www.amazon.com/1493-Uncovering-World-Columbus-Created... Highly recommended!
Thanks. Does that book cover the pre-Colombian African-South American interactions?
I'm not very knowledgeable in history but I find this interesting: In his book, "We Are Not The First (Riddles of Ancient Science)", Andrew Tomas argued for a possible knowledge of the existence of other continents, particularly North America, by the ancients. He writes: "Plato must have been cognizant of the great size of our globe, and of other continents, because he said in Phaedo that the Mediterranean people occ…
> That's inspiring. So, before the Vikings, the New World wasn't an impossibility. It was in fact as old as any other point on Earth.
Very well said. If nothing else this also shows the deep origins of the development of the scientific method: propose a theory based on (in this case) extrapolation, then prove it later on with evidence. In many ways, human civilization, and especially human knowledge can be thought of as a manifestation of this simple formula.
The existence of a kind of extrapolation-based forethought prior to the actual process of exploration undertaken by humankind evidenced here would fall neatly into this progression.
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Tax records.
Captains of the era were known for keeping meticulous navigational and meteorological records. Did this hold true even for those indulging in secret activities?
Recordkeeping at sea has a long tradition.
Hardly rewrite, but extend existing knowledge and confirm the veracity of the Sagas
Indeed. The sagas describe the discovered land as Vinland because they found wild grapes growing everywhere. Which does not describe Newfoundland, especially not the northern tip of it where the L'anse aux Meadows sits. (I've been there. It's cold and desolate. We watched icebergs float around 100 feet from the shore). But up the gulf of St Lawrence a bit you'll find wild populations of vitis riparia growing like cra…
For the sea level, this is areas that was covered by ice during the last ice age, and these areas have been rising since then. Some areas, like around the Botnian Sea, is still rising even today, so archaeological sites that was on the seashore will be there or slightly inland.
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Of course it's realistic. The Malagasy people are descendants of Polynesians who crossed the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, in canoes. With calm seas, there's no reason you couldn't make such a trip. Canoes can have sails too, and you can row your way out of the doldrums.
But the route from Polynesia to Madagascar can be traveled along the shoreline of Asia and Africa, so can be completed without navigational aides. The crossing from Africa to South America is 3000 km of nothing but ocean.
I'm not very knowledgeable in history but I find this interesting: In his book, "We Are Not The First (Riddles of Ancient Science)", Andrew Tomas argued for a possible knowledge of the existence of other continents, particularly North America, by the ancients. He writes: "Plato must have been cognizant of the great size of our globe, and of other continents, because he said in Phaedo that the Mediterranean people occ…
But any coastal population must have known the curvature of the earth by basic empirical analysis of maritime traffic. In other words, watching the fishing boats disappear over the horizon.