Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
The expression pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact usually refers to possible interactions between the Native American peoples and the cultures of other continents — Europe, Africa, Asia of Oceania — before the European's official discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.Most archeologists believe that, apart from their original Ice Age migrations across Beringia and the Bering Strait, the Native American cultures developed in complete isolation from the rest of humanity, until the voyages of Columbus. They interpret the archaeological record to show in situ, original cultural development through that period, with people interacting across local regions but not with other continents (or other planets). The sole generally accepted exception are the visits by the Vikings to Newfoundland, at the L'Anse aux Meadows site — which apparently did not have any lasting effect on the native cultures.
The opposite theory, that American cultural development was either derived or affected by trans-oceanic contacts, was widely believed until the early 19th century, but today it is only a minority opinion. While some advocates of these diffusionist theories are compelled by their religious beliefs or influenced by ethnocentrism, there is a significant minority of scholars who see enough cultural parallels to justify them.
In the 18th century and early 19th century many writers and antiquitarians believed that various Old World cultures were responsible for the ancient monuments found in the New World. Part of this was due to ethnocentrism, for they did not believe that Native Americans — generally portrayed as uncivilized savages — could be capable of such feats.
Popular opinion began to change by the 1830s, thanks to more detailed books such as the travels of Stephens in Mesoamerica and Prescott's accounts of the Spanish conquests of Mexico and Peru. Gradually, those reports convinced historians that the ancient monuments of the Americas were indeed built by the ancestors of the current Native Americans.
The reversal of the consensus was so complete that, for about a century, any suggestion of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contacts was automatically dismissed by most mainstream historians. It became a dogma that no trans-oceanic voyages to the Americas could have occurred before the age of European exploration, which culminated in Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. The presumed technical impossibility of such trips was supposedly confirmed by the lack of any solid evidence of cultural influences.
Over the last few decades, however, this dogma has seen several challenges, and been somewhat weakened by various developments. For one thing, historians have found many reports and evidence of long ocean voyages prior to the European explorations.
Linguistic evidence demonstrated that Madagascar, for example, was settled by Austronesian peoples from Indonesia: their navigators were able to cross the Indian Ocean and large sections of the Pacific, before 1000 CE.
Some ancient Viking chronicles talked about a land called Vinland to the west of Greenland. Historians debated the meaning of these chronicles, and whether the Vikings had ever visited the New World in Pre-Columbian times. These debates were settled by archeological evidence in 1961. In that year Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad discovered the remains of a Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. This was clear proof that the Vikings had crossed the Atlantic by way of Iceland and Greenland around 1000 CE.
In the mid-20th century, several attempts were made to demonstrate the possibility of long survival on ocean voyages, like that of Alain Bombard. Norwegian writer Thor Heyerdahl used light reed boats (named Rá and Kon-Tiki), similar to those used in North Africa and Bolivia. By successfully crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with these craft, Heyerdahl demonstrated that there was no technical reason why the Americas could not have been settled from Africa, or the Pacific Islands from South America. The archeological significance if any of such voyages is debated, but these demonstrations made many of the general public curious about Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact.
A number of diffusionist theories involving ancient visitors are mandated by or inspired on religious beliefs. The Book of Mormon, for instance, holds that a number of Israelitess migrated from the Middle East to ancient America around 700 BC. Others have speculated that one of the lost tribes of Israel may have ended up in America.
The Medieval legend of Saint Brendan claims that an Irish monk and a few companions crossed the Atlantic in a leather boat to a "blessed land" of many wonders.
Since the early 19th century, some scholars have tried ot use historical records to prove that several Old World civilizations could have been capable of a trans-oceanic voyage to the Americas. Candidates included Egyptians, Sumerians, Afro-Phoenicians, Romanss, Islamic West Africans, the Temple Knights, and more.
The realization that Polynesians had been able to spread as far as Easter Island by boat led to theories of trans-Pacific contacts with Oceania, an hypothesis that Thor Heyerdahl proved possible by experiment.
Only recently have the Western scholars become aware of the navigational exploits of the Chinese, such as the voyage of Zheng He's fleet. This awareness has led to proposals of Chinese-American contacts, e.g. by off-course Shang Dynasty ships. The possibility of Muslim trips from Asia (see Sung Document) were also tabled.
The presence of Basque cod fishermen and whalers in North America, just a few years after Columbus, has been well established. It has therefore been conjectured that they may have made such trips earlier.
Others have conjectured that Columbus was able to convince the kings of Castilla to back up his proposal only because they were aware of some earlier trip.
The 19th century saw the spread of several "lost continent" theories such as the Atlantis of Rosicrucians and Theosophists, and James Churchward's proposals of Mu and Lemuria.
In the 20th century, extra-terrestrial civilizations have been added to the long list of conjectural visitors to the Americas. According to popular writers like Erich von Däniken, these celestial visitors were the real builders of the ancient monuments of the Americas, or at least the masters who taught the natives how to build them.
Some have even proposed that a human species distinct from Homo sapiens sapiens had lived in the continent in a period overlapping with the Native Americans. Irrespective of the validity of that proposal, such contacts do not appear to have left any trace.
Various artifacts which some think suggest other Pre-Columbian trans-Atlantic contact has been found, but none presenting such clear evidence as L'Anse aux Meadows that would convince mainstream archeologists and historians.
Early proponents
The isolationist "dogma"
Possibility of ocean voyages
Madagascar
The Vikings
Modern experiments
Conjectured contacts
Religious dogmas and speculation
Legendary trips
Historically-based claims
Lost continents and flying saucers
Other species
Contested evidence
External links
Bibliography
See also