Pre-Columbian America

Published March 28, 2024

Pre-Columbian America continues to generate books and articles at an ever-increasing rate, fed by dramatic improvements and discoveries in many sciences. Nevertheless, the resulting theories still range from the serious to the silly.

This compilation has frequently touched on the subject pre-Columbian America as a number of Atlantis related theories have proposed what are only peripheral connections with America, although in the immediate aftermath of America’s rediscovery, some European commentators were content to designate America as Atlantis itself.

Since then a range of claims have been made as to the identity of European visitors to America, often long before Columbus, sometimes with an underlying suggestion of nationalism. Richard Callaghan, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary, In the June 2015 issue of the journal Antiquity, “presented the results of computer simulations of 1,200 voyages of small boats drifting with the currents from northern Africa to the Americas. About 82 percent of Callaghan’s simulated boats made landfall in the Americas, many in 70 to 120 days. Since watercrafts have been around for at least 8,000 years, Callaghan says there could have been a “significant number” of successful pre-Columbian voyages to America.” Another archaeologist, Bradley T. Lepper, ironically writing in the Columbus Dispatch, rejected Callaghan’s data as evidence^(l).

John L. Sorenson writing in the Journal of the Book of Mormon Studies^(m)identifies evidence for transoceanic exchanges of 98 plant species, including tobacco and peanuts! I assume that he was driven by a very different agenda.

The weight of evidence so far favours the idea that most of the earliest pre-Columbians came from Asia either by sea or over what is now the Bering Strait. See the Arysio Dos Santos article^(a) about Americas peopled by from an Asian Atlantis.

The online World History Encyclopaedia outlines the prehistory of North America from 40,000 BC when the Paleo-Indians arrived until 8,000 BC⁽ⁱ⁾. Of course this statement begs the question – where did they come from?

The discovery of further early trans-Atlantic links was announced in February 2012⁽ⁿ⁾ by two archaeologists, Professors Dennis Stanford & the lateBruce Bradley, in a newly published book – Across Atlantic Ice ^[1516]. Their claim is based on ‘Solutrean’ tools recently found in Delaware and five other east coast sites dated between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago. They offered “archaeological and oceanographic evidence to support this assertion, the book dismantles the old paradigm while persuasively linking Clovis technology with the culture of the Solutrean people who occupied France and Spain more than 20,000 years ago.”

In 2014, Stephen Oppenheimer endorsed the work of Stanford and Bradley^(s).

However, a sceptical view of their work should also be read^(o). However, by 2016 the Soultrean Hypothesis had been contradicted by genetic studies^(p). Nevertheless, a recent documentary on the hypothesis has raised some controversy, as the program failed to refer to the use of the Soultrean Hypothesis by white supremacists^(q). Jennifer Raff, who appeared in the documentary, has also rejected the Stanford & Bradley theory in a new article^(r).

In 2014 Michael J. O’Brien et al published another critical review of Stanford & Bradley’s theory on the Researchgate website and added a response from Stanford and Bradley^(t).

Finally, I suggest that there may be more to Stanford & Bradley’s theory, when combined with the story of the Red Paint People.

Harry Bourne is the author of a series of lengthy papers^(c) relating to African maritime history. Until I read some of his work I was unaware of the subject, with the only suggestion of Africans voyaging to the Americas was the existence of the mysterious Olmec stone heads. Bourne advised^(d) that Columbus noted “that blacks were also trading on the far side of the Atlantic in the Caribbean”, but does not cite the reference.

Similarly, “According to renowned American historian and linguist Leo Weiner of Harvard University, one of the strongest pieces of evidence to support the fact that Black people sailed to America before Christopher Columbus was a journal entry from Columbus himself. In Weiner’s book, Africa and the Discovery of America, he explains that Columbus noted in his journal that the Native Americans confirmed ‘black skinned people had come from the south-east in boats, trading in gold-tipped spears’.”^(x)

This whole subject could fill a library of its own and in no way is this entry intended to be a substitute for a comprehensive study of pre-Columbian America.

With their understandable Eurocentric view of the world a variety of commentators have advocated a range of pre-Columbian visitors to the Americas from this side of the Atlantic . There are a wide range of claims suggesting that such contacts included the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the Sumerians, the Hyksos^(v), the Sea Peoples^(u), Phoenicians, Egyptians^(k), Ancient Greeks, Minoans^(j) and Romans^(b)(e)(f). After that, there appears to have been an endless parade of transatlantic tourists proposed – Basques^(g), Scots ^[1769], Irish ^[2086]and Vikings ^[1824].

There is also a suggestion that Marco Polo visited America before Columbus^(h).

No investigation of early visitors to America should ignore the work of the controversial epigrapher Barry Fell, particularly his two books, America BC ^[1769] and Saga America ^[1770]. However, the more critical reviews of Fell’s work should also be read^(w).

^(a) Atlantis in the New World. – Atlan.org

^(b) Ancient Romans May Have Discovered Americas Before Columbus | Gaia

^(c) Black History WEB – African Maritime History Archive (50webs.com)

^(d) West Africa & The Sea In Later Antiquity: Short intro. & plan (modernghana.com) (4/5ths down page)

^(e) http://mexicolesstraveled.com/comalcalco.html

^(f) http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/mysteries/deccott.htm

^(g) https://www.archyde.com/did-the-basques-arrive-in-america-before-columbus/

^(h) https://www.dailygrail.com/2014/09/did-marco-polo-discover-america-in-the-13th-century/

⁽ⁱ⁾ Pre-Colonial North America – World History Encyclopedia

^(j) Minoans have been to America before Columbus (bristolgreeks.com)

^(k) Egyptian statuette recovered from Mexico is authentic: Antiquities ministry – Ancient Egypt – Antiquities – Ahram Online

^(l) Bradley T. Lepper The Columbus Dispatch • Sunday September 20, 2015