So who did discover America ?

[bojit]

I just spotted a very interesting article about a stone age knife that originated in France a few thousand years before people crossed from Siberia .
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...s-from-europe-discovered-america-7447152.html

Craig.........

 

[Toddy]

Ooooh huge debate this one

The geneticists seem to be sorting it out, but it looks like multiple quite seperate 'discoveries', with modern Western Europeans coming a very tardy last place.

What have you been reading ?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[bojit]

Ooooh huge debate this one

The geneticists seem to be sorting it out, but it looks like multiple quite seperate 'discoveries', with modern Western Europeans coming a very tardy last place.

What have you been reading ?

cheers,
Toddy

Sorry i forgot to post the link

Craig.........

 

[Toddy]

One knife, 'discovered' in the seventies...............yeah that's proof (Scottish sarcasm coming through there)...........find more, in situ, in good unimpeachable context, and then that single artefact 'might' become believable.

I think that sounds like a bit of a teaser/trailer for their new book to be honest.

I'm not saying our Mesolithic European ancestors didn't reach America...........there's no reason why not, especially knowing what we do about their abilities.........but that piece of evidence seems incredibly flimsy.
The other bits sound much more firmly based though

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Bigfoot]

Wasn't it discovered by Smurfs?

 

[Toddy]

Nah, redheads apparantly, with blue eyes...........makes you wonder a bit, doesn't it

M

 

[Husky]

So who was first of the "modern western europeans"?
St. Brendan in 400 AC or was there someone before that?

 

[John Fenna]

It was the Welsh discovered America!
The Mandans spoke a form of Welsh (until wiped out by the nex white invaders) and took the corracle (Bull Boat) to the Mississipi!

 

[Dreadhead]

bear grylls....?

 

[Dreadhead]

iv read about the norse discovery of america but im sure that irish monks had already made it there. they seemed tae get around in their wee coracles

 

[Toddy]

The Irish (and others of the Western seaboard) used curraghs. Sea going boats used for fishing and trading and travelling.
Every bit as effective as the Inuit umiak type.
Amazingly robust in icy waters

Tim Severin recreated the voyage of St Brendan, and he wrote a book of it in the 1970's. Well worth a read if you can get a copy

cheers,
M

 

[Prawnster]

There was a thread about this on BCUSA recently. Someone there was saying that archaeologists had found stone age tools in mainland N.America that were European in style. I'll see if I can find a link when I'm on my pc. It had got people thinking about it because it was pretty good evidence that someone from Europe had been there even before people had crossed from Siberia.


Edit: oops I really should read the first couple of posts in a thread first of all!!

Sent from my iToaster using Tapatalk

 

[Dreadhead]

The Irish (and others of the Western seaboard) used curraghs. Sea going boats used for fishing and trading and travelling.
Every bit as effective as the Inuit umiak type.
Amazingly robust in icy waters

Tim Severin recreated the voyage of St Brendan, and he wrote a book of it in the 1970's. Well worth a read if you can get a copy

cheers,
M

Curraghs! thats the word i was looking for. cheers Toddy

 

[Toddy]

Curraghs! thats the word i was looking for. cheers Toddy

Have a google for umiak
It kind of gives you a notion to have a shot

M

 

[Husky]

The Irish (and others of the Western seaboard) used curraghs. Sea going boats used for fishing and trading and travelling.
Every bit as effective as the Inuit umiak type.
Amazingly robust in icy waters

Tim Severin recreated the voyage of St Brendan, and he wrote a book of it in the 1970's. Well worth a read if you can get a copy

cheers,
M

I have the book in the shelf , I love Severins books! As soon as I had posted I actually had to go and check, it would have been 500 AC and not 400 AC as I wrote.

Also this brings to mind something I read in a kayak forum.
Someone had just completed building a "skin on frame" inuit kayak and took it for a paddle along the coast when an old fisherman looked at it and said
"´Tis a bit skinny for a curragh lad".

 

[santaman2000]

There was a thread about this on BCUSA recently. Someone there was saying that archaeologists had found stone age tools in mainland N.America that were European in style. I'll see if I can find a link when I'm on my pc. It had got people thinking about it because it was pretty good evidence that someone from Europe had been there even before people had crossed from Siberia...

It comes up on the History Channel over here from time to time. I think you're referring to the "Clovis" point arrow/spear heads that resemble the ones in stone age France. I don't remember much more detail myself.

 

[The Cumbrian]

There was also the theory that Clovis people hunted their way west across the sea ice, and only had to use boats for short crossings.

Cheers, Michael.

 

[bikething]

it would have been 500 AC and not 400 AC as I wrote.

AC ?

 

[Toddy]

Typology is a hotly debated topic at times. Basically it's fashion. Tools made in the fashion of a certain area, of a certain time, are considered to be associated with certain people (or rather the culture of a certain peoples)
So those who interpret the finds reckon that the type = the people, sometimes, even if found where there is no other record of those people. It's a bit subjective.
It's not a definitive kind of thing; it's more a good diagnostic bit of the puzzle, iimmc. But, and it's an important but, it's only part of the story and can only be part of the interpretation.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Toddy]

There was also the theory that Clovis people hunted their way west across the sea ice, and only had to use boats for short crossings.

Cheers, Michael.

Did you see the programme recently on the crew who rowed to the North Pole ? That's the kind of conditions that it appears may have been prevalent at the time. Hard going however they did it

M