Posted on 04/28/2014 4:43:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
One particular bit of speculative history that has fascinated me for decades is the story that a Scot sailing for Norway discovered America about a hundred years before Columbus made his famous trip in 1492. This Scot, Henry Sinclair by name, is said to have spent some time in Nova Scotia and then sailed south along the New England coast before returning to Scotland. In particular, he’s supposed to have visited Westford, Massachusetts, lost one of his knights there, and left behind a memorial “punched” into a ledge. There’s a lot of disagreement about this. If you want all the details, you can read a recent book by David Goudsward titled The Westford Knight and Henry SInclair...
Anyway, given that Henry Sinclair was a Scot, how could I not use parts of the story in my Liss MacCrimmon Scottish-American Heritage series? So, in the entry that will be available tomorrow, Bagpipes, Brides, and Homicides, I have a medieval Scottish conclave taking place as part of the annual highland games. Part of the entertainment is supposed to be a reenactment of a battle between Sinclair’s men and native Americans. Did it ever happen? Who knows? But one of Sinclair’s men did end up dying, so they say, in Westford, Massachusetts...
(Excerpt) Read more at mainecrimewriters.com ...
I like your idea of a show, sort of Roman Empire version of Thor Heyerdahl’s Ra Expeditions.
Romans in Brazil During the Second or Third Century?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1038045/posts?page=92#92
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1248340/posts?page=4#4
If you get a chance to photograph any or all of those, let me know.
I believe.
Cocaine mummies:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/585475/posts?page=124#124
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1371036/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1737047/posts
Ancient Romans In Texas?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/665767/posts
Why did American tech stay in the stone-age for so long? What stunted their growth?
Oooooh! good one!
http://www.damnedct.com/gungywamp-groton
http://www.damnedct.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/gwamp4.jpg
Or, as the old saying goes, colonial root cellar my ass.
They used gold, silver, and copper, and probably meteoritic iron (I forget), but apparently only for decorative items, despite the fact that there was non-stop internecine warfare throughout PreColumbian America. The copper extracted in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan prior to the (documented) European presence exceeded the known use, until it was found in recent decades that the copper in Mexico and Central America originated in Michigan, at least as often as not. Big trade networks, just like everywhere else on Earth.
Stone blades (arrows, spears, hatchets, knives) work well, and can be re-edged for continuous use for perhaps years or more. They are more effective than the metals (other than the possible meteoritic iron) when hunting or in combat, and the armor reported by Bernal Diaz (”Conquest of New Spain”, last surviving member of Cortez’ expedition) was made of cotton. IOW, stone worked, the metals they knew didn’t work as well.
If one PreColumbian culture had discovered, say, bronze, it is not yet known, and the impact of that discovery would surely have been felt by other cultures and observed by the conquistadors and whatnot.
That is a very good point and one which is hard to explain if Europeans did visit America in ancient times.
Despite that, I do think there is evidence that they were here. It might be that is is difficult to start a new civilization from scratch even knowing certain things have been done. Maybe language and some genes were the only thing they left in any amount.
If one were to dump a dozen British citizens in the middle of North America in 1000 AD they probably would not have been able to replace their tools when they wore out. I do think they would have figured out a was to use the wheel tho.
I wonder, actually I believe, it had more to do with culture. Something in their culture was holding them back. They built enormous cities, roads, had cement and other innovations, but left it at that. Some way of thinking was limiting them, I believe.
> yarddog wrote: That is a very good point and one which is hard to explain if Europeans did visit America in ancient times.
And that’s a great point — but if the visits amounted to trade only, or small colonies that were later abandoned, assimilated, or wiped out, maybe not so much.
The lack of the wheel (apart from children’s toys) is difficult to fathom, but then again, they appear to have lacked much in the way of draft animals (llamas, sled dogs, that’s about it, other than the possibility of PreColumbian horses), and the rickshaw isn’t much of an improvement over walking. :’)
No wheel, but Ollantaytambo, Peru:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciJgYXbnGsE
The photos will be in my book
It isn’t a root cellar. I think it was made by someone (Irish or Welsh) before Columbus. The Newport Tower is another mystery. I think it was Vikings.
Don’t forget Americas Stone Henge in North Salem, NH and Table Rock, a Dolmen in Lynn, Ma, that isn’t the official name we called it that when I was a kid.
I read that coal (from RI) were found in a Viking settlement in Greenland. I think Vinland was the southern New England area.
This is a great thread, lots to unpack here. Somehow, I had not heard of the Westford knight.
The supposed Westford Knight (Sir James Gunn) is supposedly my ancestor. Not totally convinced that Sinclair made this voyage, but makes for neat stories.
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