Also, read Barry Fell's book, America BC.
Thanks--interesting link, esp. the part about the coins which I hadn't heard before. I think I remember Heyerdahl also talking about some of the plants common to the Old and New World which may have been indicative of trade. On Fell, I read Fell's book a while back and remember that his Egyptian/Carthaginian/Iberian epigraph, mentioned on the link you give, was one of the things that got me started thinking about this--that and the cultural parallels I mentioned in my other post. Unfortunately I don't own a copy of the book so I've forgotten some of the details he gives--I seem to remember him also talking about Celtic runes, which was one of the reasons I was considering the possibility of a Phoenician-Scythian-Celt connection.
This is a statue unearthed from an Olmec Ruin (1200-300BC) in Mexico.
Does this fit Keithtoo's description of Phoenicians he made in post #18?
"I have a friend from Lebanon - who by the way insists he is NOT Arab - he is Phoenician."
"He says, that whenever you see a man from the Mediterranean region, whether from Lebanon, or Greece, or Italy, or France, Spain, Egypt etc. If he is short, pudgy and bald, "he is one of us", says my friend."