[ex-Texan]

Good post! In the past five years wrecked Pheonician vessels have been found off the coast of South America. There are web sites that claim they might have reached England as well. Vikings and Pheonicians were marvelous boat builders and accomplished sailers.

[Chris Talk]

MIGHT HAVE REACHED England!

They operated the tin mines in Cornwall and the Scilly Isles for some 2000 years, c2400- c 400 BC.

[Cronos]

There are web sites that claim they might have reached England as well. Vikings and Pheonicians were marvelous boat builders and accomplished sailers.

The phoenicians reaching Britain seems highly possible and regular trading seems equally likely -- after all the Phoenician legends DO talk about the islands of tin. As for them reaching America, possible, but not a regular trading occurence (though I'm again looking at it from a modern perspective -- the ancients would have thought nothin of a 3 to 4 year trading journey, carried out once in say 20 years or longer, like the Old Kingdom traded with Ethiopia c 2000 B.C.).

The Viking ships were more built for speed and attack, not trade. but they were great ship builders -- for different reasons than the Phoenicians -- getting away from their miserable, infertile, northern lands.