Ancient Romans In Texas?

Science Frontiers online ^ | Nov-Dec 1993 | William Corliss

[Hellmouth]

ANCIENT ROMANS IN TEXAS?

If one searches long enough and hard enough, one can discover hints that just about any ancient culture you care to name set foot in the New World well before the Vikings and Columbus. Old coins, inscriptions, language concordances, and the like are taken by many as proofs that Egyptians visited Oklahoma, the Chinese moored along the Pacific coast, the Celts toured New England, and so on. Now, according to Professor V. Belfiglio, the ancient Romans had Texas on their itineraries.

Belfiglio's evidence is fourfold, and so are mainstream criticisms:

• Roman coins found in Texas. The most convincing example came from the bottom of an Indian mound at Round Rock. This mound is dated at approximately 800 AD. Skeptics suppose that the coin was dropped on top of the mound in recent times and was carried to the bottom by rodents and tree roots. Hmmm!

• The remains of a shipwreck. Circa 1886, the wreck of an unusual ship was found in Galveston Bay. Belfiglio says this ship's construction is typically Roman. Nautical experts doubt this. but they will admit that real Roman craft were perfectly capable of sailing to Texas.

• The remains of an ancient bridge. Also in Galveston Bay, the timbers of an old bridge were found under 15 feet of sediment. A similar divergence of opinion prevails here.

• Language concordances. Belfiglio has pointed out many similarities between Latin and a dialect of the now-extinct Karankawas tribe. No comment here from the language experts.

(Lee, Victoria; "Professor Explores Theory of Romans' Ancient Voyage," Dallas Morning News, June 13, 1993. Cr. T. Adams via L. Farish.)

[harrowup]

De Soto didn't fare too well in Texas either.

Hah!! Did better than Edsel.

[blam]

GGG Ping. (We have Romans everywhere tonight, lol)

[goldstategop]

I keep thinking of the Clive Cussler novel in which Dirk Pitt discovers a late Roman find beneath where else? - Rome, Texas. Anything after the Fourth Century CE would be called Byzantine in the West even though the appelation is incorrect. The Romans survived down to the middle of the fifteen century.

[ChicagoHebrew]

It's not terribly suprising that Romans might have visited Texas, or other places in the New World. I can imagine that of the million of Roman ships that travelled over their empire, a few would have gotten lost and possibly wound up in the New World. I highly doubt that such voyages would have been anything more than one-way trips.

Given the tremendous amount of documentation we have from the Romans, if there were active trade routes or bilateral contacts between Rome and the New World, we'd know about them.

[JackelopeBreeder]

Shortly after returning to the States with my Korean wife, we stopped at one of the Navajo trading posts off I-40 near the Arizona-New Mexico border. My wife was quite embarrassed when she mistook two young Navajo women for fellow Koreans.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, Blam, for the bump. I'm going to triple-G this thread, but only ping those who have posted in it or were posted from it. :') IOW, I've not added anyone to a ping list, so please don't write in. Unless...

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.

[blam]

"My wife was quite embarrassed when she mistook two young Navajo women for fellow Koreans."

I had an American Indian associate at work. We had a group of Japanese engineers visit our work site for a year (they brought their families). Then, we had a 'get-together' of the American and Japanese families. Everyone made a comment about how the American Indian kids looked just like the Japanese kids.

[Grut]

Didn't Clive Cussler have this in one of the Dirk Pitt novels?

Clive Cussler has had everything in one of the Dirk Pitt novels!

[R. Scott]

I highly doubt that such voyages would have been anything more than one-way trips.

Any return trip for the Romans would have required knowledge of the Gulf Stream current. The later European sailors learned of it from fishing in the North Atlantic and the Grand Banks.
Columbus and his crews were fortunate in having ships far more advanced than the Roman galleys. Their carracks carried far more sail area and could carry enough fresh water and food for the return voyage - made against the Atlantic currents.

[MARTIAL MONK]

Now you've done it. You've loosed the curse of the ancient post. Go back and take a look at the names of the origional posters to this thread. A surprising number have vanished into cyberspace with only faint tracings of "This account has been banned or suspended" to mark their passing. By reopening this you have exposed us all to whatever mysterious forces secured their demise. We're doomed.

[Junior]

...dated at approximately 800 AD...

Ah, illiteracy rears its ugly head. The "AD" goes before the date. When I see glaring and stupid errors such as this, I have a tendency to discount the rest of the article as not being worthy of reading. I probably miss out on a lot of information because of this, but in my opinion, if one can't get the simple stuff right, why should one be trusted with more important matters?

[OldEagle]

I have noticed the similarity of the Koreans and American Indians. That could give a whole new meaning to Native American

[asgardshill]

but did they wear boots and belt buckles the size of dinner plates?

If their boots were the size of dinner plates, then that settles it - they were either ancient Romans or Bozo the Clown.

[RightOnline]

LOL..........the belt buckles, not the boots.......:) Anyone who has lived in Texas knows exactly what I'm talking about, too. :)

[asgardshill]

the belt buckles, not the boots

My bad. (I was going to do some riff about the ancient Romans water-skiing to Texas on those wide boots, but Bozo the Clown imagery always makes me giggle).

[ZULU]

This might be a stupid question, but we always hear about alleged pre-Columbian crossings from Europe to North America.

What about the reverse?? If one was technologically possible, why not the other?

[Little Ray]

Of course they were in Texas. They hid the remains of the Great Library of Alexandria there. I read it in a Clive Cussler novel.

[albee]

"Atsa 'cause there were no refin'ries ta getta the gas for a Desoto when those explorers came drivin' tru... 'owsa that one, boss?"

LOL! I think you and I are the only ones on this page who know what a De Soto is.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

The very fact that it is "Texas" is sufficient to warrant the "time, effort, and hazard" of travelling across the world.

I believe they came to watch the girls on South Padre Island, or perhaps the BBQ, or a really good steak. You just can't get good BBQ in Italy.

Oh maybe it was Tex-Mex!

[Centurion2000]

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