What about the Irish, Ogam, petroglyphs found in a cave in West Virginia's, Wyoming County in 1983. These Irish/Runic writings are dated about AD 500 to AD 800. The story of these findings were printed in the State of West (by God) Virginias magazine, "Wonderful West Virginia".
Ancient Irish legends have always told of "St. Brendans Fair Isle", far off to the West.
If you ask me, and I know you aren't, the ChiComs are a bit late in their boast.
Don't ya' know.
The Adena People
The Adena folk were unusually tall and powerfully built; women over six feet tall and men approaching heights of seven feet have been discovered.
It would seem that a band of strikingly different people of great presence and majesty had forced their way into the Ohio Valley from somewhere about 1000 B.C. - Robert Silverberg
And Columbus' last European port was Galway, Ireland where he picked up an Irish navigator who had already been to the "New World". The Irishman turned out to have been the first one to reach and step on the shore with the landing party.
And, I don't want to hear that he was just looking for a pub!
Back to the topic, I know all that stuff about the Chinaman is true because I saw it in the Prince Valiant comic strip a year or two ago.
I didn't know Zheng He was a commie back in 14th century. Thanks for the scoop.