Replies

Blue and white porcelain shards, broken Chinese porcelain, have been dug out of Oregon coast beaches for centuries. Early explorers were surprised to find Indians in the Oregon territories wearing very old pieces of Chinese porcelain shards as beads and personal adornment.

Even today blue and white porcelain shards are occasionally exposed on the beaches. This leads me to believe the Chinese, or the Japanese, were coming around the Pacific too, perhaps at the same time.

What I find interesting is the historical comparison this story presents us. The Chinese could have settled the western hemisphere but instead withdrew unto themselves. We, the United States, are on the brink of moving into the frontier of near-earth space but seem tied down with earth-bound tribulations.

So, who will eventually venture out and reap the metal riches to be found in near-earth asteroids? And they are indeed very rich, with platinum group metals, known as PGMs.

One medium-sized PGM asteroid is equal to the earth's gross economic product for one year!

If the Chinese had been bolder the United States would never have existed, and as for the future...?

Phoenican artifacts wre found in Rio De Janiero. The point is that the pre-Viking visitors to America got here after long, grueling voyages, lost and nearly starved to death. And with no way of returning home. The all-male crews could not sustain themselves, and more or less camped out until they all died.

The Chinese could have settled the western hemisphere but instead withdrew unto themselves.

I know the true story of this but the details escape me. The Dynasty tha ruled China did send out huge junks to many parts of the world to gather information and bring back samples and impress the barbarians. Once those huge junks returned the Emperor decided that the Chinese had nothing to learn from the outside world and burned the fleet, banned contact with outsiders and closed itself from the outside world. China was centuroes ahead of any civilization in terms of technology then but the isolation doomed China by the time the Europeans caught up with the Chinese during the industrial revolution.

Did the Vikings visit America? Yes and we have their uncovered Canadian settlements as proof. Did Polynesians visit South America? Probably. Did any Europeans and West Africans? Maybe. There is the enigma of Cocaine and tabacco traces found among mummies. Greek charts used by Columbus did declare that there was a land mass in the Atlantic but they were vague as to what it was or where.

Visist may have occured but they may have had only superficial impacts on those of the old and new worlds. Even Columbus did not know it was the New World so it is doubtful other explorers or shipwrecked castaways knew what they found when they got to the Americas.

The introduction of that much palladium would depress palladium prices, so that's not quite right. Something similar happened when the Spanish brought back massive quantities of silver from the New World. Ask yourself this: would you trade half your property for a bunch of palladium? Nah; no use for it. On the other hand, I'm all for space exploration.