Posted on 01/17/2006 5:00:33 PM PST by presidio9
Ping
I think the story goes like this. The Chinese came to North America, found nothing interesting and left. There was also a leadership strife in China at the time. The map was given or sold to the Europeans through existing trading channels. The implication is that Columbus knew there was land here before he set sail.
Here's a little bit of trivia. There is an ancient Chinese ship anchor found in Palos Verdes, California.
I don't happen to have the details of his argument, but it was pretty persuasive. Of course, he was talking about the "Piri Reis" map owned by Christopher Columbus.
There's yet another theory that Admiral He undertook his voyages upon acquiring information of even more ancient vintage.
Personally, I think a lot of people knew land was there. Again, the Romans were here 2000 years ago. Perhaps Marco Polo told Kublia Khan about it.
The Chinese discovered it, didn't know what to do with it.
(which is really weird, because all the Chinese I've worked with
are pretty danged smart.)
Smart isn't enough to overcome bureaucracy, which the Chinese also invented. It held them back, as it is holding us back now.
Good candidates for the "culture bearers" who brought that instrument are the Vikings.
On the other hand, in truly ancient times there just about had to be cocaine dealers from Bolivia making it all the way to the Mediterranean!
Do a 'Google' search; in the last couple of years it has been shown how the depiction of Christ on the 'Shroud of Turin' could have been fabricated some 5 or 6 hundred years ago.
We have two seperate 1st century Roman shipwrecks in very different parts of South America that prove the Romans were here. What we don't know is if anyone ever returned to Europe.
Yeah, so?
Otherwise you need to imagine exceedingly large Chinese ships navigating the Straits of Magellan.
The multi-stage rocket was developed much later by Schmidlapp in Germany or Austria.
It's noteworthy that the broad outlines of cannons were developed by the Turks, and that the Europeans undertook to improve the design substantially. This effort resulted in today's modern handguns (and everything else).
The Shroud of Turin has not, BTW, been demonstrated to be some sort of forgery. I think you are remembering the radio-carbon dating made of thread used to repair burns left in the shroud in the Middle Ages.
I think the bow and arrow thing demonstrates there were no meaningful visits to the New World from the Old World until about 800 AD. Then all hell broke loose.
This is BS, the map is a cheap knock-off and forged, the Chinese excel at this kind of thing!
They are more full of shite' than a Christmas Turkey BUMP!
This screams fraud to me. Even if Chinese mariners made it to the Pacific Coast of North America... this map shows the east coast of the Americas, too. How did the Chinese fleet uncover Antarctica and Australia? Why did the Chinese hide their knowledge of the Americas and Asia being separated by ocean when no one else in the world knew it until Vitus Bering? If this Chinese mariner did circumnavigate the world, he surely ran into other cultures - where are the stories from those cultures? A fleet of a 1,000 ships showing up in your local river would be enough to prompt generations of oral tradition. Where are all the artifacts left behind no doubt by sailors on a 1,000 ship fleet? The fleet brought home a giraffe to Beijing from Africa - why not a kangaroo, or a grizzly bear, or a narwhal? I say: PROBABLY FRAUD
I got a map around here that shows that I discovered China!!!
"The map is dated to 1763 but is also clearly marked that it is a copy of a map made in 1418..."
I really don't see how that much detail could be in a map made in 1418, even if this guy's discovery was authentic. It's one thing to "discover America," but this guy also apparently discovered the Gulf of Mexico, Hudson Bay, the Ithsmus of Panama, Alaska, the St. Laurence Seaway, the Yukon, the Isle of Catalina, Hawaii, Australia, Europe, the Berring Strait, Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Mediteranian, the Black Sea, Japan, Greenland, Bermuda, India, Antactica, the Phillipines, etc....
And oddly enough, his depiction of his homeland, China, doesn't seem to be as accurate as his depiction of a lot of other places.
Say! I just realized... It's not a map. I see a picture of Jesus!
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