Thanks - I had forgotten the bit about tobacco.
BTW: some think that the huge ancient copper mines in upper Michigan (the land of Punt?) were mined by the Egyptians - as there is no way that Indians used as much copper as came from the mines; and in fact that copper may have fueled the Copper Age - as no other mines have been found to account for the tonnage used by the Egyptians and others.
I’d heard of much the same thing but it was the Phoneticians or Carthaginians (pretty much the same folks?) who’d worked the mines in that AO.
The same people were credited with starting the “the big ocean out there turns to mud and you’ll get stuck!” thing to help keep competitors from the Med from intruding on their source.