Secret Voyages:
True Adventure Stories from
the Forbidden Chronicles of
American Discovery
by Gunnar Thompson,
foreword by Gavin Menzies,
ed by Matthew Bridgeway
Posted on 06/18/2007 9:36:03 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Over the course of his 30-year journey, Thompson has written five books, all self-published, detailing what he believes to be conclusive evidence that, long before 1492, the Americas were explored repeatedly -- by the ancient Chinese, Venetians, Egyptians, Romans, Vikings, Irish, English and who-knows-who-else. He argues, for example, that a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, commanding a fleet of Chinese junks in the early 1400s, explored the coasts of the Americas. He believes that Marco Polo sailed with the Chinese into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and perhaps into Puget Sound in the 13th century. He is convinced that Sir Francis Drake sailed these waters some 300 years later. And he has copies of maps that he believes prove each claim... Three years ago, Thompson finally found an intellectual ally in Gavin Menzies, a former British naval officer who has written his own controversial book, called "1421," (Penguin, 2004) about the pre-Columbian voyages of Zheng He. They spent three days in a Seattle motel room studying each other's maps and exchanging ideas. Menzies eventually wrote a glowing introduction to Thompson's new book.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Secret Voyages:
True Adventure Stories from
the Forbidden Chronicles of
American Discovery
by Gunnar Thompson,
foreword by Gavin Menzies,
ed by Matthew Bridgeway
Gunnar Thompson talks about his long study of ancient maps. Before him is a copy of what he says is a 1418 map showing North and South America. -- Gary Settle / Special to the Seattle Times
A copy of a 1418 Ming map, said to have been found in a Shanghai antique shop by Beijing antiquities scholar Liu Gang, is held up by Gunnar Thompson as evidence that Asian explorers sailed the world long before Columbus. Critics doubt the map is authentic. -- Gary Settle / Special to the Seattle Times
Zheng He (?)
BumP
China beat Columbus to it, perhaps
The Economist | Jan 12th 2006 | unknown
Posted on 01/14/2006 12:05:19 AM EST by tbird5
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1557913/posts
Rat DNA Clues To Sea Migration
BBC | 6-8-2004
Posted on 06/08/2004 4:51:08 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1149993/posts
Island Hopping To A New World
U.S. News | 2/23/2004 | Alex Markels
Posted on 02/18/2004 5:24:06 PM EST by Fedora
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1080760/posts
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
The Mystery of Zheng He and America
A 7-cm diameter plain brass medal with the inscription “Authorized
and awarded by XuanDe of Great Ming” was unearthed several
hundred miles inland from the American east coast.
When China Ruled the Seas:
The Treasure Fleet of
the Dragon Throne,
1405-1433
by Louise Levathes1421:
The Year China Discovered America
by Gavin Menzies
Thanks!
So we’re Chinese. Explains a lot.
Does he have a theory as to why the Chinese didn’t stay? Or were they killed off or die of illness? Or?
Dunno, haven’t seen the book, just posted the article. That said, I’m not sure how anyone could tell if they stayed or not, or how long they stayed, etc.
I used to work with a woman whose husband was of Chinese heritage. His ancestors came to the US to work on the transcontinental railroads back in the mid-1800s. He didn’t look Chinese, he looked Italian and so did his sister.
I'm with the critics. That is an awfully good map for 1418. Beats European maps by two or three centuries.
While the Chinese could probably figure latitude okay, they certainly couldn't figure longitude accurately, since they didn't have chronometers. Accurate maps without good chronometers and many observations is just not possible.
DNA
As a Creationist, personally find those who openly mock those who hold view contrary to their own on issues dealing with history to be offensive.
And personally consider it to be improbable that all that many people visited the Americas before Columbus--though there were some. As for Columbus being the 'first,' Leif Erikson (Errikson?) is pretty much nailed down, today. Those who consider that bunk are now in the minority among experts in the field.
Americans definitely aren't English--they're American.
And some Americans are of Chinese descent.
Funding for further exploration was cut after the emperor who funded Cheng Ho died.
And Cheng Ho is quite confirmed as having been an explorer. He explored the east coast of Africa and brought a giraffe back to China. What is debated is if his travels went further.
My understanding is that most educated people, even during the Middle Ages, were aware that the world is a sphere. Certainly the Muslims were. The standard cosmography was that of Ptolemy, in which the Earth was the innermost sphere.
It is pretty difficult to be an intelligent, observant seaman and not come to this conclusion. The high mountains become visible first as you approach land, the hull of a boat disappears with distance, then the sails, etc.
I believe the flat earth idea was pretty well limited to the uneducated, although that was the vast majority of the population at the time. For instance, Columbus never worried about sailing off the edge of the world, and there is no evidence that any of those he applied to for funding were concerned about it either. They worried only about how far he’d have to sail to get to Asia, based on Ptolemy’s estimate of the size of the Earth, which turned out to be close. If the Americas hadn’t been there, Columbus and his crew would have all died long before they reached the Indies.
the standard idea at the time was a flat world.That's not true. That idea that Columbus disproved that the world was flat doesn't occur in anything contemporary with Columbus, it was made up by some isolationist crank in the 19th century.
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