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To: Eleutheria5; Sirius Lee; SunkenCiv
Doing so requires either knowing where to catch the right wind, which is how Columbus did it, or having galleys of rowers, who would need to be fed, which would require a large hold for provisions.

Well yes and now - the ancient Polynesians colonized all of the Pacific over vaster distances. The key thing is motivation: What motivated the European age of exploration? Note that it started in the Iberian peninsula and was boosted after 1453:

  1. A sense of taking the fight to the Mohammedans and attacking them "from behind" - coupled with stories of Prestor John

  2. The ottomans cutting off the "(overland) trade with India

Why would the Romans want to improve sea trade when they controlled the land trade? As it is Rome was losing gold to India for purchasing spices and cotton. There was no point

And even more so, an open sea blue water sailing. No point

Even more so for pre-Assyrian Egypt - they had need of next to nothing: maybe some lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, but beyond that? meh.

17 posted on 06/03/2024 4:19:41 AM PDT by Cronos (I identify as an ambulance, my pronounces are wee/woo)
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To: Cronos
The monsoon trade with India antedates Roman expansion into Egypt, apparently dating back to Sumerian times. The Sumerians themselves wrote that they arrived in the region with their oldest presence being in Persian Gulf ports, and their placenames (rivers, cities) are not Sumerian words.

Egyptians themselves had an intermittent but continual interest in expanding beyond the Nile valley, into Sinai and beyond, even in the predynastic or "dynasty zero" era. Egyptian navigation of the Red Sea reaches back at least into Middle Kingdom times.

'The Story of Wenamun' has an uncertain date but records (or dramatizes) a Late Kingdom voyage to get cedars from Lebanon, a practice that began well before the Late Kingdom, as there are Old Kingdom examples, but those could have arrived via merchant ships from what is now Lebanon.
Most of the Punt keyword, sorted:

21 posted on 06/03/2024 6:06:29 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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