[indcons]

My point was about intercontinental travel; traveling within ?Caribbean islands and South America hardly counts as intercontinental travel, don't you think so?

Additionally, proof of "South American culture in Mississippian sites" is not proof of sea travel. These findings might have come through the land route.

My original question remains unanswered - if the Amerindians had the technology, why didn't they use it to conduct trade? Every sea faring culture (Phoenicians, Vikings, East Indians, and Chinese amoong others) that had the technology conducted trade through sea routes. The Amerindians did not; there is no evidence to that sea-based trade was mastered by the Amerindians.

[muawiyah]

The Caribes had boats and were also moving into Florida. In fact, blood type studies demonstrate conclusively that there was an expanding arc of South American Indians moving into the American South.

BTW, the Caribe would have had a tough time doing an overland thing around the Gulf Coast because the fierce (and highly civilized) peoples of Meso America would have had them for lunch ~ the Aztecs, for one, didn't play games.