Posted on 01/20/2006 8:18:53 AM PST by blam
Of course the Chinese didn't discover America. But then nor did Columbus
A map supporting claims that the admiral Zheng He reached the New World in the early 15th century is plainly a hoax
Simon Jenkins
Friday January 20, 2006
The Guardian (UK)
We all know that a lie goes halfway round the world while truth is putting on its boots. But what if the lie goes the whole way? What if it claims to circumnavigate the globe?
Last week came purported evidence that the Chinese admiral Zheng He sailed his great fleet of junks round the world a century before Columbus, Da Gama and Magellan. An 18th-century copy of a map dated 1418 has emerged from a Shanghai bookshop, depicting North and South America, Australia and Antarctica. The map was bought by a Chinese lawyer, Liu Gang, and was reportedly to go on display on Tuesday in London's Maritime Museum. (The museum denies all knowledge of it.) The map challenges the customary Euro-centric version of global discovery and can thus rely on a weight of political correctness in support. It appears to stake China's claim to have "discovered" America first.
This comes as a surprise to those of us who know for a fact that America was discovered by Prince Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd in 1170. He landed at Mobile, Alabama, on the orders of the family druid and asserted Wales's claim to King Arthur's North Atlantic empire. Making his way across country, he settled west of the Mississippi, where the Mandan tribe were encountered in the 18th century, fair-skinned and speaking a dialect of Welsh. Unfortunately Madoc's arrival had been forestalled by St Brendan in the seventh century. He sailed to America in a leather-bound coracle, as Tim Severin proved in 1977.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
You could probably buy what's left of the Biloxi-Ocean Springs Hghwy 90 bridge for a pretty reasonable price, but I should think that the removal costs would be pretty steep. Katrina really did a number of it, and there's talk of spending about $400 million to replace it and the other three bridges on Back bay that were lost to the storm.
Yes.
See L'Anse aux Meadows in a search engine.
The Vindland Saga gives a detailed but difficult narrative of the discovery of a new country - not by Lief The Lucky Ericcson, but by Bjarni Herjolfsson (spelling) who SAW the place after getting lost in a days-long fog, and then returned to Greenland to report it. He didn't land though. Guess he was Bjarni the Timid. But then he was on a trading trip, not a colonizing venture.
Ericsson came later. There are indications that after Ericsson failed colony, Vikings from GReenland continued to come to American for some time for wood and other purposes.
I believe Columbus may have actually visited Iceland and seen the Saga and some maps before his voyage.
Columbus' first landing was in the Bahamas.
The article sure says "we know for a fact" a lot to describe a lot of theories. For instance, we certainly do not know for a fact that King Arthur was a conbination of two people. Geoffrey Ashe disputes this.
Viking artifacts have been found in Heavener, Oklahoma.
I guess those longboats has shallow drafts!
The longboats actually drew only about 4 feet of water or so. This was to allow them to slip across sand bars and secretly attack a port without a pilot.
But Ericsson and the others probably weren't using long boats. In all probabiity they were using trading ships with much larger drafts.
If any Viking Artifacts turned up in Oklahoma, it was proably through trade by local indians with northeastern Indians.
Just goes to show that those who figure out how to make a profit...Columbus...get the credit, and those that figure out how to market it...Amerigo Vespucci...get to name it.
Look at the Windover site in Titusville Florida
8000 year old bodies preserved in a bog.
Intact brains with recoverable DNA.
Looks like northern european DNA in the latest tests.
They are now trying to find the village/region in Northern europe that they are most closely related to.
History appears to have many unanswered questions in the America's.
Darn those priests who burned the mayan codexes and suppresed native oral traditions, might have been a few gems in there.
And every time Columbus came here, he thought he was in India. So much for discovery.
The trick is the mummies had cocaine in the body cells. Cocaine, in that period thousands of years ago was available only in the Andean highlands.
Following up on the idea, a town site that resembles the model prescribed for Atlantas was, in fact, found in the Andean highlands. For what it's worth, you'd better believe some guys from South America with a boatload of blow would be remembered for a very long time in ancient Egypt ~ or anywhere else for that matter.
The peddlers appear to have not returned to America for another load. Else, they'd brought the idea for the bow and arrow with them. It wasn't until about 800 AD that anyone showed up with a bow and arrow in America.
The term Assassin originally referred to a heretical Islamic order known as the Hashshashin. According to one derivation, the word means "those who use hashish" (cannabis resin) in Arabic because, according to Crusader histories, that group used to ingest hashish before carrying out military or assassination operations, in order to be fearless. The group, known as the Nizari Ismailis, was a Shia order who believed in the notion of the hazir imam and was organized as a secret underground political order, which infiltrated areas under the control of Seljuk Turks. In 1090 the sect captured a castle called Alamut in the mountains of Northern Iran. This sect was said to carry out assassinations of the enemies of the order, or Muslim rulers they believed to be impious. The earliest known record of the word in English dates back to 1603, referring to this sect rather than its more general modern sense.
What matters on the political scene today is not who discovered America, but who forgot it. ;)
Viking relics were also found in Minnesota. My mother-in-law is NoDak Norwegian and at 92 is a marvelous Viking Relic!!
Typo?
Nevermind, didnt realize you were quoting. Sorry.
The Turkish Admiral Piri Reis was responsible for the first map to correctly portray the eastern coast of North and South America. When I visited the Naval Museum in Istanbul there was an entire room devoted to his maps. I asked if I could see the original "Piri Reis" map of North America. I was told no, it's not there, it's in Topkapi Palace. Later, when I was touring Topkapi Palace, I asked to see the map. I was told no, it's in the Naval Museum. I hope somebody knows where it is. Anyway, the Naval Museum had a copy of the original, which I was able to see.
Personal communications with the guy who did the original tests indicate that the samples were contaminated with 'present-day' DNA. He has turned the testing over to another lab and they won't reveal where they stand regarding the DNA tests on these samples. So...
Is this why Indian's were found, I believe in NC, with blue eyes and blond hair?
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