Posted on 08/09/2007 3:28:45 AM PDT by HAL9000
Possible discovered of America by Marco Polo before Colomb: account in VSD
'America - its West coast - would have been discovered by Marco Polo some 200 years before Christophe Colomb, according to a chart of the Library of the Congress in Washington examined since 1943 by the FBI and whose history is told in published review VSD Wednesday. This document, brought to the Library in 1933 by Marcian Rossi, an American naturalized citizen originating in Italy, “represents a boat beside a chart showing part of India, China, Japan, the Eastern Indies and North America”, indicates the report/ratio of the librarian of the time.
Called “Map-with-ship” (Chart with a boat), this document carries “a blazon drawn under the ship, an intersection of letters giving a name: Marco Polo. The strait which separates Siberia from Alaska is the principal subject of the chart”, notes the author of the article of VSD, the author and realizer Thierry Secretan.
This one tells that an examination carried out into 1943 with the ultraviolet rays by the FBI, American safety, “made it possible to establish the presence of three inkings on this chart, which was thus modernized in time”. The report/ratio evokes several assumptions, of which the possibility that “Marco Polo, who returned to Venice in 1295, reported in Europe the first information on the existence of North America, others that those acquired by the Scandinavian explorers”.
“If this chart is well of Marco Polo, it arrived to America two centuries before Colomb and drew the strait which separates Asia from America four centuries before this last does not appear on the European charts”, Thierry Secretan underlines.
The discovery of America is allotted to Christophe Colomb, in 1492.
Marco Polo, who forever spoken in the relation about his voyages of any discovered of ground in the zone of Alaska, said to his friends on his bed of dead: “I did not write half of what I saw”, Thierry Secretan recalls.
My wife, who is Chippewa Indian always gets a kick out of these discussion about who ‘discovered’ America... and then misnamed the people who lived here...
The image might not be of the actual map but a redraw. The old manuscripts were usually kind of sketchy.
“The landmass to the right someone marked Alaska is actually Japan.”
Then what are the islands marked “Japan?” The Philippines?
Australia is also on the map and drawn much smaller than it really is. Although there were maps done by these ancient sailors, they weren’t up to modern standards and were usually kept in the same locker with the huge emeralds, huge rubies, and gold chalices and haven’t beeen seen since either. There is a map, no doubt, but this probably isn’t it but a copy.
The maps served two purposes ~ how to get there, in general, and what to do once you got there.
Think of them as packed, coded data streams. As long as the mariner could decipher the coded material, he could make the trip and have a good time.
Trade networks apparently existed (by the goods found) which brought copper in from Michigan, Abalone shell from the west coast, Mica from the Carolinas, other materials up from the Gulf, etc.
Judging from point typologies I and others found on the West Virginia/Virginia border which ranged from Savanah River types from the Carolinas to point types from PA and NY, and other mid-continent types from further west, it is fair to say that extensive trade networks existed moving goods all over the continent.
If Lewis and Clark could travel to the ocean from St. Joe, you can bet it had already been done by traders moving goods from tribe to tribe. Primary trade routes were rivers, not interstates, but many later roads followed overland trails used by the indigenous residents long before.
Was there a cat sitting on his bed?
These are called the Piri Ries maps (various spellings of that).
We have only Columbus' word concerning when he got them. When younger he used to sail for Rene of Anjou (Isabella's grandfather) to Iceland to get wool to carry to Turkey to be turned into rugs to be shipped to Europe for sale.
He was also involved in Rene's war against Padua to capture Leonardo da Vinci to take to France.
We know from relatively recent findings in the Prado that Columbus had an earlier trip to America ~ circa 1486 ~ but he didn't tell anyone about it. Pig bones were once dug up at the site Columbus says he first landed in Cuba. They were radiocarbon dated to about 1486.
So, yes, Europeans, to wit Columbus and his friends, were sailing to the Americas earlier. In 1493 on his return he barely avoided capture by Jao of Portugual and had to sail into a public port at which point all was revealed.
His wife was one of Jao's cousins I gather.
Note, at that time the seal were still plentiful in the Maritimes and were eating all the 2 year old cod who do all the reproductive work for the stocks, so there weren't many cod to fish in that area. That comes later after sealers virtually exterminate the seal on the East Coast.
Polo Mo.?
Polo Mo.?
Whoa....
Does this mean we all have ‘columbus shirts’ instead of Polo’s?
Sheesh, this could tear the fabric of the universe if we aren’t careful.....
I don’t mean to dispute your numbers. But I’m really interested in where that estimate of the population of pre-Columbian N. America came from and how it was calculated.
The English were eating turkeys in the 1300s, and had corn to feed them. They were called turkeys because it was thought they came from Turkey. The English were also fishing off Newfoundland in the 1300s although they had to dodge the Norwegians who were blockading the ports to prevent English contact with America.
Was he blindfolded at the time?
You may be thinking of the chicken in South America. It's the same species as the chicken in Africa but was introduced long before Columbus by Polynesians (or others) sailng in from the West. Try this article at http://sciencenewsmagazine.org/articles/20070609/fob4.asp
But, the Euros were latecomers. The Egyptians and the Hebrews were trading with S America and California 2500 years ago
Otherwayaround ~ the guys making cocaine did the trip ~ we just haven’t found out how they did it.
Solomon sailed east to California.
Let's just say they rediscovered it.
Solomon was a busy man ~ hardly had the time to take off a couple of years to visit San Fran ~ besides, Africa was much closer and had more readily available gold.
Maybe, but Sutter’s Mill, California was easy enough to get to and a pleasant trip. Africa has nasty things like crocs and mosquitoes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.