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| Ancient Amphorae at the Bottom of the Sea |
Hello My Friend and Welcome.
As a youngster did you learn the rhyme, “In 1492, Columbus sailed
the ocean blue?” Despite what the rhyme taught us, we now know that Columbus
was most likely not the first to set foot on the American continents. Believers
in pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact propose interaction between indigenous
peoples of the Americas who settled the Americas before 10,000 BC, and peoples
of other continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, or Oceania), which occurred centuries
before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean in 1492.
CLAIMS OF
PRE-COLUMBIAN CONTACT
Many such contacts have been proposed, based on historical
accounts, archaeological finds, and cultural comparisons. However, claims of
such contacts are controversial and much debated, due in part to the ambiguous
or circumstantial evidence cited by proponents.
The scientific responses to most claims range from serious
consideration in peer-reviewed publications to a quick dismissal. Despite the barrage
of negativity, believers continue to press their claims. One of the most
famous, Thor Heyerdahl, sailed 3,770 nautical
miles across the Pacific Ocean on his self-built raft, the Kon-Tiki,
from South America to the Tuamotu Islands in 1947. The expedition was designed
to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating
contacts between apparently separate cultures.
IS NEWFOUNDLAND
ACTUALLY VINLAND?
Even though journeys to North America are supported by literary,
historical and archaeological evidence, only one instance of pre-Columbian
European contact – the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland,
Canada c. 1000 AD – is accepted by scholars as demonstrated.
In 1961, archaeologists Helge and Anne Ingstad uncovered the
remains of a Norse settlement at the L'Anse aux Meadows archaeological site on
the northernmost tip of Newfoundland, Canada. A connection is frequently drawn
between L'Anse aux Meadows and the Vinland sagas. These are written versions of
older oral histories that recount the temporary settlement of an area to the
west of Greenland, called Vinland, led by a Norse explorer, Leif Erikson. It is
possible that Vinland may have been Newfoundland. Finds on Baffin Island
suggest a Norse presence there after L'Anse aux Meadows was abandoned.
HENRY SINCLAIR’S 14TH
CENTURY VOYAGE
But there is other tempting evidence. People claim that carvings
in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland depict Indian corn, or maize. Henry I Sinclair,
Earl of Orkney and feudal baron of Roslin (1345 –1400) was a Scottish nobleman.
He is remembered because of the legend that he took part in explorations of
Greenland and North America almost 100 years before Christopher Columbus. William
Sinclair, Henry’s grandson and 1st Earl of Caithness, built the
Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh, Scotland in the mid 15th Century. Maize
was unknown in Europe at the time and not cultivated there until hundreds of
years later. This would seem to prove that Henry Sinclair, travelled to the
Americas and returned with ears of corn. Like everything in this field, this
conclusion is not without controversy. Others interpret the carvings as stylized
depictions of wheat, strawberries or lilies.
MADOC IN THE 12TH
CENTURY
According to British
legend, Madoc, a prince from Wales, explored the Americas as early as 1170.
While most scholars consider this legend to be untrue, it was used as
justification for British claims to the Americas, based on the notion of a
Briton arriving before other European nationalities. Local legend holds that
Devil's Backbone, a rock formation near Louisville, Kentucky, was used as a
citadel by Madoc and his companions. A memorial tablet erected at Fort Morgan
in Mobile Bay, Alabama reads: "In memory of Prince Madog, a Welsh
explorer, who landed on the shores of Mobile Bay in 1170 and left behind, with
the Indians, the Welsh language." The Mandan tribe of North Dakota were
said to be Welsh-speaking.
WHAT IF ROMANS
ARRIVED 1000 YEARS EARLIER?
Yes, you read that correctly. Perhaps it’s not as preposterous
as it sounds at first glance. We know that the Romans traveled to most of
modern Europe. They also sailed from North Africa to India and conducted trade with
China on what came to be called The Silk Road.
Let’s start with a recent find and work backwards. The photo
illustrates what is known as the Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head. Made of terracotta,
it was probably part of a larger figurine. It was discovered in 1933 in the
Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca zone in the Toluca Valley, about 40 miles southwest of
Mexico City. Because the head appears to be similar in style to artifacts of
Roman origin, some believe that it is evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic
contact between Rome and America.
An assessment of the case in 2001 by Romeo H. Hristov of the
University of New Mexico and Santiago Genovés T. of the National Autonomous
University of Mexico made the hypothesis of Roman
origin –among other possibilities– applicable. The identification of the head
as Roman work from the II-III century A.D. has been further confirmed by
Bernard Andreae, a director emeritus of the German Institute of Archaeology in
Rome, Italy. According to Andreae, “the head is without doubt Roman, and the
lab analysis has confirmed that it is ancient. A stylistic examination tells us
more precisely that it is a Roman work from around the II century A.D., and
the hairstyle and the shape of the beard presents
the typical traits of the Severian Emperor’s period [193-235 A.D.], in
the fashion of that epoch.”
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| Ancient Roman Ship |
ANCIENT TRAVELS
Such an event has been made more believable by the discovery
of evidences of travels by the Romans, Phoenicians and Berbers as early as the
6th or 5th Century BC to Tenerife and Lanzarote in the
Canaries, and of a 1st Century BC Roman settlement on Lanzarote Island.
Lanzarote was probably the first Canary Island to be settled and the
Phoenicians may have settled there around 1100 BC, though no material evidence
survives. The Greek writers and philosophers Herodotus, Plato, and Plutarch
described the garden of the Hesperides,
a mythic orchard at the far west of the world, which many identify as the
Canaries.
A WRITTEN RECORD FROM
PLINY
The first known record comes from Pliny the Elder where he
describes in his encyclopedia Naturalis
Historia, an expedition to the Canary Islands. The names of five islands
(then called Insulae Fortunatae, the Fortunate
Isles) were recorded as Canaria (Gran
Canary), Ninguaria (Tenerife), Junonia Major (La Palma), Plivalia (El Hierro) and Capraria (La Gomera). Lanzarote and
Fuerteventura, the two easternmost Canary Islands, were only mentioned as the
archipelago of the purple islands. The
Egyptian astronomer and geographer Ptolemy calculated their precise locations. Following
the fall of the Roman Empire, the Canary Islands were ignored for the next 500
years.
COMING TO AMERICA
There is a large submerged rock in Guanabara Bay near Rio de
Janeiro in Brazil. Lying just three feet beneath the water’s surface, it is called
Xareu Rock after the fish that congregate there. In the late 1970’s, a local
fisherman using nets around Xareu Rock kept catching some large —3’ tall— heavy
earthen jars. He mistakenly assumed they were macumba jars, which are used in voodoo ceremonies and then thrown
into the sea. So, as the jars were hauled up, he smashed them with a hammer and
tossed the pieces back into the water to prevent them from snagging his nets.
Eventually a scuba diver spear fishing around Xareu Rock found
eight of the jars. He took them home and began selling them to tourists. He
only had two left by the time Brazilian police stopped him and confiscated the
jars. Archaeologists immediately identified them as Roman amphorae from the 1st
Century BC.
Ex-marine, underwater explorer and treasure-hunter Robert
Marx claims to have discovered a long-forgotten Roman shipwreck in the Bay of
Guanabara. It appears to have hit the rock at a high speed, spilt apart and
sank in 75 feet of water. While diving to examine the wreckage, Marx removed parts
of the ancient amphorae. They eventually ended up in the hands of Dr. Elizabeth
Lyding Will, an expert on Roman amphorae. She says they’re similar in shape to
jars produced in kilns at Kouass, on the west coast of Morocco.
The Institute of Archaeology of the University of London
performed thermo-luminescence testing, which is a more accurate dating process
than Carbon 14 dating, and set the jar’s manufacture date around 19 B.C. Many
more amphorae and some marble objects were recovered, as well as a Roman bronze
fibula, a clasp device used to fasten a coat or shirt.
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| From the Salt Mines to Rio de Janeiro |
PASS THE SALT, PLEASE
This is where the story gets really interesting, and it all
starts with salt. Salt was one of the most valuable commodities around the
beginning of the 1st Century. It represented the only reliable way
to preserve fresh meat and fish. In fact, salt was so valuable that at times it
was used in place of money. The word salary
derives from the practice of paying laborers in salt. And from that, came the
familiar term he’s not worth his salt.
The Romans had a large salt production facility on Ilha do Sal, Salt Island, in the Cape
Verde Islands, which are 350 miles off the coast of West Africa. The map
illustrates the general path a ship would take to go from there to Rio de
Janeiro in Brazil… a trip of about 2900 nautical miles. If that seems
prohibitive, consider that Roman ships regularly sailed from Antioch of Syria
to Londinium in Britannia, a distance of about 1,600 nautical miles. Trade
vessels also left Egypt headed for India and returned laden with spices. This
represents a round trip of 4,600 nautical miles. Remember also, Heyerdahl sailed 3,770 nautical miles on a raft!
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| Rotation of the North Atlantic and South Atlantic Currents |
HOT WINDS AND
CIRCULAR OCEAN CURRENTS
Salt Island is located directly in the path of the hot, dry
winds of the Sahara Desert, which can easily blow 60 knots from the east. It is
believed that this Roman merchant vessel was heading for Salt Island to pick up
a load of salt and to provision the local army garrison when it was caught in a
fierce Sahara storm. Roman ships were clumsy by modem standards and would have
no choice but to lower their sails and to run with the winds to avoid
capsizing. The Sahara winds can blow continuously for many days. The ship would
have been driven south into the Guinea Currents that could have moved it into
the circular flow of the North Atlantic current. In the equatorial regions this
southern flow intersects with the rising South Atlantic current. Passing from
one to the other, the Roman sailors would have found themselves being pushed
south and west toward Brazil. They would, of course, have no way of navigating
since the southern constellations would have been unfamiliar to them.
FINAL CONCLUSIONS
Was this a one-time event that ended in tragedy? Or, did
these early sailors use it as an opportunity to make contacts, in which case
the sunken ship was not the first Roman ship to make the voyage. For all we
know, they might have been on the first stages of a regular trade run. And, when
they didn’t return, this new venture was abandoned.
What about the men aboard? Were there survivors? Did they
make their way ashore, make contact with the natives, and live happily ever
after? As tantalizing as it may be to speculate on the possibilities, the
answers to these and other questions have been lost to history.
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