for me, the secrets and truths behind early human exploration and colonization are about as tantalizing as secrets get. our culture has developed a carefully crafted narrative about who sailed where, who discovered what, and its all to support the idea that, until Renaissance Europe took to the seas, the world was a dark and scary and unknown place. and yet we have a viking ship in the banks of the Mississippi in Tennessee. we have a map that shows someone was charting the coastline of Antarctica hundreds (if not thousands) of years before we admit that people had boats. we have hundreds of islands in the Pacific Ocean that are inhabited even though our official historical record has no explanation for how they got there (the people who live there tend to have explanations, though, and those explanations usually involve, unsurprisingly, boats). Ancient Aliens might be sensational, but is it any less amazing to acknowledge that humanity has been doing incredible things for tens of thousands of years longer than we thought? and why are we so reluctant to acknowledge this? *** Columbus did what people had been doing for thousands of years. Theres nothing special about coming to America. Ive been writing stories about it, from time to time. They began to walk again. True stories? Up to a point, yes. Ill let you read one or two, if you like. Its all there for anyone who has eyes to see it. Personally - and this is speaking as a subscriber to SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, here - I feel very sorry for the professionals whenever they find another confusing skull, something that belonged to the wrong sort of people, or whenever they find statues or artifacts that confuse them - for theyll talk about the odd, but they wont talk about the impossible, which is where I feel sorry for them, for as soon as something becomes impossible it slipslides out of belief entirely, whether its true or not. I mean, heres a skull that shows the Ainu, the Japanese aboriginal race, were in America nine thousand years ago. Heres another that shows there were Polynesians in California nearly two thousand years later. And all the scientists mutter and puzzle over whos descended from whom, missing the point entirely. Heaven knows whatll happen if they ever actually find the Hopi emergence tunnels. Thatll shake a few things up, you just wait. Did the Irish come to America in the dark ages, you ask me? Of course they did, and the Welsh, and the Vikings, while the Africans from the West Coast - what in later days they called the Slave Coast or the Ivory Coast - they were trading with South America, and the Chinese visited Oregon a couple of times - they called it Fu Sang. The Basque established their secret sacred fishing grounds off the coast of Newfoundland twelve hundred years back. Now, I suppose youre going to say, but Mister Ibis, these people were primitives, they didnt have radio controls and vitamin pills and jet airplanes. Shadow hadnt said anything, and hadnt planned to say anything, but he felt it was required of him, so he said, Well, werent they? The last dead leaves of fall crackled underfoot, winter-crisp. The misconception is that men didnt travel long distances in boats before the days of Columbus. Yet New Zealand and Tahiti and countless Pacific Islands were settled by people in boats whose navigation skills would have put Columbus to shame; and the wealth of Africa was from trading, although that was mainly to the east, to India and China. My people, the Nile folk, we discovered early on that a reed boat will take you around the world, if you have the patience and enough jars of sweet water. You see, the biggest problem with coming to America in the old days was that there wasnt a lot here that anyone wanted to trade, and it was much too far away. ~ Neil Gaiman, AMERICAN GODS *** worldnewsdailyreport/usa-viking-ship-discovered-near-mississipi-river/
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 15:58:46 +0000
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