Who discovered the world first?

I remember myself 4 years ago when i was at the third class of highschool my teacher testing me about colonization. Questions like: ''Who did the round of Africa'', or ''who circled the world'', or ''who reached first to America'' or ''who found first Australia''were the most usual and i remembr till today the days i was unprepered for the lesson. Still laughing with myself. Playing was a priority than studying these years. I was cool. Back to my topic, the answers were ''Vasco da Gama'', ''Ferdinand Magellan'', ''Christopher Colombus'', ''James cook''

But were these the first who explorered the (let's say) ''New World''?
Here are the first explorers:
-Hanno
-Himilco
-Necho

For more information visit this link:
phoenicia.org...

Now it remains toprove that they have managed to travel also at the Central America and Australia

Well, about Australia there is the ancient phoenician town of Sarina with these archeological finds:

These incredibly rich hydrothermal crusts were the attraction for colonists and sea traders beginning around 2200 BC out of the Mediterranean. The zenith of coastal mining appeared to relate to the Solomon era of 950 BC when Phoenician vessels came to the fabled land of Ophir out of the Red Sea port at Ezion-Geber on three-year voyages across oceans returning exotics to the exploding Mediterranean cultures.

Here:
phoenicia.org...

and about Central America?
The phoenicians used to travel far from Pillars of Hercules and i am asking what if by mistake they got trap into the Golf stream? This stream could direct them instantly at the Aztec empire or at the Maya Empire.
Why?
Becouse of this:
-Child sacrifice
-Punic Stelae
-necropolis

The city had a massive necropolis, religious area, market places, council house, towers, and a theatre, and was divided into four equally-sized residential areas with the same layout. Roughly in the middle of the city stood a high citadel called the Byrsa. It was one of the largest cities in Hellenistic times (by some estimates only Alexandria was larger) and was among the largest cities in pre-industrial history.

from this link:
en.wikipedia.org...

In correlation with Aztecs/Mayas:
-Human sacrifice or even child sacrifice ()
-many maya and aztec stelae
-aztec/maya necropolis ( link would be appreciated)

In schools there should happen many changes and first of all teachers should learn to be more open-minded and not just teach what they believe.

I am looking forward for your opinions

Dragon



[edit on 24-1-2007 by Dragonlike]

I dont know about ancient times, but in regards to America we do know that vikings reached its shores some 500 years before the "modern" explorers. I dont remember if the Chinese went there too, or if that was in the other direction... I just remember reading about those ships that's like 10x the size of the carracks Columbus used, heh.

Sorry, dont have any links to either info.

(chuckle) Your teacher certainly has a very European-centric view!!!

The discoverer of Australia was the first group of Aborigines who arrived there. The discoverer of the Americas was from Siberia some 20,000 or more years ago.

and about Central America?
The phoenicians used to travel far from Pillars of Hercules and i am asking what if by mistake they got trap into the Golf stream? This stream could direct them instantly at the Aztec empire or at the Maya Empire.

The trip isn't "instant." It takes about two months or more in a small boat under wind power (as shown by Thor Heyerdahl's test expeditions.) The boats didn't carry supplies for many weeks at sea (nor could they.)

Some civilizations (unrelated to each other) had SOME child sacrifice (it was never very widespread or popular). All civilizations that have cities have necropolises (a "necropolis" is a graveyard.) Stelae simply mean "tall standing stone with carvings on it. Lots of civilizations that never contacted each other have stelae.

How can we tell if a civlilzation is related to another? They have the same root language. Their early artifacts are identical to each other. Their early writing (alphabet) is the same. Their symbosl are similar or the same. Their gods are the same.

There's no match at all with the Phoenecians and South American cultures.

The boats didn't carry supplies for many weeks at sea (nor could they.)

I don't think they wanted food, just water. They could just do fishing (my humble opinion)

There's no match at all with the Phoenecians and South American cultures.

Central American cultures. Anyway i got your drift

How can we tell if a civlilzation is related to another? They have the same root language. Their early artifacts are identical to each other. Their early writing (alphabet) is the same. Their symbosl are similar or the same. Their gods are the same.

After a second thought, they can related through trade. Carthage was a trade city and its glorious mercenary armies who opposed the Rome itself can only be justified through trade (gold coins flow into the treasuries), or knowledge of the ''gold road'' to the cntral America. I recall my teacher words, that the Mesoamerican civilizations didn't had evaluate the price of gold as in Europe, o they used to gave it away as useless stones. Now i can clearly understand why Carthage had blockade the Pillars of Hercules to all the known world. Now i understand why in fear of exposing the trade routes the used to sunk their ships. Becouse they knew something the rest of the world didn't.
What?
-Earth was not flat

[edit on 28-1-2007 by Dragonlike]

So who discovered the World as the thread head decribes?

Lets recall that while Carthage was a phonecian colony, that doesn't mean that just because there is a claim that phonecians were in an area, that that means that carthaginians were there.

Also, I'd think that the Carthaginians would've set up at least as large and elaborate a system of colonies in the new world as they did for places like sardinia and sicily. Why do we have such strong evidence for their existence in those places, but not the new world? ANd why do no carthaginians talk about the new world, even if they wanted to keep it a secret, they'd still have to talk about it internally. Why didn't they retreat there after loosing, at least, two of the 3 punic wars? Or even at the end of the third war? They could've retreated there, built an army, and come back generations later with the wealth of two continents to crush the city of Rome.

Originally posted by goddogo1
So who discovered the World as the thread head decribes?

Isnt the answer obvious? No one knows!

It really depends on how you mean define discover too.

Now i understand why in fear of exposing the trade routes the used to sunk their ships. Becouse they knew something the rest of the world didn't.
-Earth was not flat

This was known at the time in Greece at least (Egypt too I think), they even knew the rough dimensions of the Earth

[edit on 30-1-2007 by merka]

Originally posted by merka

Originally posted by goddogo1
So who discovered the World as the thread head decribes?

Isnt the answer obvious? No one knows!

It really depends on how you mean define discover too.

I used the viewpoint the imperialistic Europe used to create colonies and justify the subjugation of other cultures.

In fact, as you have already mentioned very rightfully: No one Knows