Originally posted by Teahupoo
This Continent would be far better off if Columbus had never lost his way and stumbled upon our shores.
"Native American" NOT Indian

Really? What an interesting statement. Who would you have rather stumbled across it, and why would that have made any subsequent events very much different?
Or are you fantasizing that without Columbus and co., the entire continent would remain in splendid, idyllic isolation even today, and if a Google Earth user from somewhere else on the planet occasionally spun the globe the wrong way by accident and found themselves looking down at Tennessee or Brazil, they would think "wow that place looks green," then dismiss it and zoom in on Amsterdam?

For that matter, why stop at wishing Columbus never happened? Perhaps everything would have been much better for everyone all around if no one had crossed the Bering Straights into the "New World" all those years ago.

Originally posted by ZeroGhost
Great thread. Very interesting all points of view. We might assume the world was wholly different then. I always marveled at the wonder you get from observing the culture through artifacts and lost language. As a visual artist symbols are my stock and trade for communicating information.

I have several books on the Pre-Columbian cultures and from many points of view. Some of the images you guys got where new to me. Must catch up. One though I found was found in dense jungles of Columbia and was considered Olmec. I used it in a illustration for an album cover several years ago. I cannot find the original picture, but my illustration of it was accurate, so to add to the mix here is the illustration.

Salamandra

There is hidden message about the fragility of our ecosystem in the image. Hint: Earth and Moon. Each part is important to the whole.

Great thread and discussion. I may just clip the whole thing for my files!



ZG

Nice drawing, but what is it supposed to represent?