Originally posted by watchdog8110

Would like to hear your take on the the longitude since your having a knack of dissecting others opinions , you were in a group what if any notes taken would you care to share from their views here on the topic of Romans being there before Columbus .

That took place in the summer of 79 or 80 as part of a convention in Athens on classical archaeology. We had I believe broken into various work groups and I was picked for that one. I don't recall if anything was published out of this but we did present our finding to the assembled group at some point later in the conference. I was in a sub group of that headed by somebody from the INA and we looked at the challenges of outlining where and how to look for clues of classical voyages to the Americas, another groups looked at the technology required, etc. Wachsmann presented the finding I do believe.

1. Could a classical ship make it to the Americas; yes but with great difficulty
2. Was there trade (this was an era where hyperdiffusionism was widely discussed) between them; no evidence
3. Could people in the Americas get to Africa or Europe; considered unlikely
4. Would archaeologists trained in 'Americas' standards recognize classical materials?; some difficulty as few materials at that time especially in Spanish and Portuguese. Poor communication between the different 'branches'
5. Any hints in classical literature of such voyages; yes but thought to be fanciful or description possibly of Azores, CV or Canaries
6. Anthroplogical impact of a contact; none noted
7. Hmmm I believe there were 10 things we looked at but cannot remember what they might have been. They were probably technical issues on recording of sites, citing, etc

Originally posted by Hanslune

Originally posted by watchdog8110


They were rather good in the enclosed Med but how were they at navigation in the Atlantic beyond the sight of land? Are you saying they had a way to come up with an accurate longitude?

Since you were part of a group that looked at the same question of their travel , you should recall what the rest of the group proposed if it was then theorized of Romans coming to South America . If it wasn't theorized in the group , oh well .

Yes, a ship going to or from the the Canaries might have made it/frifted to what is now Brazil if the crew survived the doldrums....but you didn't answer the question, are you claiming the Roman could do longitude?

The problem with a lot of modern scientists, is that they dont like to upset the "Known" theories.

Anthropologists in Brazil and other parts of South America, have already discovered a more ancient man, more ancient than the "Asian Indians", that seem to have a remarkable resemblance to the Australian Native peoples.

How did they get there? Possibly the same as the Siberian Asians....Across the Baring Straights, but much, much earlier.

There are caves in North Eastern Australia, that apparently show Egyptian Hieroglyphs, of a journey from Eqypt to the Southern land. Initially one would think this impossible, but the Egyptians were noted seafarers, and a look at the Globe, would show that a sea trip could be taken from the Arabian Peninsula, hugging the coastline to India, then the Malay peninsula, thru Indonesia then on to Australia.....a relatively calm trip, with several trading posts along the way. Why? Persumably for gold, copper, whatever other resources.
Australian Native lore mentions fairer skinned people, among others.
The "Theory" is that this Great journey was undertaken by the Grandson of KuFu. So we are talking about 5000 years or so, ago.
We tend to think of "Old Civilizations" as "Not Capable", But who knows what "History" the Egyptians talked about during their time.....Maybe their Sacred land was from afar?

We still have much to learn, Too bad we had to endure 1000 years or so of "Dark Ages" then 100s of years of Religious Brainwashing, Superstition and censorship, to keep the people dumb.

Imagine how far we would be with nearly 2000 years of extra knowledge, technology directly from the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians etc etc.

Originally posted by gort51
The problem with a lot of modern scientists, is that they dont like to upset the "Known" theories.

Then nothing should have changed for 200 years then....oh wait they have.......the reality is that scientist live to break new ground - new discoveries mean more money, recognition and fame

Initially one would think this impossible, but the Egyptians were noted seafarers

No they were not they tended to use others. They limited themselves to coastal voyages and where longer trips were needed often hired Phoenicians

Imagine how far we would be with nearly 2000 years of extra knowledge, technology directly from the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians etc etc.

We got a lot of best stuff from people other than the classical age; they laid a foundation assisted greatly with information from Asia