Greetings Lamar,
As I have repeatedly drifted FAR off-topic in this thread and others, I will simply add a bit here and hope that you will research the matter more thoroughly before you simply accept the Isolation theory which we have all been taught in our education - because this isolation doctrine is false. (For those who don't know what in heck I am talking about, the Isolation theory is a version of history that has the American peoples remain completely isolated from any sort of contact with any peoples of the Old World, from the end of the last Ice Age when the Bering Straits land bridge became flooded until the arrival of Columbus 1492 or at least the arrival of the Norse circa 1000 AD, a period of thousands of years. This theory is the version we find in MOST history books today, but not all.)
According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, (6th edition) quote
Cotton fabrics found in Peruvian tombs are said to belong to a pre-Inca culture. In color and texture the ancient Peruvian and Mexican textiles resemble those found in Egyptian tombs.
It is unknown exactly how cotton from the Old World traveled to the New World, but one theory suggests that from the origins in Africa and Asia Minor ancient trade routes existed along the east coast of Africa, to the western coast of India. Through ocean trade routes, even as escaped cargo, the fiber plant, it is reported, found its way to the New World (Smith, 1995).
http://www.siu.edu/~ebl/leaflets/cotton.htm
For instance, years ago, Dr. M. Wells Jakeman introduced me to the cotton evidence. Old World cottons have one set of chromosomes. New World cottons have two sets--one unique to themselves and one just like the Old World cottons. Geneticists pointed out that the only way this situation is to be explained is if the two cottons had differentiated themselves during the geologic past and then been reunited relatively recently in the New World. Hence, the argument develops that the Old World strain was brought to the New World by human hand and a New World dominant hybrid subsequently developed replacing the original. Former claims that the Spanish introduced cotton to the New World are now suspect. Today, diffusionist scholars debate where the Old World cotton might have come from and who before Columbus may have brought it (Fryxell 1978; Carter 1963; 1988:168-9).
(Transoceanic Contact pt III by T. Michael Smith)
Cotton is hardly the sole evidence of pre-Columbian contacts between the Old World and the New, I suggest that you research the Egyptian mummies which when tested were found to have ingested American products such as cocaine and tobacco (including finding an American tobacco leaf within the wrappings of one mummy) before you dismiss the idea of pre-Columbian contacts taking place. Don't make the mistake of assuming that any such contact MUST then have been so massive and regular as to have left massive and un-mistakeable evidences, as most skeptics do - undoubtedly what contact occurred was
sporadic and irregular, probably accidental in some cases as we have had accidental crossings of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the post-discovery period. In fact several of the most important discoveries were a result of accident, as Cabral discovered Brazil while trying to sail round Africa for one example. Several ancient Old World civilizations were highly successful seafarers, and in ancient times navigational secrets were quite literally "state secrets" and not widely published.
Lamar perhaps you do not have enough doubt about what we read in our text-books to even
question the theories we are taught
as if they were pure and incontrovertible facts, if so then my apologies for suggesting any further research into the matter - as you must then be completely satisfied with history as it is presented in school texts. Any further debate between us would be pointless in that case, and it is not my mission in life to
cause you to have doubts about what we have been taught.
I would be happy to start a new thread so as to discuss some of these subjects we have been talking about here which are clearly FAR off-topic, if anyone should so desire just say the word - I don't wish to irritate anyone with so much off-topic material.
Good luck and good hunting Lamar and everyone reading this, I hope that you find the treasures that you seek.
your friend,
Roy ~ Oroblanco
