Comments | ultraforge: China's Controversial Pre-Columbus 1418 Map?

ultraforge

China's Controversial Pre-Columbus 1418 Map?

Mar 25, 2006 00:45

There is an academic controversy in China. It revolves around a map allegedly copied by a Chinese cartographer in 1763 from a purportedly unfound original 1418 map made by Chinese explorer Zheng He showing that he discovered America before Columbus. On one side are the naysayers saying that the map isn't authentic. On the other side are those who ( Read more... )

technology, history, science

Comments 3

(The comment has been removed)

ultraforge March 27 2006, 01:52:38 UTC

It's too bad they won't show a picture of it.

jennersen March 25 2006, 16:36:55 UTC

My brother Vikings still beat that date out!

Siberians or Polynesians found it first to be technical.

But I have heard of this before, I think they landed in S. America according to the legend.

darth_spacey March 25 2006, 19:37:38 UTC

There's significant cultural, genetic and mythological evidence that the first humans in the Americas (actually in South America) were from Australia, around 40-50,000 years ago. They were apparently wiped out by the technologically-superior (ex-)Siberians coming via North America around 10-20,000 years ago, IIRC. There's a small group of (mostly) genetically Australian indians still surviving at the very tip of South America. Unfortunately, their language became extinct (and was replaced by Spanish) before modern linguistics could analyse it.