Ancient Ocean Crossings: Reconsidering the Case for Contacts with the Pre-Columbian AmericasPaints a compelling picture of impressive pre-Columbian cultures and Old World civilizations that, contrary to many prevailing notions, were not isolated from one another In Ancient Ocean Crossings: Reconsidering the Case for Contacts with the Pre-Columbian Americas, Stephen Jett encourages readers to reevaluate the common belief that there was no significant interchange between the chiefdoms and civilizations of Eurasia and Africa and peoples who occupied the alleged terra incognita beyond the great oceans. More than a hundred centuries separate the time that Ice Age hunters are conventionally thought to have crossed a land bridge from Asia into North America and the arrival of Columbus in the Bahamas in 1492. Traditional belief has long held that earth’s two hemispheres were essentially cut off from one another as a result of the post-Pleistocene meltwater-fed rising oceans that covered that bridge. The oceans, along with arctic climates and daunting terrestrial distances, formed impermeable barriers to interhemispheric communication. This viewpoint implies that the cultures of the Old World and those of the Americas developed independently. Drawing on abundant and concrete evidence to support his theory for significant pre-Columbian contacts, Jett suggests that many ancient peoples had both the seafaring capabilities and the motives to cross the oceans and, in fact, did so repeatedly and with great impact. His deep and broad work synthesizes information and ideas from archaeology, geography, linguistics, climatology, oceanography, ethnobotany, genetics, medicine, and the history of navigation and seafaring, making an innovative and persuasive multidisciplinary case for a new understanding of human societies and their diffuse but interconnected development. |
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Ancient Ocean Crossings: Reconsidering the Case for Contacts with the Pre ... Stephen C. Jett No preview available - 2017 |
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absence Africa ancient anthropologist archaeological archaeologist areas artifacts Asian Atlantic boats canoes carried century chapter China Chinese circa coast coastal Columbus Columbus’s craft crew crossings cultural currents depicted despite discovery diseases distance domesticated drift voyages early East Easter Island eastern Egypt Egyptian especially Europe European evidence example exploration fact feet Fusang genetic geographer Greek haplogroups Hemisphere Heyerdahl historian hull human Iceland Indian Ocean Islands Japan Jett junks known Kon-Tiki land latitude least lugsail maize maritime masts medieval Mediterranean Mesoamerica Mexico migration miles millennium modern mtDNA Native Americans navigation Norse North northern occurred Oceania Old World one’s overseas Pacific Pacific islands percent Peru plants Polynesian populations post-Columbian pre-Columbian present rafts recorded region rigging Roman rudder sail sailing-rafts sailors ships shipworm South America Southeast Asia spritsail stars survive Tim Severin tion trade traditional transoceanic contacts vessels watercraft West western wheel winds wrote