Voyages to the Americas


We were all taught that Columbus discovered America; what they meant to teach us, however, was that Columbus began the official European invasion of the Americas. People had "discovered" the continent long before Columbus, of course. What are known as Native Americans arrived here many centuries before Columbus, and there is good evidence that explorers from other civilizations beat Columbus here, too. It is widely accepted that Leif Ericsson successfully sailed to North America in the year 1000. Far stranger, artifacts have been found suggesting that ancient cultures explored the continent. Greek and Roman coins and pottery have been found in the U.S. and Mexico; Egyptian statues of Osis and Isiris were found in Mexico, to say nothing of the Grand Canyon discovery, see above; ancient Hebrew and Asian artifacts have also been found. The truth is, we know very little about early, far-traveling cultures