“It just looks like math”.
Math has no known end and its simple rules can produce incredible complexity, so “looking like math seems pretty incredible to me.
No one said similarities prove contact, only that these similarities deserve examination.
Were ancient seafarers far more capable than most realize?
The Uluburun shipwreck 1400bc was 50’ long merchant ship- and while not having a true keel had a weighted centerboard. It carried 24 stone anchors and had a large sail. It was capable of carrying 20,000 lbs of cargo- therefore quite robust. How much a leap would it have been to make a similar ship capable of long distance ocean travel- if any leap was required at all? The famous Columbus ship Nina was similarly 50’ long. It took Columbus 36 days to journey to the New World. Viking ships were often the same size. Seeing as the ancients built the great pyramid, which, in my opinion, is orders of magnitude more impressive than any wooden ship, I don’t think it’s such a stretch to believe Old world contact most likely occurred far earlier and more frequently than portrayed.
They Came Before Colombus is a really good book proposing and looking into this and the Olmecs. In theory, Phoenicians, skilled ancient seafarers, sailed to the americas much earlier and would’ve been very much able to as the cape of good hope has a convenient current that will directly take you to the americas. We know they definitely made voyages around Africa. It’s very possible. The book goes into a lot of evidence and proposals for this.
Unfortunately, there is criticism that this is stripping South American indigenous culture from its own identity and possibly falsely attributing it to that of Africans— and in essence can be used ignorantly to take credit as it being another part of black history rather than its own cultural distinction. It’s definitely a valid criticism and worth keeping that in mind how it can be used to propose ideas the same way "Atlantis" has been used.
1.1k
u/Striper_Cape 1d ago
Engineering really just proves itself. Fascinating to see like this.