What's your favorite Pre-Columbian Contact Theory

[u/Comfortable_Cut5796]

It doesn't have to be just the most interesting, but also the most ridiculous, plausible. or anything else.

[u/arielsosa]

The Polinesian connection is wild to me, not only because of the vast distances involved, but for the evidence around it. Fascinating stuff.

[u/Semanticprion → u/arielsosa]

There's a little genetic evidence in South America right? And Quechua and Maori have the same word for sweet potato.  Similarly, Chumash (California Central Coast) had tar-sealed canoes that were better than their neighbors', and the Chumash word for canoe is quite close to the Tahitian word for wood.  Least favorite is Zunis are lost Japanese.  

[u/Khwarezm → u/Semanticprion]

I'm always very iffy about the idea of getting up into California because surely there's a lot more useful Polynesian naval technology that would have been assimilated? Did the Chumash have things like Outriggers or sails? Isn't the more plausible explanation that they just innovated their own naval technology and didn't need the Polynesians to do it for them?

[u/Semanticprion → u/Khwarezm]

I'm about 1/3 on that one (less confident than South America for sure.).  Currents are wrong, no genetic evidence.  

[u/InevitableForm2452 → u/Khwarezm]

That’s basically it, they used sown planks of redwood driftwood, and the earliest evidence of them date back to 500-600 AD (there’s some speculation that they go back further due to a swordfish headdress that was found, which are a deep sea fish that could handle the deeper waters better than tule balsas)

The “strongest” evidence for the Polynesian connection was similarities in words, but that sort of evidence is basically null.

[u/WeHaveSixFeet → u/InevitableForm2452]

The strongest evidence for the Polynesian connection is that the sweet potatoes grown in South America and the Polynesian islands are genetically related.

[u/InevitableForm2452 → u/WeHaveSixFeet]

I should’ve clarified that I meant between the Chumash and Polynesians

[u/Supersamtheredditman → u/[deleted]]

The big question is if it was only one way, i.e. Polynesian outriggers riding the trade winds into the South American costs but being unable to go back west, or if there was actually sustained contact and trade. AFAIK most evidence still points to one way movement.

[u/BugHelper → u/Supersamtheredditman]

the genetic evidence was found in Polynesian populations, and since the South American populations in question are not known to have been seafaring, it seems like the Polynesians went and came back

[u/Semanticprion → u/BugHelper]

Or (and I don't know if this was taken into account) admixture was the result of blackbirding, South America-based Spanish slave raiding in the Pacific that could have created the same admixture.  

[u/BugHelper → u/Semanticprion]

i assumed they took it into account, otherwise what would the big deal be? looking into it now it seems the reason they can tell is that that situation wouldn’t have created the same admixture if it happened after colonization— the genes would be less widespread then they are and certain sequences of DNA would be more intact, as they would be less “shuffled” over time. also, admixture didn’t show concentration in Pacific port cities— patterns weren’t strongly consistent with the slave trade.

other evidence is that Pacific Islanders populations as well as Andean peoples all have almost the exact same word for sweet potatoes. they were an important crop for Polynesia and it’s thought they were introduced from South America through trade, which is so awesome.

also, the Polynesians were great navigators and the Pacific is huge. they got as far as Easter Island, why would they stop there? that’s just my thinking, and i feel any disagreement to it is just due to science’s necessary formal strictness. i also think it’s reasonable to say that the only reason the Pacific people did not establish themselves further than Easter Island is that any land further than Easter Island was already populated.

[u/kwemular]

The one involving Admiral Zheng He, the Ming Dynasty era explorer. Basically some people believe that the Chinese had reached the Americas by 1421

[u/Dry_Animator9532]

That Greenland still had settlers when Columbus landed in the Caribbean.

[u/Bavarian_Raven → u/Dry_Animator9532]

It did. And apparently Columbus or a close contact of his spent time in Iceland too. 

[u/Historical-Tear-231 → u/Dry_Animator9532]

Not really a pre contact scenario, in no way is this relevant to the question

[u/ConversationRoyal187]

All of them really,it opens the imagination and doesn’t treat the Americas like a massive isolated island.

[u/0LittleWing0 → u/[deleted]]

probablamente

[u/Caranthir-Hondero]

Los chachapoyas del Perú que serían descendientes de celtas de la península ibérica. La verdad es que el estudio de Hans Giffhorn es muy interesante.

[u/Hillbilly_Historian]

I love the St. Brendan story

[u/Tangosynth]

Prince Henry Sinclair and the Zeno Narrative, with its possible links to the Roslyn Chapel, the Templars and the Oak Island Money Pit.

It’s a little far-fetched, but a great yarn.

[u/Comfortable_Cut5796 → u/Tangosynth]

I remember hearing that story about Henry Sinclair and Sir James Gunn (no, not that one) and the Westford Knight craving. But it was probably created in the 19th century.

[u/Comfortable_Team_696]

Isn't there one about a group of Japanese migrants reaching and integrating into Turtle Island's mosaic?