The American Discovery of Europe

Just finished The American Discovery of Europe by Jack D. Forbes. By far, the best thing about this rather speculative text that awaits further confirmation via archaeology is in reversing the usual paradigm of pre-Columbian contact with indigenous peoples of the Americas as agents. Indeed, I love how Forbes reclaims 'Americans' as a term for indigenous people, instead of the less accurate 'Indian.' Moreover, if Forbes is correct about the winds and streams (Gulf Current) favoring indigenous seafarers heading east across the Atlantic rather than the opposite, it would certainly seem likely that indigenous Americans arrived in Europe at various times, although the question of sustained, purposeful contact remains unconfirmed prior to the Norse. If American harpoon points, flora, and peoples had crossed the North Atlantic due to favorable waters and winds prior to Columbus in the North Atlantic, it certainly calls for a revising of the navigational skills of Americans. 

In addition to challenging the traditional Eurocentric (or, for that matter, Afrocentric and Sinocentric) view, Forbes goes to great lengths to show how intercontinental trade and links existed between various centers of civilizations in the pre-Hispanic Caribbean, Mexico/Central America, North America, and South America. And not just in the Atlantic, but also along the Pacific coasts! Contact between the Caribs and Arawaks of the Caribbean for instance, and Mesoamerica is proved by similarities in the ballgame played by both groups, as well as linguistic and trade ties to northern South America (Venezuela and Colombia). Similarities in religion, material culture, and evidence of trade also links Mesoamerica with the Caribbean and North America, more evidence of long-distance trade networks and advanced sailing and seafaring by native peoples. 

In conclusion, the text's weakness relies on the nature of its incomplete evidence, unclear ancient textual and colonial-era sources, and the rather limited knowledge available at the time to the pre-Columbian Americas. It does seem very likely that Americans could have crossed the Atlantic during the Dorset or Thule cultures (the Inuit or "Eskimos"), but as of 2007, the year Forbes published the book, irrefutable evidence has yet to be presented. The strangeness of cocaine and nicotine found in ancient Egyptian mummies and northern European folklore and medieval writings on dark-visaged 'mer-men' may all reveal some incomplete picture of indigenous Americans crossing the Atlantic, but there are still too many gaps to 'prove' it. Nonetheless, Forbes has certainly corrected my erroneous understandings of American navigational ability, links between northern Europe and northeastern America, and the complexity of American civilizations before 1492.