Greek/Roman coins found in odd places

[Belisarius]

The truth is, like that guy that wrote that the Chinese traveled all over the westen hemisphere in 1421 in huge ships, history shows that it made no impact.

Hmmm...

The book "1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered America" by G. Menzies puts foward "interesting" ideas that are totally unsubstantiated.

The topic is dealt with most sympathetically here:
http://maritimeasia.ws/topic/1421bunkum.html

What's so awful is that the Ming Voyages 1405-1433 (http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/html/economy/ming.pdf) are really fascinating - the first real exploration by outsiders of Arabia, India or Africa in history - so, seeing as the actual history is pretty amazing, it is really dissapointing that Menzies 'decides' to add more.

Because America has always had a "Classical Complex" (which, I suppose, comes from a mix of democracy and christianity), there's always great pressure to try to prove that no only did the Romans visit the Americas, but had cities there, minted coins there...  

http://paranormal.about.com/od/ancientanomalies/a/History-Mystery-Ancients-In-America.htm

Something like this would lead you to believe than, not only was America visited by Romans, but was some sort of ancient world junction with Romans, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Jewish tribes (and so on, ad nausiam) wandering around it.

I do agree with you Basemetal that it is very possible that a few lost or shipwrecked Roman sailors reached the New World

   I see a few problems I see with this. For this scenario you would have to imagine a disabled ship with no oars or sails. A disabled ship is at the mercy of the seas and would probably travel quite slowly. Ships also tend to become waterlogged after extended periods at sea.
    Even if the currents took them to the New World (which seems unlikely), I do not see how there would possibly have been a man alive. Romans sailed close to the coasts, they did not carry supplies for long (2-3 month) voyages. It took Columbus over two months to make his voyage. When the Mayflower sailed to Plymouth from England it took 66 days. You would have to imagine a broken down ship floating aimlessly would take a lot longer to make a farther journey. After such a long trip it seems inconceivable that a man would be alive. There are also many medical problems to consider such as scurvy.

This pretty much sums it up. I don't deny that Roman stuff has ended up in the New World (though I would doubt the boat in the article above) but KjetilK is right, that really, Romans didn't bring it there.

[David Atherton]

I do agree with you Basemetal that it is very possible that a few lost or shipwrecked Roman sailors reached the New World

   I see a few problems I see with this. For this scenario you would have to imagine a disabled ship with no oars or sails. A disabled ship is at the mercy of the seas and would probably travel quite slowly. Ships also tend to become waterlogged after extended periods at sea.
    Even if the currents took them to the New World (which seems unlikely), I do not see how there would possibly have been a man alive. Romans sailed close to the coasts, they did not carry supplies for long (2-3 month) voyages. It took Columbus over two months to make his voyage. When the Mayflower sailed to Plymouth from England it took 66 days. You would have to imagine a broken down ship floating aimlessly would take a lot longer to make a farther journey. After such a long trip it seems inconceivable that a man would be alive. There are also many medical problems to consider such as scurvy.

In the five years since I wrote that my critical thinking skills have developed a bit more and I'm less inclined to believe that any Roman or Greek made it to the "New world" accidentally. The axiom "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" is more appropriate here.

[SC]

Belisarius is right that the actual Ming voyages, and their huge ships, are fascinating.

In addition to the Menzies book about the Chinese discovery of North America there is an even "better" one.  "The Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered North America" by Paul Chiasson which concludes that explorers from China built a settlement in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia on Canada's EAST coast. 

His book started a classic battle of architect, with no real archeological experience, who thought he saw Chinese influence in a worn road and some ruins, versus local professional archeologists and historians who were able to show that ruins were a mid-20th century forestry service fire break and road that was built between mid-20th century and 1989!!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2006/07/27/capebreton-chinese.html

Now don't get me wrong.  I don't believe that the lesson here is that the amateur has no hope of challenging the professional.  Looking at the numismatic field over the last couple of centuries shows how wrong that is.  But it does show that one aught to do a decent bit of research and work before trying to challange the status quo with a new radical idea....

Shawn

[Steff V]

"The British author Graham Hancock published a controversial theory that Quetzalcoatl is a being that is shared across many cultures including Egyptian, Aztec, Mayan and Olmec. The stories of a bearded white man bringing "knowledge" are alleged to be common, and sprouting from a central source or "master" culture. (Source: Fingerprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock, 1995)" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl)

I don't think they would worship a "bearded white man" if they hadn't seen one. I remembered this because I learned about it at high school. When I asked the teacher how it comes they worshiped a white man, while Aztecs are not "white", she couldn't give me any answer. It's obvious that this thread reminds me of this because it is not unthinkable that, in ancient times of much earlier, "europeans" got to America.

And as stated before: if a small group of, let's say, Romans got lost and landed in America they wouldn't change the culture. Imagine yourself in a foreign country, where nobody understands you, you don't speak the language and the cultural habits are very different. You wouldn't shout: "from now on, you will do things different and listen to me". They wouldn't understand you anyway.