As an adjunct to my previous post. Many marvelous things existed in the ancient world. Most were toys of the rich, commisioned by order of a "rich person" Most no longer exist.
On a more common note, there is much written about the "safety pin". It's even been documented on the
History Channel. I saw it once before I got hooked by
ancient coins. A revolutionary concept that first came about in the 1800's. Nowhere did the program mention
fibulas.
In the ancient world there must have been so, so many objects invented that we would gasp at the
genius behind their creation, that simply were so few that they are lost to
history. They were never marketed or mass produced. They were either "one of a kind", or so little affected
history that they escaped being recorded.
The proof is that in our modern world we ignore anomolies and view
history as if it were actually as written. I think that most here would agree given the explorative tendiences of the
Roman empire and the cleverness of their
maritime capabilities, that many times more than once,
roman ships reached
North or South America. They suffered one or more of several consequences:
They made repairs and went back to Europe, or started out and didn't enjoy the same luck as their first accidental crossing.
They stayed and were swallowed up by assimilation or by massacre in the vastness of the western hemisphere.
They perished in sight of
shore.
They DID NOT go back to
rome and report a "New World" and subsiquently fleets of
roman ships landed in the western hemisphere. What a
fine alternate
history that would make! Of course we would not be here to enjoy it.
Modern
history accurately reflects the timeline in any
history book. Christoper Columbus, ventures forth with the backing of the Empire of
Spain and through hook or
crook, brings back reports of the "New World"
A classic metaphor is this:
It is in a way immaterial if Jesus
Christ was the son of God, did what was recorded, or perhaps even existed, though it's overwhelmingly probable he did.
The important point is that subsiquent
history is mostly based on the "fact" that he did exist and was a deity on earth. It does not matter if he even existed or not, subsiquent
history plays out as if he did exist and was as advertised.
Though the fleshing out of actual
history, as in
roman ships most probably did on occasion reach the western hemisphere, as did probably Greek and earlier and later
ships, they
had no or negligable effect on the way
history played out.
I guess as a metaphor, what I'm trying to say is, the
greeks may have
had Ipods and the
romans laptops, but
history ignores this because if they did, they did not affect
history in any way that is recorded.
This in no way blurs my vision of a
roman ship, low on water and food, grounding near the present day Rio de Janerio. The non-perishables they brought, the coins, the swords, the cooking pots may
still be somewhere near there. We either haven't found them yet or won't. But it will not change
history except as an exciting footnote/revision.
