Thursday, January 05, 2006

Canoe Ride to Ancient Rome

Around the same time that Christ was walking in Palestine and during the reign of Augustus Caesar, Rome ruled over much of Western Europe. This was a time of wonder and majesty, a time of stories of miracles and of great men. One story that caught my eye the other day was that of strange-speaking copper-skinned men who appeared on the shores of ancient Rome. Let’s take a closer look…

Just a little over two thousand years ago a long, narrow, hollow seafaring vessel washed ashore in Western Europe, it had come from the North Sea. Speaking in a language unknown to those they encountered the Copper-skinned travelers the boat had carried pointed to the craft and then to the west. The locals, unable to establish any intelligible communication soon called for Roman soldiers. The squad of men took the barbarians into custody and send them in chains to the Roman Proconsul Publius Metellus Cellar, who, unable to get anywhere with the strangers had them enslaved.
These travelers would have disappeared into the pages of history’s massive tome if not for the discovery of a carved bust in 1937. The carved likeness of one of these strange men along with the recounting of their story was unearthed in what is today known as the town of Saint Malo, France. Dr. Robert Smith, of Georgetown university tells that the bust “…very much resembles the face of the modern day Native Americans.” He further concludes that “…the description of the vessel in which they traveled could only be a Native American Canoe, much like those used by the Seminole tribes of Florida.”
Dr. Smith concludes that what must have happened was that these Native Americans of 2000 years age must have gotten lost off of the North American coast and some how got caught in the easterly flowing Atlantic Ocean current. They must have ridden the stream all the way to Europe. Perhaps causing the New World to discover the Old World long before Christopher Columbus ever sailed!


Wow, is it possible? I suppose anything is possible, on interesting point should also be pointed out. Just as these early travelers may have used the east flowing upper Atlantic current to reach the Old World Columbus used the west flowing lower Atlantic Current during his voyages to the New World. In fact, he may have been aware of Publus’s slaves, for as a dedicated student of earlier Atlantic crossings and attempted crossings, he once described the story of two dead men, bronze in skin color, floating in a long narrow boat that had washed p on the western shore of Ireland near Galway. What a weird and wonderful world we live in!!

I’m Average Joe

mailto:OurWeirdWorld@gmail.com

2 comments:

Oswinsumbradoodle said...

Great poost thank you

Oswinsumbradoodle said...

Good reading