Who are the contestants?

1. Native populations

2. Chinese

3. Vikings

4. Columbus – Italians/Portuguese

5. Irish

First Cultures

Menzies has no "smoking gun" that proves his theory-- because the xenophobic Confucian officials who advised the later Ming emperors destroyed all records of these sea voyages. So he relies upon three types of evidence. First, Menzies claims that Chinese maps from as early as 1428, allegedly showing parts of North and South America and some Atlantic islands, were used by European explorers (including Columbus) when they started their own voyages decades later.

Second, he adduces allegedly tangible evidence of pre-Columbian contact between Asia and the Americas, such as: flora and fauna (maize, sweet potatoes, Asiatic chickens, coconuts) that must have been transported by humans; "DNA evidence" that links American Indians to the Chinese; wrecks of Chinese ships and medieval Chinese anchors found in California.

Third, Menzies relies upon, and constantly reminds the reader of, his own naval expertise which gives him a mystical understanding that landlubbers lack; for example, "if I was able to state with confidence the course a Chinese fleet had taken, it was because...my own knowledge of the winds, currents, and sea conditions they faced told me the route as surely as if there had been a written record of it" (p. 83). Timothy Furnish PhD

Mr Menzies believes that this portion of the map depicts the Chinese mapping of North and South America in 1418 - showing major rivers.

Explorer: Chinese Admiral Zheng He is known to have sailed the to Europe and Africa with a massive fleet of ships. Historian Gavin Menzies says he also reached the New World

Mr. Menzies -no formal training as a historian

-no advanced degree from a major university

- was a submariner in the British Royal Navy

'the historical equivalent of stories about Elvis Presley in (the supermarket) and close encounters with alien hamsters.' University of London history professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Even Wikipedia characterizes Menzies as a 'pseudo-historian.'

Christopher Columbus

St. Brendan the Navigator towering crystal pillars afloat in the oceans, sheep the size of oxen,

giants who pelted the ship with fireballs the smelled like rotten eggs and talking birds singing psalms. Finally, as the boat drifted through a fog, it landed at what the Irishmen thought was Paradise, a land lush

with vegetation, fragrant with flowers and abounding in fruit and colorful stones.

The Irish

When Columbus and succeeding explorers failed to find the mythical island drawn on their maps, a new theory arose that perhaps St. Brendan and his crew had actually sailed clear across the Atlantic and that Paradise was in fact North America. Proponents pointed to Scandinavian sagas that mentioned that the Irish had already visited North America by the time the Vikings landed there around 1000 A.D. The Vikings referred to the lands south of their settlement in Vinland as “Irland it Mikla,” or “Greater Ireland.”

Faroe Islands

Crystal tower?

Faroe Island sheep = sheep the size of oxen?

Rotten egg smelling fireballs…..

…….volcanic debris from Iceland????

L’Anse aux Meadows

Vikings in North America

NOVA