Här hittade jag en ganska informativ länk, med den stora fördelen att den också har källor angivna. Samt en intervju med Svetlana Balabanova och Wolfgang Pirsig2.
http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?n ... cle&sid=45
Kul att se att Hallofmaat är uppe igen..
En anrmärkning från artikeln i länken:
"Historians remain entirely unconvinced of ancient trade links between the old and new worlds because none of the principle domestic species (other than the dog) are found in the Americas prior to the arrival of Columbus. Native Americans had no wheat, barley, oats, millet, rice, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys or camels whilst new world domesticates such as the llama, guinea pigs, maize, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, squash (incl. pumpkin), pineapples, papaya and avocados were absent from the old world. [23] In addition iron, steel, glass and silk were not used in the Americas prior to 1492. If trade had existed between Egypt and the Americas it would be incredibly unlikely that it would be restricted to plants that produced drugs and not essential food crops and farm animals. Furthermore, the differences between Mayan and Egyptian hieroglyphs and the vast differences in the designs, building materials and purpose of pyramids between Egypt and the Americas indicates that there was not a shared legacy between these cultures.
Academic historians may accept the possibility that a single Roman ship may have become lost in storms and drifted across the Atlantic. [24] However the contention that there were established links between the old and new worlds prior to Columbus is understandably considered absurd. "
Sötpotatisen kanske unantaget här då? Fast det var väl i polynesien...
Men visst finns det ganska starka argument i detta. Varför importerade man inte stål- och järnverktyg om det nu fanns möjlighet?
En intressant sak till jag inkluderar:
"
Question: Are there any plant sources known to have been available to the Ancient Egyptians between 1070BC - 395AD containing nicotine, cocaine, or THC?
WP: For nicotine the two articles of Balabanova contain references of plants containing nicotine in this period, but nobody has proven this exactly with a contemporary map of plants for Egypt.
SB: It is known that cocaine is the principal alkaloid of the leaves of Erythroxylum coca. Cocaine is present also in other Erythroxylum species native to South Africa, Madagascar and Mauritius in amounts less than those found in Erythroxylum coca. However, it is possible that in antiquity a way to concentrate cocaine was known. Professor Michael Montagne reported that South American shamans concentrated nicotine routinely into a thick black syrup. Moreover, it is also possible, that in ancient Egypt, plants containing cocaine were present. Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that the coca plant was possibly imported to Africa before Columbus. Although trade relations between the New World and Africa are not known, the existence of links between the continents cannot be rejected. The Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Atlantic in an Egyptian reed boat. Possibly ancient people navigated South American rivers to the Atlantic, crossed the ocean and reached the African continent. Recently a pre-Colombian, earthen Roman head was found in Central America. Recent investigations of a mummy found in Florida, aged 7,000 years, demonstrated identical genotype with those of Asiatic race, but not with those of native Americans (S. Pääbo "Ancient DNA" Scientific American, November 1993: 64). These facts are possibly also evidence for trans-Atlantic relations."
Så det fanns förmodligen växter med dessa substanser tillgängliga på den Afrikanska kontinenten. I mina ögon är bevisen på transatlantisk kontakt undera denna tid försvinnande små.