First Americans 'reached Europe five centuries before Columbus discoveries'

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When Christopher Columbus paraded his newly discovered American Indians through the streets of Spanish towns at the end of the 15th century, he was not in fact introducing the first native Americans to Europe, according to new research.

Scientists who have studied the genetic past of an Icelandic family now claim the first Americans reached Europe a full five centuries before Columbus bumped into an island in the Bahamas during his first voyage of discovery in 1492.

Researchers said today that a woman from the Americas probably arrived in Iceland 1,000 years ago, leaving behind genes that are reflected in about 80 Icelanders today.

The link was first detected among inhabitants of Iceland, home to one of the most thorough gene-mapping programs in the world, several years ago.

Initial suggestions that the genes may have arrived via Asia were ruled out after samples showed they had been in Iceland since the early 18th century, before Asian genes began appearing among Icelanders.

Investigators discovered the genes could be traced to common ancestors in the south of Iceland, near the Vatnajˆkull glacier, in around 1710.

"As the island was practically isolated from the 10th century onwards, the most probable hypothesis is that these genes correspond to an Amerindian woman who was taken from America by the Vikings some time around the year 1000," Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the Pompeu Fabra university in Spain, said.

Norse sagas suggest the Vikings discovered the Americas centuries before Columbus got there in 1492.

A Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, in the eastern Canadian region of Terranova, is thought to date to the 11th century.

Researchers said they would keep trying to determine when the Amerindian genes first arrived in Iceland.

"So far, we have got back to the early 18th century, but it would be interesting to find the same sequence further back in Icelandic history," Lalueza-Fox said.

The genetic research, made public by Spain's Centre for Scientific Research, was due to be published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/16/first-americans-europe-research
 
Thanks! The subject of pre-Columbus Euro-American history has always intrigued me. Travel to the Americas has been fairly well documented, but I always wondered about the Vikings bringing Native Americans back with them.....now we now a little more.

advntrjnky
 

Some people pretend that ancient civilizations like Sumerians, Egyptians or Phoenicians reached America in ancient times. I'm not sure about this, but weren't these guys pretty good seafarers back then ?

Well, it's still in the realm of possibilities I guess.
 

It does not surprise me, as there have been several books written about the Viking & Celts visiting North America, centuries before Colombus. Personally I think it is the Celts who got there first, as I am welsh!:)
 
Here is an interesting read about the Kelts http://planetvermont.com/pvq/v9n2/megaliths.html
I would have to agree that many of the ancient stone structures in the New England area are likely of Keltic origin. Well before good ol' Columbus.

Is it just me, or is that website mostly notable for a stultifying absence of photographic evidence for the existence of any ancient megaliths in New England?

I mean, the site calls itself
"Who Built New England’s Megalithic Monuments? "

More like "Who Stole New England's Megalithic Monuments?"

Harte
 

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