To be fair, there is evidence for people of ancient civilizations traveling far afield from their homes. Indigenous North Americans were known to traverse the continent for trade or just to join a different group.
There’s a clear bias toward European civilizations in archaeology that is only very recently and in small ways being challenged. Consider that until the Hokulea sailed in 1976 archaeologists and anthropologists thought that Hawaiians came to Hawaii from South America on a raft because “no one could navigate the Pacific on a sailboat using star maps.” Prior to 1960 it was assumed that Columbus was the first European to reach the Americas, when the Norse had reached Canada 500 years before Columbus.
I’m not saying this person is correct or even sane, but it’s far from absurd to believe that there was communication and trade between distant civilizations before the advent of modern travel and communications technology.
Some civilizations? Sure. But we would know with pretty near certainty if the Olmecs went to Asia because they either would have left useful people, plants and animals from the Americas behind or taken useful people, plants and animals back with them. The lack of (as two examples) chocolate in ancient Pakistan and horses used by the Olmecs suggests this is not the case.
To be fair, there is evidence for people of ancient civilizations traveling far afield from their homes. Indigenous North Americans were known to traverse the continent for trade or just to join a different group.
There’s a clear bias toward European civilizations in archaeology that is only very recently and in small ways being challenged. Consider that until the Hokulea sailed in 1976 archaeologists and anthropologists thought that Hawaiians came to Hawaii from South America on a raft because “no one could navigate the Pacific on a sailboat using star maps.” Prior to 1960 it was assumed that Columbus was the first European to reach the Americas, when the Norse had reached Canada 500 years before Columbus.
I’m not saying this person is correct or even sane, but it’s far from absurd to believe that there was communication and trade between distant civilizations before the advent of modern travel and communications technology.
Some civilizations? Sure. But we would know with pretty near certainty if the Olmecs went to Asia because they either would have left useful people, plants and animals from the Americas behind or taken useful people, plants and animals back with them. The lack of (as two examples) chocolate in ancient Pakistan and horses used by the Olmecs suggests this is not the case.