MMXXVI VOL21 No.949

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Anybody discovered America but Christopher Columbus

These days, Columbus doesn't seem to be cool anymore. So if he didn't discover America… who did? This article uncovers the explorers who may have crossed the seas first, from the Phoenicians to the Templars, with the Basque underdogs and Vikings standing out as the only ones backed by hard archaeological evidence
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Anybody discovered America but Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus discovered America when he landed in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492 upon completion of his first transatlantic voyage. His discovery opened the way for the conquest of the continent and ushered in an era of prosperity for the Spanish Crown, which was soon showered with gold and riches.

In recent decades Columbus’s legacy has been challenged as a result of an imposed morally correct way of thinking. Critics cite his treatment of indigenous populations and the consequences of European colonization. This has given rise to a number of speculative theories proposing that other seafarers may have reached the continent long before.

This article examines the main candidates who may have discovered America before Columbus. From the Polynesians to the Vikings; including ancient Japanese, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, the Irishman St Brendan the Navigator, the Mali Empire under Abubakari II, Chinese admiral Zheng He, the Basques, and the Templars.

11The Jomon or Ancient Japanese

The Jōmon were a prehistoric hunter-gatherer culture of the Japanese archipelago from roughly 14,000BC to 30BC. They produced some of the world’s oldest pottery, decorated with cord-impressed designs and lived in pit dwellings while subsisting by fishing, hunting and foraging. Their long millennia of sedentism yielded a rich material culture but no evidence of long-distance seafaring beyond coastal travel.

Why they could have discovered America; Similarities between late Jōmon pottery and Valdivia ceramics from coastal Ecuador have been noted and some stone tool forms bear superficial resemblance to early American styles. Proponents argue that Jōmon mariners could have island-hopped via the Kuril and Aleutian chains and drifted with currents to Alaska. That’s a long drift to Ecuador though.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
Impressive late Jōmon pottery; dated 1,500–1,000BC. To the left, the fire-flame vessel and to the right an incensiary; late Jōmon pottery presents similarities to Valdivia ceramics from coastal Ecuador but it is not evidence enough to prove that the ancient Japanese reached the Americas.

Archaeological evidence; No Jōmon campsites, pottery or seacraft have ever been found in the Americas. No Jōmon-style hearths or burials occur on Pacific coast sites and genetic studies show no link between Jōmon remains and early American skeletons.

Reasons against the theory; Jōmon boat technology was limited to dugout and simple plank craft unsuited to open-ocean crossings. Proposed tool similarities are explained as independent invention; prevailing DNA and archaeological data link first Americans to northeast Asians not to Japan.

10The Phoenicians

The Phoenicians were Semitic mariners and traders of the eastern Mediterranean from about 1500BC to 300BC. They founded coastal cities such as Tyre and Carthage, pioneered long-distance trade in purple dye, timber and glass and spread the alphabet across the known world. Their bireme and trireme ships excelled in coastal navigation.

Why they could have discovered America; Phoenician sailors knew the Sargasso Sea, as Roman scholar Avienius reported in Ora Maritima. This region lies in the western North Atlantic, roughly bounded by the Bermuda Triangle and surrounded by strong oceanic currents. Named by the Portuguese for its dense mats of floating algae, the Sargasso Sea has long been noted for its calm waters. Some 19th-century theories argued that these currents and dead-reckoning could have carried Phoenician ships to the New World centuries before Columbus.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
Engraving of a Phoenician trading vessel. This type of ships could have reached the American coast helped by the oceanic currents but returning would have been quite improbable.

Archaeological evidence; No Phoenician fortresses, pottery or inscriptions have been found in the Americas. Alleged finds such as the Paraíba Inscription, Bat Creek Stone or Los Lunas Decalogue Stone have been exposed as forgeries or misattributions.

Reasons against the theory; Phoenician voyages stayed within the Mediterranean. There is no credible proof they sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules. No genuine print sources, shipwrecks or genetic traces indicate Phoenician arrival in America.

In theory, a well-provisioned Phoenician merchant ship could have carried enough supplies for a transatlantic crossing, especially if aided by favorable currents like the Canary and North Equatorial.

However, returning would have been highly improbable. Their ships required periodic repairs, hull re-sealing and they lacked knowledge of the Gulf Stream needed for the return voyage.

9The Carthaginians

The Carthaginians were a Punic civilization centered on North Africa (modern Tunisia) from about 800BC until Rome’s conquest in 146BC. As heirs to Phoenician expertise they built a powerful navy, traded along the Atlantic coast of Africa and into the western Mediterranean and challenged Rome in the Punic Wars.

Why they could have discovered America; Some ancient sources hint Himilco the Navigator, a Carthaginian explorer, may have crossed the Atlantic in the 5th century BC. Legends in Aristotle and Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian active in the 1st century BC, speak of a desert land to the west that some identify as America.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
The Carthaginian fleet could have reached America riding the ocean currents. Returning across the Atlantic, though, was a challenge no ancient ship was equipped to overcome.

Archaeological evidence; No Carthaginian shipwrecks, coins or settlements have been confirmed in the New World; vague classical accounts cannot be matched to any genuine site in the Americas.

Reasons against the theory; Carthaginian ships were designed for coastal and Mediterranean trade, not trans-Atlantic voyages. No credible archaeological, botanical or genetic evidence supports Carthaginian landings in the Americas.

They faced the same challenges as any other ancient culture attempting a round trip before the Spanish; no means to maintain or repair ships at sea and no knowledge of the Gulf Stream needed for the return journey.

8The Romans

The Romans, the dominant power in the Mediterranean from 509BC to 476AD, commanded a formidable fleet that supplied and connected their vast empire. Their galleys and merchant ships crisscrossed the Mediterranean and Black Seas, supported by a dense network of ports, roads and coastal infrastructure.

Why they could have discovered America; 19th and 20th century claims cite alleged Roman coins found in the Americas, the Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head, a small terracotta figurine discovered in a pre-Columbian tomb in central Mexico that some believe resembles Roman art.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
A huge Roman galley painted by John Campbell.

Also there are supposed ancient maps showing American coastlines. These include speculative readings of early Renaissance maps like the Piri Reis and Waldseemüller maps, although both were drawn after Columbus and reflect post 1492 knowledge. Some argue these artifacts suggest a westward drift of Roman ships but none provide conclusive evidence.

Archaeological evidence; Purported Roman artifacts in North America and Brazil have been dismissed as colonial-era intrusions, hoaxes or misidentified indigenous objects; no Roman campsites, road remains or bones have been found.

Reasons against the theory; Roman naval design was confined to the Mediterranean and near-Atlantic. No ancient Roman records mention voyages beyond the Pillars of Hercules. All alleged American finds lack verifiable provenance.

7Irish St. Brendan the Navigator

St. Brendan (484-577AD) was an Irish monk famed for the 9th-century Latin text Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, which describes a seven-year voyage in search of the “Promised Land of the Saints” in a leather-hull currach (a small Irish boat). The legend blends Christian allegory with island fantasies.

Why they could have discovered America; The Navigatio claims Brendan and his crew reached islands with fertile soils and singing birds west of Ireland. Modern reconstructions have shown a drift-type currach can cross the Atlantic on favorable currents.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
Statue of St. Brendan the Navigator. Located at Fenit Harbour, County Kerry, Ireland; bronze sculpture by Tighe O’Donoghue/Ross; commissioned to honor Brendan’s legendary Bronze statue of St. Brendan the Navigator. Located at Fenit Harbour, County Kerry by Tighe O’Donoghue Ross. Created to honor Brendan’s legendary Atlantic voyage and his status as one of Ireland’s earliest explorers. Depicted pointing westward toward the Americas to evoke the enduring myth of his pre-Columbian journey.

Archaeological evidence; No early Irish settlements, currach wrecks or Christian artifacts from the 6th century have been found in North America. Navigatio was written centuries after the voyage it describes and remains a legendary romance.

Reasons against the theory; Medieval currachs were short-range craft unsuitable for sustained open-ocean voyages. The Navigatio is a spiritual allegory with miraculous elements, no Norse or Native oral traditions corroborate an early Irish presence.

6Chinese Admiral Zheng He or earlier

Admiral Zheng He (1371–1435AD) led seven Ming dynasty treasure voyages (1405–1433AD) with fleets of massive wooden ships through Southeast Asia, India and the Arabian Sea. These state-sponsored expeditions projected Chinese power and carried luxury goods to over 30 foreign ports. The voyages ended after the Yongle Emperor’s death when Ming policy turned inland.

Why they could have discovered America; In 2002, retired British naval officer Gavin Menzies published “1421: The Year China Discovered the World”, arguing that Chinese fleets reached the Americas decades before Columbus.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
On the first voyage in 1405, Chinese Admiral Zheng He’s fleet comprised approximately 317 vessels and 27,800 to 28,000 men. His flagship was a colossal treasure ship—some estimates suggest over 70 meters long and rigged with nine masts. The fleet included armed escorts, supply ships and diplomatic envoys. It dwarfed any naval force of its era, including Columbus’s three ships, which were less than 25 meters long. Zheng He’s expeditions projected Ming dynasty influence across Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and East Africa.

He cited the 1424 Pizzigano chart, a Venetian map that shows mythical Atlantic islands like Antillia, which some interpret as early depictions of the Caribbean. Menzies claimed that Chinese junks could have drifted eastward into the Atlantic, but his theories are widely rejected by historians and lack archaeological support.

Archaeological evidence; Alleged Ming porcelain in California and Peru, the so-called Baby Buddha in Australia and supposed pre-Columbian Chinese inscriptions lack credible context. None are confirmed by peer-reviewed studies.

Reasons against the theory; Ming records detail Zheng He’s voyages only within the Indian Ocean and show no Atlantic plans. Later scholars have refuted Menzies’s map theories and exposed many claimed finds as misidentifications or modern intrusions.

5The Mali Empire under Abubakari II

The Mali Empire in West Africa flourished in the 13th and 14th centuries AD under mansas, a title meaning “king of kings.” These rulers, including Sundiata Keita and Mansa Musa, oversaw one of the wealthiest empires in medieval history.

In 1324, while in Cairo, Mansa Musa told Egyptian scholars that his predecessor, Abubakari II, had launched a fleet into the Atlantic. Abubakari reportedly abdicated the throne around 1311 to lead a second expedition himself. He never returned.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
Depiction of Abubakari II fleet.

Why they could have discovered America; According to al-Umari (1301–1349), an Arab historian and geographer based in Cairo, Mansa Musa reported that his predecessor, Abubakari II, first sent 200 ships westward to discover the ocean’s end. Only one returned, describing a powerful current pulling the others west. Undeterred, Abubakari then abdicated the throne and led a second, much larger expedition himself. He never returned.

Archaeological evidence; No Malian artifacts, camps or graves have been found in the Americas. No African navigational records or oral traditions outside late Arabic sources corroborate the fleet’s transit or landing.

Reasons against the theory; The voyage story appears only once in al-Umari’s account and is absent from West African oral traditions. No known 14th-century Malian ship technology could have supported a transoceanic crossing. Key names are often mistranslated, and no supporting records or material evidence have ever been found.

4The Polynesians

The Austronesians were a seafaring people who originated in present-day Taiwan around 3000BC. Over the next three millennia, they spread across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, settling islands from Madagascar to Easter Island. Their descendants include the Polynesians, who navigated vast ocean distances in the Pacific using double-hulled canoes, star charts, ocean swells, and seabird flight patterns—hallmarks of one of the most remarkable maritime traditions in human history.

Why they could have discovered America; The presence of the sweet potato (a South American crop) across Eastern Polynesia by around 1200AD suggests Polynesian voyagers reached the Americas and returned with tubers for cultivation.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
Double-hulled Polynesian voyaging ship. Known as waka hourua in Māori and waʻa kaulua in Hawaiian, these twin-hulled vessels featured triangular or crab-claw sails woven from pandanus leaves. Their double-hulled design offered exceptional stability for long-distance navigation across the Pacific and may have carried early Polynesian explorers to the coasts of the Americas.

Archaeological evidence; Pre-Columbian sweet potato remains (~1000 AD) in Polynesian middens and linguistic evidence of shared cultivars confirm contact. No enduring Polynesian settlements or artifacts have been found on American shores.

Reasons against the theory; DNA analysis shows that Native American ancestry appears in Polynesian populations on Easter Island (Rapa Nui), with admixture dated to around 1200–1400 AD. However, no Polynesian genetic markers have been found in any Indigenous American populations. This suggests brief contact, likely one-way, with no lasting presence or settlement in the Americas.

3The Basques

The Basques are one of the oldest known Caucasian populations in Europe. They came from the Caucasus region around 40,000BC during the early Upper Paleolithic. Along their westward migration, they left cultural and linguistic traces of their language, Euskara, which is unrelated to any other language in Europe or beyond. They eventually settled in the western Pyrenees, in what is now the Basque Country and Navarre, where they remained largely isolated until after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Why they could have discovered America; The Basque are quite the underdog in this whole dissertation. Basque whalers and cod fishermen, since ancient times, fished the Grand Banks and the Labrador coast in present-day Canada. They established seasonal stations in Canada for processing whale oil and drying cod. Like the Vikings, they navigated by heart using no charts and theorically, they could have been fishing in Canadian waters since time immemorial.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
The Basques may be the underdog in this dissertation, but they were a maritime powerhouse throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. Pictured; the Santo Cristo de Burgos, a likely Basque-built galleon, docked in the Port of Manila.

Archaeological evidence; Archaeological remains of whaling tryworks and cooperages at Red Bay, Labrador (1540s–1600s) document the Basque presence in Canada. Substantial finds include whale-oil rendering ovens, cooperage floors, red clay roofing tiles and Basque inscriptions. Underwater excavations have uncovered shipwrecks such as the San Juan, a Basque galleon lost in 1565, along with chalupas and thousands of artifacts. These remains confirm seasonal whaling stations but show no evidence of inland colonization or contact south of Newfoundland.

Reasons against the theory; Basque activity was seasonal and coastal, not aimed at colonization. No Basque towns or inland sites exist in New England or elsewhere. Travel beyond Labrador to America’s interior was neither recorded nor sustained.

2The Templars

The Knights Templar were a Catholic military order and a banking powerhouse founded in 1119AD and disbanded by Pope Clement V in 1312AD. They amassed wealth, built a Mediterranean fleet and managed funds for crusaders but their maritime activities stayed within European waters.

Why they could have discovered America; 19th and 20th century lore links the Templars to the Oak Island treasure mystery in Nova Scotia. Some theories claim that after being outlawed by Pope Clement V, fleeing Templars sailed west with sacred relics, secret maps and their vast treasure.

Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, built between 1446 and 1486, features carvings that some interpret as maize or Indian corn, plants native to the Americas, unknown in Europe before Columbus.

Others point to Canadian petroglyphs and symbols like the Westford Knight or the Newport Tower as possible traces of pre-Columbian European visitors.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
Bas-relief of maize in Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland. Carved around the 1480s, nearly a decade before Columbus’s 1492 voyage, these botanical motifs have sparked debate for resembling New World corn. Some interpret them as symbolic evidence of pre-Columbian contact, possibly linked to the Sinclair family or Templar legends.

The Westford Knight is a weathered carving on a glacial boulder in Massachusetts that some interpret as a medieval knight, possibly linked to the 14th-century voyage of Scottish noble Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, grandfather of William Sinclair, who built Rosslyn Chapel.

The Newport Tower is a round stone structure in Rhode Island often claimed to be a medieval Templar church or observatory, although mainstream historians identify it as a 17th-century colonial windmill. While intriguing, none of these claims are supported by conclusive archaeological evidence.

Archaeological evidence; No verified Templar forts, churches or inscriptions exist in the Americas. Sites like the Newport Tower and the Westford Knight have been explained as colonial or modern structures.

Reasons against the theory; The Templars were dissolved in 1312AD. One theory claims that the Paris preceptor and other Templars escaped arrest in 1307 using a fleet of ships from La Rochelle. Some of these knights may have fled to Scotland, where they were later said to have fought alongside Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

While this could explain the survival of some Templars in exile, it does not prove they reached Canada or that their ships were capable of crossing the Atlantic. No medieval documents record such a journey. All supposed artifacts and sites are unverified or dated centuries later.

1The Vikings

The Vikings are the favorite candidates to have reached the Americas before Columbus, reimagined through modern optics as a Nordic heavy metal band inside a Drakkar. They were also slave-raiders, plunderers, killers and unapologetic fans of eyeliner, which does not affect their current popularity.

Norse seafarers from Scandinavia, active between 793 and 1066 AD, explored the North Atlantic, settling Iceland by 870 AD and Greenland by 985AD. Around 1000AD, they established a short-lived camp at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. They sailed longships powered by sail and oar, traded walrus ivory and forged iron across the North Atlantic frontier.

Anybody discovered America except Christopher Columbus
If the Vikings had discovered America. The name “Vinland,” coined by Leif Eriksson, comes from the Old Norse word vín, meaning “wine,” borrowed from Latin. According to saga accounts, Eriksson named the land for its supposed abundance of wild grapes. While several grape species do grow in North America, they are absent from Greenland and Newfoundland, the site of the Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. This suggests that the vikings may have explored farther south, into regions like New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, where wild grapes and butternuts naturally grow.

Why they could have discovered America; The Icelandic sagas describe Bjarni Herjolfsson’s sighting of unknown western lands in 986AD, after being blown off course en route to Greenland. Around 1000AD, Leif Eriksson retraced his route and landed in places the Norse called Helluland, Markland and Vinland, likely corresponding to Baffin Island, Labrador and Newfoundland. These accounts suggest the Norse reached North America nearly 500 years before Columbus.

Archaeological evidence; Definitive remains of Norse turf houses, a smithy and boat repairs at L’Anse aux Meadows seem to confirm Norse presence around 1000AD. No evidence of further Viking colonies south of Newfoundland has been found.

Reasons against the theory; The L’Anse aux Meadows site was a small, short-lived way-station. The dating of the site to around 1021AD relies on a single felled tree and a supposed cosmic ray event in 993AD, making it interpretive rather than definitive evidence. Sagas blend history and legend and were written down in the 13th and 14th centuries, several centuries after the events they describe, which took place during the 9th to 11th centuries. No Norse tombs, churches or farms have been found on the North American mainland beyond Newfoundland.

¿Quién descubrió America? Who discovered America?

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