One consistent comment we encountered after the release of Gavin's "1421" was that we were only scratching the surface regarding pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. While many agreed that Admiral Zheng He could have circumnavigated the globe, others felt strongly that he wasn't the first to explore the Americas. This curiosity led to our latest publication, Who Discovered America – the untold history of the peopling of the Americas.

Our primary objective with this book was to provide readers with an accurate depiction of who really discovered America. For decades, scientists and anthropologists have debated theories about the discovery of America. The widely taught hypothesis, the Beringia theory, suggests that towards the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 15,000 years ago, ancient peoples migrated from Asia to North America across a thousand-mile tundra known as the Bering land bridge.

This theory claims that as global temperatures dropped, much of the Earth's water froze at the poles, lowering sea levels enough to expose a land corridor from Siberia to Alaska. It envisions early Americans enduring a hostile, barren environment, chasing game across harsh terrain with limited resources. However, recent research challenges this narrative, suggesting maritime exploration played a crucial role in pre-Columbian discoveries.

Professor Jack Rossen compellingly argues for coastal migration routes, emphasizing rich seaweed belts along the western coasts from Alaska to Chile as viable sea routes to the New World. Rossen highlights the practicality of maritime exploration, asserting that sailing and coastal settlement provided abundant food and resources compared to traversing icy inland regions.

Evidence supporting sea-based migration emerges from the North Pacific currents, facilitating transatlantic voyages. These currents flow in a loop from Asia, past Japan and the Aleutian Islands, then down along North America's western coastline to Central America, suggesting America was discovered before Columbus by millennia.

Indeed, Chinese mariners had explored America centuries before Columbus's first voyage in 1492. Dr Gunnar Thompson’s research into Marco Polo's travels indicates early unexplained voyages to America, notably by Kublai Khan's fleets, laying the groundwork for later explorers like Zheng He. Ancient maps of North America, such as those researched by Thompson, further substantiate these pre-Columbian explorers.

Research also reveals fascinating connections between ancient Chinese and the indigenous peoples of the Americas, notably the Olmec civilization, highlighting trans-oceanic contact long before European colonization. Dr Mike Xu's studies illustrate striking similarities between Shang dynasty Chinese characters and Olmec inscriptions, adding depth to controversies about who discovered America.

Archaeological discoveries, including Monte Verde in Chile and Pedra Furada in Brazil, further challenge traditional timelines of American exploration. Monte Verde dates human presence back at least 14,800 years, while Pedra Furada indicates habitation as early as 50,000 years ago, substantially predating Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Leif Erikson, and other early European explorers.

Ultimately, the discovery of America was a complex, multifaceted process involving multiple waves of maritime exploration. Sites like L'Anse aux Meadows, a Norse exploration and Vinland settlement, add depth to the narrative, proving Vikings in America long before Columbus. The impact of exploration on indigenous peoples highlights the controversies and myths about discovering America, underscoring that Columbus arrived tens of thousands of years after the earliest settlers had already established themselves.