Lost paradise

Lynn Poole uses film clips, sketches, and photos to discuss pre-Columbian discoveries of the new world. In the seventh century BC, the Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa and may have sailed to the Azores and Canary Islands. They were followed by the Celts, who journeyed to Iceland and Greenland according to accounts by St. Brendan, who set sail from Ireland between 565-573 and encountered a crystal column in the sea, either an iceberg or glacier. He also possibly sailed to the Azores and Canaries and possibly to Mexico since Cortez discovered, in 1519, that the Aztecs celebrated a blend of paganism and Christianity and spoke of Quetzalcoatl, a legendary white priest. The Vikings or Norse also migrated to Iceland in 874. Around 900 they discovered Vitramannaland, or "white man's land," possibly an Irish settlement in North America. In 930 Gunnbjorn discovered Greenland, and in 982 Erik the Red colonized it. Bjarni Herjulfsson, blown off course, explored part of the American coast unknowingly in 985. Leif Erikson also sailed along the shores of the American continent and established a colony named Vinland the Good, its exact location disputed. Other evidence of pre-Columbian Viking discovery includes maps and the existence of the stone Newport Tower in Rhode Island. Edmund Plowden referred to the tower in a 1632 petition, but this may have been elsewhere than Newport. Additional exploration included that of Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524, the Venetian expedition in 1398 described in "The Zeno Narrative", and the Portuguese discovery of Newfoundland in 1450 and Labrador in 1492.