[woot]

Originally Posted by Archaea

You made it sound as if ancient Middle Eastern people traveling across the seas was fantastical. That in my mind, shows your bias, and the fact that peoples for thousands of years have been crossing the seas, by design in the case of the Chinese explorations in the early 15th Century, and by many other peoples.

Now you state, because you disbelieve it all, that it is fantastical that Middle Eastern people in the materials available at that point in time couldn't have done it. What, they weren't smart enough?

I agree it is unprovable whether the BoM is an ancient record of one of these journeys, but your claim that the basic journey is highly improbable for such naive and ignorant persons, I dispute.

Have you ever seen the distances Tahitians travel in outriggers? Would want to make the same journey? I'm not certain I would.

If the claim is plausible, that ancient peoples constructed craft watersafe enough, a small number could have bumbled across one or both seas. In most circumstances they would have landed elsewhere, but given the vast numbers that probably tried, some would have succeeded. We have Skandavian successes, Portuguese, Chinese successes and why not others? I imagine the Egyptians or Aryans from the Indic Valley or other peoples traversed the seas in small numbers and landed on the new continent.

I think you missed the point, but I'm not sure how to make it any clearer. I just acknowledged that all sorts of people may have traveled across the ocean at varying times, including people that may or may not have once lived in the middle east, so I don't know why you're listing examples and making contrary accusations.