(July 21, 2012 at 2:41 am)Minimalist Wrote: I was taken by Stanford's discussion of ancient seamanship. Of course he is right. These people were not out there in kayaks. They had to know how to sail under wind power and how to tack.
Also the opening of Siberia and the determination that ancient Asians used microblade technology which was nothing like the bifacial points of the Solutreans and later Clovis peoples.
Yes, seamanship. I spent a good portion of my adult life on submarines, where no tack (nor tact) was required. Strange that I ended up there because I loved (still love) sailing when I was young. I remember the connection Stanford made. He kept invoking tack as if everyone knew what that meant, yet didn't explain the concept for those who have never had the privilege or need to sail against the wind (Bob Seger be damned). Labrador to Vermont; we can drive it now, but I thought the map he showed was telling in that all of modern day Quebec was under water...they had to sail.
Stanford's conclusion was understated; in fact, he left it to the imagination. If true, American sailing pre-dated the Phoenicians by thousands of years.
