A Saudi Atheist.. Yeah, that's original!

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

From Portugal the country in europe that nobody remembers, that started the age of discoveries and probably discovered america and australia

Actually,the Aborigines discovered Australia around 40-50,000 years ago

After that it was probably the Chinese.

The first recorded European to land on Australia was Dutch; William Janz in 1606,but who knows for sure?


Who discovered what and when is a large area of study,with few certainties. Most popularly accepted European 'discoverers' belonged to colonising imperial powers,which promptly set about stealing everything not nailed down and murdering the rightfiull owners.


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Tangent: If I were Portugese, I'd be a bit pissed off that much of the world thinks Brazil is Spanish..


Second tangent:there's some slight evidence of trade between ancient Egypt and South America.Viz the discovery of traces of NICOTINE in some mummies. (Tobacco)

The recent findings of cocaine, nicotine, and hashish in Egyptian mummies by Balabanova et. al. have been criticized on grounds that: contamination of the mummies may have occurred, improper techniques may have been used, chemical decomposition may have produced the compounds in question, recent mummies of drug users were mistakenly evaluated, that no similar cases are known of such compounds in long-dead bodies, and especially that pre-Columbian transoceanic voyages are highly speculative. These criticisms are each discussed in turn. Balabanova et. al. are shown to have used and confirmed their findings with accepted methods. The possibility of the compounds being byproducts of decomposition is shown to be without precedent and highly unlikely. The possibility that the researchers made evaluations from faked mummies of recent drug users is shown to be highly unlikely in almost all cases. Several additional cases of identified American drugs in mummies are discussed. Additionally, it is shown that significant evidence exists for contact with the Americas in pre-Columbian times. It is determined that the original findings are supported by substantial evidence despite the initial criticisms. [Please refer also to <Edlin>]

http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/ethnic/mummy.htm