The Archregimancy wrote:Neanderthaland wrote:Also - and I don't know why more people don't seem to realize this - Greenland is part of the American continent.
Like, it's an island. But so is what Columbus discovered.
With the important qualifiers that A) Columbus was the known European to have landed on the mainland of South America - on the Paria Peninsula in what's now northeastern Venezuela in 1498 during his third voyage, though B) John Cabot seems to have been the first post-Norse European to have reached the North American mainland (somewhere in eastern Canada) in 1497, and C) Norse explorers almost certainly did likewise, since it would be a bit difficult to avoid what's now Labrador if you were setting up a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, and the relevant sagas note the existence of a 'Markland' between 'Helluland' (most likely Baffin Island, where there's some good archaeological evidence of more transient Norse activity) and 'Vinland' (most likely Newfoundland).
So Columbus can reasonably take credit for discovering South America; Cabot and earlier Norse explorers should take the credit for North America
As to the archaeological evidence for Norse settlement of the Americas, and the recent Nature article dating L’Anse aux Meadows... I know I'm biased, but archaeology rocks.
Archaeology? I can dig it