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+--- Thread: Roman Ship? (/showthread.php?tid=14771)
Roman Ship? - Quintis Antonius Felix - 03-10-2009
I have heard a story of a roman ship being found off the coast of one of the Americas. Can anyone verify if that is true or not?
Re: Roman Ship? - jkaler48 - 03-10-2009
There has been a discussion on Roman visits/wreaks to/in North America in another thread. I believe the consensus was not known/provable
and perhaps it is possible a hulk could have drifted to the new world or there was an accidental visit of a wayward ship but no evidence is known of such a event.
Re: Roman Ship? - Gaius Julius Caesar - 03-11-2009
Considering the things that wash up on the Irish coast, perhaps, but then again, perhaps the very currents that wash up the things here would make it impossible?
Re: Roman Ship? - Quintis Antonius Felix - 03-11-2009
I dont know, when I heard it it sounded pretty crazy. Even if the Romans did venture this far, could their ship hold enough provisions to cross the Atlantic?
Re: Roman Ship? - Quintis Antonius Felix - 03-11-2009
Interesting Note on the subject: I just found a site that has a newspaper article which states that a Roman Bust was found in the Toluca Valley of mexico. I'm not an expert but is it not strange that if this were true and Romans did reach Mexico, and come into contact with the Aztecs..... look at this description of one of their gods:......Legends say that Quetzalcoatl was tall and light-skinned, with blonde hair and a beard, in contrast to the natives who were short, dark skinned and dark haired..... He is said to have worn a long, flowing robe. It sort of makes me wonder sometimes.
Re: Roman Ship? - M. Demetrius - 03-11-2009
Well, there weren't a whole lot of light-skinned, blonde, bearded Romans, generally speaking. Doesn't sound like people from the main areas of the Mediterranean. Further north, perhaps, but that would make them more like Norsemen, Germanics, Britons or Gauls. Hard to know, lacking evidence beyond legend.
Re: Roman Ship? - Quintis Antonius Felix - 03-11-2009
Well I did not think about that, however there is a bay in Brazil, approriatly named The Bay of Jugs, because of all the Amphorae found by archaeologists.
Re: Roman Ship? - Matthew Amt - 03-11-2009
As far as I've seen, not one of those "amphorae" from the Bay of Jars or Jugs or whatever has been examined and published by a trained historian. They could easily be 16th or 17th century--ceramic jars were very common on galleons from that era. And apparently, those jars are the entire basis for the "Roman shipwreck" story. So, haul one out of the water and show us! Is it Roman or Spanish?
Sure like to see more about that "Roman bust", too, since the photo I saw was a roughly spherical lump of rock that might have had a face on it, but might have been untouched by human hands.
I would never say that the ancients never crossed the ocean! I'm just saying that so far the "evidence" is not much better than for that whole "Romans in China" silliness. So far!
Valete,
Matthew
Re: Roman Ship? - texascavtrooper - 03-11-2009
I think that National Geograghic did a story about the jugs. Maybe we could find it in one of there old, 1980's time frame, mags. I remember looking at the pictures and saying wow.
Bryan
Re: Roman Ship? - Quintis Antonius Felix - 03-11-2009
Well I was still researching the topic and never came to a conclusion, however the stone head, was shaped ind had facial features, but there are hoaxes out there, Ive heard the Chinese thing as well and dont believe it, but would it have been possible for Romans to reach the Americas was my question.
Re: Roman Ship? - Quintis Antonius Felix - 03-11-2009
Fort Hood: I will check the archives of Natl. Geographic to see about the Bay.
Re: Roman Ship? - Sallustius Metellus - 03-11-2009
Salve,
The ship in Brazil was discovered by sport divers in 1976. Robert Marx, a founder of the Council for Underwater Archaeology, explored the site in 1981. By that time there were at least 50 amphora said to be from the site. The type of amphora were identified by experts, according to Marx as “being from the third century AD” and to have originated in Morocco. The encrustations of marine life on some of the amphora were identified as native to Brazil and were radiocarbon dated to over 1500 years old. In 1982, he expected to return to the site but was prevented from doing so by the Brazilian government supposedly because they did not want to challenge the notion that Brazil was discovered by the Portuguese. No report has ever been produced on the site, the identification of the amphora or the radiocarbon dating. We are left with Marx’s word and a mystery. His recollections are presented in the book called “Treasure Lost at Sea” which was published by Firefly Books in 2004.
Re: Roman Ship? - texascavtrooper - 03-12-2009
I did a google serch for the bay of jugs and found a web page on it. It states that they found with sonar what appeared to be a ship. The goverments of Brazil, Spain and Portugual stopped the further exploration of the site. Then the Brazilian govorment burried the site. That is the only thing I found.
Re: Roman Ship? - M. Demetrius - 03-12-2009
Which just goes to show there are nuts in governments everywhere. In this case, Brazil nuts.
Re: Roman Ship? - Quintis Antonius Felix - 03-12-2009
Im going to continue to research this today and see what I can come up with. I appreciate ya'll finding information on it.