Editing Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories (section)

== Claims of European contact ==
=== Solutrean hypothesis ===
{{Main article|Solutrean hypothesis}}
[[File:Arch1 clovispoints2.jpg|thumb|right|Examples of Clovis and other Paleoindian point forms, markers of archaeological cultures in northeastern North America]]
The [[Solutrean hypothesis]] argues that Europeans migrated to the New World during the [[Paleolithic]] era, circa 16,000 to 13,000 BCE. This hypothesis proposes contact partly on the basis of perceived similarities between the flint tools of the [[Solutrean culture]] in modern-day France, Spain, and Portugal (which thrived circa 20,000 to 15,000 BCE), and the [[Clovis culture]] of North America, which developed circa 9,000 BCE.<ref>{{cite journal
 |title        = The North Atlantic ice-edge corridor: a possible Palaeolithic route to the New World
 |first1       = Bruce
 |last1        = Bradley
 |first2       = Dennis
 |last2        = Stanford
 |author-link2 = Dennis Stanford
 |journal      = [[World Archaeology]]
 |year         = 2004
 |volume       = 36
 |issue        = 4
 |pages        = 459–478
 |url          = http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Conservation%20Biology/Karen%20PDF/Clovis/Bradley%20%26%20Stanford%202004.pdf
 |doi          = 10.1080/0043824042000303656
 |citeseerx    = 10.1.1.694.6801
 |s2cid        = 161534521
 |access-date  = June 19, 2015
 |archive-date = March 20, 2013
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20130320033824/http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Conservation%20Biology/Karen%20PDF/Clovis/Bradley%20%26%20Stanford%202004.pdf
 |url-status   = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
 | last=Carey |first=Bjorn
 | date=February 19, 2006
 | url=http://www.livescience.com/history/060219_first_americans.html
 | title=First Americans may have been European
 | work=Live Science
 }}</ref>
The Solutrean hypothesis was proposed in the mid-1990s.<ref>Meltzer, David J. (2009). ''First Peoples in the New World'', Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009, p. 188</ref> It has little support amongst the scientific community, and genetic markers are inconsistent with the idea.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fagundes |first1=Nelson J.R. |last2=Kanitz |first2=Ricardo |last3=Eckert |first3=Roberta |last4=Valls |first4=Ana C.S. |last5=Bogo |first5=Mauricio R. |last6=Salzano |first6=Francisco M. |last7=Smith |first7=David Glenn |last8=Silva |first8=Wilson A. |last9=Zago |first9=Marco A. |last10=Ribeiro-dos-Santos |first10=Andrea K. |last11=Santos |first11=Sidney E.B. |last12=Petzl-Erler |first12=Maria Luiza |last13=Bonatto |first13=Sandro L. |display-authors=3 |date=2008 |title=Mitochondrial Population Genomics Supports a Single Pre-Clovis Origin with a Coastal Route for the Peopling of the Americas |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=82 |issue=3 |pages=583–592 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.11.013 |pmc=2427228 |pmid=18313026}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kashani |first1=Baharak Hooshia |first2=Ugo A. |last2=Perego |first3=Anna |last3=Olivieri |first4=Norman |last4=Angerhofer |first5=Francesca |last5=Gandini |first6=Valeria |last6=Carossa |first7=Hovirag |last7=Lancioni |first8=Ornella |last8=Semino |first9=Scott R. |last9=Woodward |first10=Alessandro |last10=Achilli |first11=Antonio |last11=Torroni |display-authors=3 |date=January 2012 |title=Mitochondrial haplogroup C4c: A rare lineage entering America through the ice-free corridor? |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=147 |issue=1 |pages=34–39 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.21614 |pmid=22024980 |quote=Recent analyses of mitochondrial genomes from Native Americans have brought the overall number of recognized maternal founding lineages from just four to a current count of 15. However, because of their relative low number, almost nothing is known about some of these lineages. This leaves a considerable void in understanding the events that led to the colonization of the Americas following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). In this study, we identified and completely sequenced 14 mitochondrial DNAs belonging to one extremely rare Native American lineage known as haplogroup C4c. Its age and geographical distribution raise the possibility that C4c marked the Paleo-Indian group(s) that entered North America from Beringia through the ice-free corridor between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets. The similarities in ages and geographical distributions for C4c and the previously analyzed X2a lineage provide support to the scenario of a dual origin for Paleo-Indians.}}</ref>

=== Claims of ancient Roman contact ===
Evidence of contacts with the civilizations of [[Classical Antiquity]]—primarily with the [[Roman Empire]], but sometimes also with other contemporaneous cultures—have been based on isolated archaeological finds in American sites that originated in the Old World. For example, the Bay of Jars in Brazil has been yielding ancient clay storage jars that resemble [[Amphora#Ancient Rome|Roman amphorae]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://webmuseum.mit.edu/detail.php?type=related&kv=87136&t=objects |title=MIT Museum Collections – Objects |publisher=MIT Museum |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009085241/http://webmuseum.mit.edu/detail.php?type=related&kv=87136&t=objects |archive-date=9 October 2014}}</ref> for over 150 years. It has been proposed that the origin of these jars is a Roman shipwreck, although it has also been suggested that they could be 15th- or 16th-century Spanish olive oil jars.

Archaeologist Romeo Hristov argues that a Roman ship, or the drifting of such a shipwreck to American shores, is a possible explanation for the alleged discovery of artifacts that are apparently ancient Roman in origin (such as the [[Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head|Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca bearded head]]) in America. Hristov claims that the possibility of such an event has been made more likely by the discovery of evidence of travels by Romans to [[Tenerife]] and [[Lanzarote]] in the [[Canary Islands]], and of a Roman settlement (from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE) on Lanzarote.<ref>{{citation|last1=Hristov|first1=Romeo H.|last2=Genovés T.|first2=Santiago|year=1999|title=Mesoamerica evidence of pre-Columbian transoceanic contacts|journal=Ancient Mesoamerica|volume=10|pages=207–213|doi=10.1017/S0956536199102013|issue=2|s2cid=163071420 }}</ref>

[[File:0 Mosaico pavimentale – Grotte Celloni – Pal. Massimo.JPG|thumb|Floor mosaic depicting a fruit which looks like a [[pineapple]]. Opus vermiculatum, Roman artwork of the end of the 1st century BCE/beginning of the 1st century CE.]]
In 1950, an Italian botanist, Domenico Casella, suggested that a depiction of a [[pineapple]] (a fruit native to the New World tropics) was represented among wall paintings of Mediterranean fruits at [[Pompeii]]. According to [[Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski]], this interpretation has been challenged by other botanists, who identify it as a pine [[conifer cone|cone]] from the [[stone pine|umbrella pine tree]], which is native to the Mediterranean area.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jashemski |first=Wilhelmina |title=The natural history of Pompeii |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-80054-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xfjyTqqR7IC&pg=PA81 |page=81}}</ref> The leaves shown in the depiction (as with stone carvings from [[Nineveh]])<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Collins |first=J. L. |date=1951 |title=Antiquity of the Pineapple in America |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3628620 |journal=Southwestern Journal of Anthropology |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=145–155 |doi=10.1086/soutjanth.7.2.3628620 |jstor=3628620 |s2cid=87859413 |issn=0038-4801}}</ref> make the pine cone identification problematic.

Roman and other European coins have been found in the United States.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Epstein |first1=Jeremiah F. |last2=Buchanan |first2=Donal B. |last3=Buttrey |first3=T. V. |last4=Carter |first4=George F. |last5=Cook |first5=Warren L. |last6=Covey |first6=Cyclone |last7=Jett |first7=Stephen C. |last8=Lee |first8=Thomas A. |last9=Mundkur |first9=Balaji |last10=Paulsen |first10=Allison C. |last11=Prem |first11=Hanns J. |last12=Reyman |first12=Jonathan E. |last13=Dorado |first13=Miguel Rivera |last14=Totten |first14=Norman |title=Pre-Columbian Old World Coins in America: An Examination of the Evidence [and Comments and Reply] |journal=Current Anthropology |date=1980 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1086/202398 |jstor=2741739 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2741739 |issn=0011-3204}}</ref> Jeremiah Epstein, an American anthropologist, rejected the suggestion that these coins can be cited as evidence of Pre-Columbian contact between Europe and the Americas pointing out the lack of any pre-Columbian archaeological contexts relating to these finds, the lack of detail concerning the discoveries, and the possibility of forgery (at least two were clearly forgeries).<ref>{{cite news |title=An Expert Doubts Roman Coins Found in U.S. Are Sea-Link Clue |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/10/archives/an-expert-doubts-roman-coins-found-in-us-are-sealink-clue-vikings.html |access-date=18 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=10 December 1978}}</ref>

==== Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head ====
{{Main|Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head}}
A small [[terracotta]] sculpture of a head, with a beard and European-like features, was found in 1933 in the [[Toluca Valley]], {{convert|72|km|mi}} southwest of [[Mexico City]], in a burial offering under three intact floors of a [[Spanish conquest of Mexico|pre-colonial]] building dated to between 1476 and 1510. The artifact has been studied by Roman art authority Bernard Andreae, director emeritus of the German Institute of Archaeology in Rome, Italy, and Austrian anthropologist [[Robert von Heine-Geldern]], both of whom stated that the style of the artifact was compatible with small Roman sculptures of the 2nd century. If genuine and if not placed there after 1492 (the pottery found with it dates to between 1476 and 1510),<ref>Forbes, Jack D. ''The American Discovery of Europe'' University of Illinois Press; 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-252-03152-6}} p. 108</ref> the find provides evidence for at least a one-time contact between the Old and New Worlds.<ref>Hristov and Genovés (1999).</ref>

According to [[Arizona State University]]'s Michael E. Smith, a leading Mesoamerican scholar named John Paddock used to tell his classes in the years before he died that the artifact was planted as a joke by Hugo Moedano, a student who originally worked on the site. Despite speaking with individuals who knew the original discoverer (García Payón), and Moedano, Smith says he has been unable to confirm or reject this claim. Though he remains skeptical, Smith concedes he cannot rule out the possibility that the head was a genuinely buried post-Classic offering at [[Calixtlahuaca]].<ref>Smith, Michael E., "[http://www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/tval/RomanFigurine.html The 'Roman Figurine' Supposedly Excavated at Calixtlahuaca]". Accessed: February 13, 2012. [https://archive.today/20120805122505/http://www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/tval/RomanFigurine.html Archived] at WebCite, February 13, 2012.</ref>

=== 14th- and 15th-century European contact ===
{{further|Priory of Sion|Westford Knight}}
[[Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney]] and feudal baron of [[Roslin Castle|Roslin]] (c. 1345&nbsp;– c. 1400), was a Scottish [[Nobility|nobleman]] who is best known today from a modern legend which claims that he took part in explorations of [[Greenland]] and North America almost 100 years before [[Christopher Columbus]]'s voyages to the Americas.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/historicalfigures/henrysinclair/ |title=Earl Henry Sinclair |publisher=Orkneyjar |access-date=February 3, 2011 |archive-date=March 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326190318/http://orkneyjar.com/history/historicalfigures/henrysinclair/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1784, he was identified by [[Johann Reinhold Forster]]<ref name=forst>Johann Reinhold Forster, ''History of the Voyages and Discoveries Made in the North'', Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, London, 1786</ref> as possibly being the Prince [[Zichmni]] who is described in letters which were allegedly written around 1400 by the [[Zeno brothers]] of [[Venice]], in which they describe a voyage which they made throughout the [[North Atlantic]] under the command of Zichmni.<ref name="ZENO, NICOLÒ,">T. J. Oleson, [http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/zeno_nicolo_1E.html "Zeno, Nicolò"] in ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 1, 2014</ref> According to ''The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'', "the Zeno affair remains one of the most preposterous and at the same time one of the most successful fabrications in the history of exploration."<ref name="biographi">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=592 |title=Zeno, Nicolo and Antonio |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online|first=T. J. |last=Oleson}}</ref>

Henry was the grandfather of [[William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness]], the builder of [[Rosslyn Chapel]] near [[Edinburgh]], Scotland. The authors [[Robert Lomas]] and [[Christopher Knight (author)|Christopher Knight]] believe some carvings in the chapel were intended to represent ears of New World corn or [[maize]],<ref name="THK">Christopher Knight and [[Robert Lomas]]. ''The Hiram Key''. Fair Winds Press, 2001 {{ISBN|1-931412-75-8}}.</ref> a crop unknown in Europe at the time of the chapel's construction. Knight and Lomas view these carvings as evidence supporting the idea that Henry Sinclair traveled to the Americas well before Columbus. In their book they discuss meeting with the wife of the botanist Adrian Dyer and explain that Dyer's wife told them that Dyer agreed that the image thought to be maize was accurate.<ref name="THK"/> In fact Dyer found only one identifiable plant among the botanical carvings and instead suggested that the "maize" and "aloe" were stylized wooden patterns, only coincidentally looking like real plants.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Turnbull|first1=Michael TRB|title=Rosslyn Chapel|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/places/rosslynchapel_1.shtml|publisher=BBC|access-date=December 14, 2016|date=August 6, 2009}}</ref> Specialists in medieval architecture have variously interpreted the carvings as stylised depictions of wheat, strawberries, or lilies.<ref>Mark Oxbrow & I. Robertson. ''Rosslyn and the Grail''. Mainstream Publishing, 2005 {{ISBN|1-84596-076-9}}.</ref><ref name="The ship of dreams">Historian Mark Oxbrow, quoted in [http://heritage.scotsman.com/myths.cfm?id=515952005 "The ship of dreams"] by Diane MacLean, Scotsman.com, May 13, 2005</ref>

[[Henry Yule Oldham]] suggested that the [[Bianco world map]] depicted part of the coast of [[Brazil]] before 1448. This was immediately opposed by members of the [[Royal Geographical Society]] but later repeated by American and European historians. This was later refuted by [[Abel Fontoura da Costa]], who proved that it actually depicted [[Santiago, Cape Verde|Santiago]], the largest island of the [[Cape Verde]] archipelago.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Souza |first1=Thomas Oscar Marcondes de |title=A Supposed Discovery of Brazil before 1448 |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |date=1946 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=593–598 |doi=10.2307/2507682 |jstor=2507682 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2507682 |access-date=15 August 2022 |issn=0018-2168}}</ref>

[[File:La historia general de las Indias.jpg|thumb|upright|A 1547 edition of Oviedo's ''La historia general de las Indias'']]
Some{{who?|date=March 2025}} have conjectured that Columbus was able to persuade the [[Catholic Monarchs]] of [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] and [[Aragon]] to support his planned voyage only because they were aware of some recent earlier voyage across the Atlantic. Some{{who?|date=March 2025}} suggest that Columbus himself visited Canada or Greenland before 1492, because according to [[Bartolomé de las Casas]] he wrote he had sailed 100 leagues past an island he called [[Thule]] in 1477. Whether Columbus actually did this and what island he visited, if any, is uncertain. Columbus is thought to have visited [[Bristol]] in 1476.<ref>"It is most probable that Columbus visited Bristol, where he was introduced to English commerce with Iceland." [[Silvio Bedini|Bedini, Silvio A.]] and David Buisseret (1992). ''The Christopher Columbus encyclopedia, Volume 1'', University of Michigan press, republished by Simon & Schuster, {{ISBN|0-13-142670-2}}, p. 175.</ref> Bristol was also the port from which [[John Cabot]] sailed in 1497, crewed mostly by Bristol sailors. In a letter of late 1497 or early 1498, the English merchant John Day wrote to Columbus about Cabot's discoveries, saying that land found by Cabot was "discovered in the past by the men from Bristol who found 'Brasil' as your lordship knows".<ref>Seaver (1995) p. 222</ref> There may be records of expeditions from Bristol to find the "[[Brazil (mythical island)|isle of Brazil]]" in 1480 and 1481.<ref>Seaver, K.A.(1995) ''The Frozen Echo'' Stanford University Press {{ISBN|0-8047-3161-6}} p. 221.</ref> Trade between Bristol and Iceland is well documented from the mid-15th century.

[[Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]] records several such legends in his ''Historia general de las Indias'' of 1526, which includes biographical information on Columbus. He discusses the then-current story of a Spanish caravel that was swept off its course while on its way to England, and wound up in a foreign land populated by naked tribesmen. The crew gathered supplies and made its way back to Europe, but the trip took several months and the captain and most of the men died before reaching land. The caravel's [[ship pilot]], a man called [[Alonso Sánchez]], and a few others made it to Portugal, but all were very ill. Columbus was a good friend of the pilot, and took him to be treated in his own house, and the pilot described the land they had seen and marked it on a map before dying. People in Oviedo's time knew this story in several versions, though Oviedo himself regarded it as a myth.<ref>Columbus, Christopher; Cohen, J. M. (translator) (May 5, 1992). ''The Four Voyages'', pp. 27–37. New York: Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-044217-0}}.</ref>

In 1925, Soren Larsen wrote a book claiming that a joint Danish-Portuguese expedition landed in Newfoundland or Labrador in 1473 and again in 1476. Larsen claimed that [[Didrik Pining]] and [[Hans Pothorst]] served as captains, while [[João Vaz Corte-Real]] and the possibly mythical [[John Scolvus]] served as navigators, accompanied by [[Álvaro Martins]].<ref>Soren, Larsen. (1925) ''The Pining voyage: The Discovery of North America Twenty Years Before Columbus''.</ref> Nothing beyond circumstantial evidence has been found to support Larsen's claims.<ref>Thomas L. Hughes, ''[http://www.ghi-dc.org/publications/ghipubs/bu/033/79.pdf The German Discovery of America: A Review of the Controversy over Didrik Pining's Voyage of Exploration in 1473 in the North Atlantic] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927204928/http://www.ghi-dc.org/publications/ghipubs/bu/033/79.pdf |date=September 27, 2007 }}'' in: ''[[German Historical Institute]] Bulletin'', No. 33 (Fall 2003)</ref>

The historical record shows that [[Basque people|Basque]] fishermen were present in [[Newfoundland and Labrador]] from at least 1517 onward (therefore predating all recorded European settlements in the region except those of the Norse). The Basques' fishing expeditions led to significant trade and cultural exchanges with Native Americans. A fringe theory suggests that Basque sailors first arrived in North America prior to Columbus' voyages to the New World (some sources suggest the late 14th century as a tentative date) but kept the destination a secret in order to avoid competition over the fishing resources of the North American coasts. There is no historical or archaeological evidence to support this claim.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.abc.es/espana/20150514/abci-balleneros-vascos-estuvieron-america-201505131925.html |title = El mito de que los balleneros vascos estuvieron en América antes que Cristóbal Colón|date = May 13, 2015}}</ref>

=== Irish and Welsh legends ===
[[File:Saint brendan german manuscript.jpg|thumb|upright|Saint Brendan and the whale, from a 15th-century manuscript]]
{{See also|Great Ireland}}
The legend of Saint [[Brendan the Navigator|Brendan]], an [[Irish people|Irish]] monk from what is now [[County Kerry]], involves a fantastical journey into the Atlantic Ocean in search of Paradise in the 6th century. Since the discovery of the New World, various authors have tried to link the Brendan legend with an early discovery of America. In 1977, the voyage was successfully recreated by [[Tim Severin]] using a replica of an ancient Irish [[currach]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/16/did-st-brendan-reach-north-america-500-years-before-the-vikings/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210223018/http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/16/did-st-brendan-reach-north-america-500-years-before-the-vikings/|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 10, 2015|title=Did St. Brendan Reach North America 500 Years Before the Vikings? – National Geographic Society (blogs)|first=Andrew|last=Howley|website=voices.nationalgeographic.com|access-date=October 22, 2017|date=May 16, 2013}}</ref>

According to a British myth, [[Madoc]] was a prince from [[Wales]] who explored the Americas as early as 1170. While most scholars consider this legend to be untrue, it was used to bolster British claims in the Americas vis-à-vis those of Spain.<ref>Williams, Gwyn A (1979): ''Madoc: The Making of a Myth''. London: Eyre Methuen</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Llwyd |first1=Humphrey |location=Cardiff |type=Print |last2=Williams|first2=Ieuan|title=Cronica Walliae|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2FnAAAAMAAJ|year=2002|publisher=[[University of Wales Press]] |isbn=978-0-7083-1638-2}}</ref>
The "Madoc story" remained popular in later centuries, and a later development asserted that Madoc's voyagers had intermarried with local Native Americans, and that their Welsh-speaking descendants still live somewhere in the United States. These "Welsh Indians" were credited with the construction of a number of landmarks throughout the [[Midwestern United States]], and a number of white travelers were inspired to go look for them. The "Madoc story" has been the subject of much speculation in the context of possible pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. No conclusive archaeological proof of such a man or his voyages has been found in the New or Old World; however, speculation abounds connecting him with certain sites, such as [[Devil's Backbone (rock formation)|Devil's Backbone]], located on the Ohio River at Fourteen Mile Creek near [[Louisville, Kentucky]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://newsandtribune.com/clarkcounty/x519388801/The-Madoc-legend-lives-in-Southern-Indiana-Documentary-makers-hope-to-bring-pictures-to-author-s-work |title=The Madoc legend lives in Southern Indiana: Documentary makers hope to bring pictures to author's work|author=Curran, Kelly|date=8 January 2008 |access-date=16 October 2011|publisher=News and Tribune, Jeffersonville, Indiana}}</ref>

At [[Fort Mountain State Park]] in Georgia, a plaque formerly mentioned a 19th-century interpretation of the ancient stone wall that gives the site its name. The plaque repeated a claim by Tennessee governor [[John Sevier]] that [[Cherokees]] believed "a people called Welsh" had built a fort on the mountain long ago to repel Indian attacks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://planetanimals.com/logue/Ftmount.html|title=Fort Mountain's Mysterious Wall|work=Touring the Backroads of North and South Georgia|publisher=Native American Tour|access-date=3 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131225825/http://planetanimals.com/logue/Ftmount.html|archive-date=31 January 2016|df=dmy-all}}</ref> <!-- "October 2015"?? -->The plaque has been changed, leaving no reference to Madoc or the Welsh.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://historyofyesterday.com/prince-madoc-the-legend-of-how-the-welsh-colonized-north-america-14e8c99648ff| website=historyofyesterday.com| title=Prince Madoc: The Legend of How the Welsh Colonized North America| access-date=5 July 2021}}</ref>

Biologist and controversial amateur epigrapher [[Barry Fell]] claims that Irish [[Ogham]] writing has been found carved into stones in the Virginias.<ref>Sisson, David (September 1984)[https://web.archive.org/web/20050321123920/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1189/is_v256/ai_3410276 "Did the Irish discover America?"]. ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]''. Retrieved July 23, 2006.</ref> Linguist [[David H. Kelley]] has criticized some of Fell's work but nonetheless argued that genuine Celtic Ogham inscriptions have in fact been discovered in America.<ref>{{cite journal |first=D. H. |last=Kelley |title=Proto-Tifinagh and Proto-Ogham in the Americas: Review of Fell; Fell and Farley; Fell and Reinert; Johannessen, et al.; McGlone and Leonard; Totten |journal=The Review of Archaeology |date=Spring 1990 |volume=11 |issue=1 |url=http://www.reviewofarchaeology.com/pastissues.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709172608/http://www.reviewofarchaeology.com/pastissues.html |archive-date=July 9, 2008 |quote=I have no personal doubts that some of the inscriptions which have been reported [in the Americas] are genuine Celtic ogham. [...] Despite my occasional harsh criticism of Fell's treatment of individual inscriptions, it should be recognized that without Fell's work there would be no [North American] ''ogham'' problem to perplex us. We need to ask not only what Fell has done wrong in his epigraphy, but also where we have gone wrong as archaeologists in not recognizing such an extensive European presence in the New World.}}</ref> However, others have raised serious doubts about these claims.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Oppenheimer |first1=Monroe |last2=Wirtz |first2=Willard |title=A Linguistic Analysis of Some West Virginia Petroglyphs |journal=The West Virginia Archeologist |volume=41 |issue=1 |date=Spring 1989 |url=http://cwva.org/ogam_rebutal/wirtz.html |access-date=August 8, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110418055631/http://cwva.org/ogam_rebutal/wirtz.html |archive-date=April 18, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>