Editing Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories (section)

=== 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>