Doctor Curmudgeon Who Discovered America?

By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist

“It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”

This famous quote by Sir Winston Churchill frames the context of today’s column.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue– or so I was taught in school. Funded by the Spanish Monarchy, he was to search for a Western route to the prosperous Asian spice markets. He missed Asia, but landed in the Caribbean. He really thought he had reached the islands off the coast of Asia.

But who really discovered the Americas? Not an easy question to answer.

Well, there was a Norse explorer, Leif Erikson, who was thought to be one of the very first Europeans to arrive in North America. Somewhere around 1000AD, he landed in Newfoundland, Canada. So, Leif beat Columbus by nearly 500 years. But we are not sure if he was really the first.

There was an earlier group of people, known as Paleo-Indians and it is presumed that they crossed the Bering Land Bridge about 15,000 years ago. This bridge was a chunk of land connecting Asia and North America. It endured during the last Ice Age which was about 30,000 to 10,000 years ago. Glaciers melted, and the Ice Age ended, putting the Bering Land Bridge underwater. The people on each side were now isolated from each other.

A majority of archeologists and geneticists endorse the theory of the temporary land bridge.

Genetic evidence is supportive that people were crossing the Bering Land Bridge, not just as early as 15,000 years ago, but a few researchers think it may have been even earlier.
Dave Roos in “History” writes that “Thanks to advances in genome sequencing and data analysis, we know that some of the first humans to set foot in North America (known as Paleo-Americans) were direct descendants of ancient people in Siberia, which is solid evidence for the land bridge hypothesis.”

Myths surrounding the American landscape prior to the arrival of Columbus describe America as a land with just a few nomadic tribes.

But other researchers have found that early American peoples lived in well-organized societies, on farms and in villages. America was inhabited by many indigenous cultures.
A document dating to about 1345 was discovered and indicates that Genoese sailors of that time were aware of America.

Russell Freedman wrote a book called “Who Was First?” He wrote that Columbus was not the first. “There were millions of people here already, and so their ancestors must have been the first.”
So, who discovered America?

THE MAP IS OF THE ANCIENT BERING LAND BRIDGE FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon

Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com

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