Olin Lathrop wrote:

> Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>>> There seems to have been more traffic between eurasia (russia) and
>>> North America over the ice than between Africa and Europe...
>>
>> Any sources? That would surprise me.
> 
> The strong consensus among archeologists is that the original people got
> here by migrating from Asia accross the Bering Straight.  This has been
> substantiated by DNA, cultural, and to a smaller extent liguistic evidence,
> although some serious scholars do disagree.

I've read that also, and have no reason to doubt it. My question was not
about whether there was traffic across the Bering Straight, but whether
that traffic was more than the traffic between Africa and Europe, which, if
I'm not mistaken, was substantial. Ever since the Phoenicians dominated the
Mediterranean Sea, there was lots of traffic between Africa and Europe;
from what I have read, more than between Alaska and Siberia. 

> There is much disagreement over when these migration(s) took place with
> various proponents arguing 12K to 25K years ago.  

Of course, if you want to go that far back, when there probably were few
regular ship builders around, it's not surprising that there was little
traffic between Africa and Europe: they don't share a land border, not even
a "firm" border during the glacial ages like Alaska and Siberia.

Gerhard

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