“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Those of us who learned this rhyme as school children were taught that it illustrates the fact that Columbus discovered the New World 500 years ago. While Columbus apparently did make a voyage to the Americas during that period of time, it is becoming clear that he was not the first to do so. Evidence shows that humans from both Western and Eastern hemispheres were not only aware of each other since ancient times, but were connected through trade.
In 1992, Dr. Svetla Balabanova, a German toxicologist, found traces of nicotine, cocaine, and hashish in several different Egyptian mummies. (1) All of these substances are products of New World plants, supposedly unknown to the Old World until after the voyage Columbus.
While critics of the initial study pointed to the possibility of lab contamination as an explanation for the presence of these substances, subsequent studies have continued to confirm the initial findings. A 1995 study of an Egyptian mummy found that “significant amounts of various drugs were detected in internal organs (lung, liver, stomach, intestines) as well as in hair, bone, skin/muscle and tendon.” (3) From the same study, “The concentration profiles additionally provide evidence for the preferential ways of consumption: Thus, the highest levels of THC in lung specimens point to an inhalation of this drug — as it has been assumed from known ritual smoking ceremonies — while nicotine and cocaine containing drugs showed their highest concentrations in the intestines and liver, so that they seem to have been consumed perorally.”
These kinds of results cannot be the result of contamination, regardless of whether the anthropologists themselves are drug-mixing party animals. Specific concentrations of specific drugs in specific areas of the body leave very few options for the detractors.
Other evidence which points to cross-cultural exchange is the presence of Old World seed and crop specimens in the New World. (3) Some propose that the specimens may have “floated” to the New World across the ocean, a suggestion which cannot be proven, leading some researchers to assert that human intervention is the most likely explanation. (4) All of this is irrespective of the fact that there are many visual similarities between South American and Egyptian culture and architecture, similarities which even researchers admit are “often remarkable.”
At this point, the preponderance of evidence shows that pre-Columbian contact between the hemispheres is much more than just a fancy.
Sources:
1. http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/ethnic/mummy.htm
2. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00322236
3. https://ul.qucosa.de/api/qucosa%3A15120/attachment/ATT-0/
4. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/02/10/bottle-gourd-new-world/5260193/