The history of America is widely believed to have begun in 1492, when Columbus famously sailed from Europe to North America. This is considered to be the discovery of the New World, which was a major landmark in history. However, many have theorized that what we’ve been taught all our lives, the Columbus-first concept, is all a cover-up of the true history of our land. The establishment, so-to-speak, has maintained this narrative within high school and college textbooks in America for hundreds of years. Apart from the exception of the vikings, whose arrival in America is commonly believed to have preceded Columbus by several centuries after archaeological evidence discovered in the mid-20th century was accepted as valid, every theory of pre-Columbian exploration of America has been completely rejected by academic scholars. Why is this so?

Revisionist theories with respect to pre-Columbus foreign exploration and habitation of the New World remained relatively unknown until several decades ago, when the internet exploded in popularity, becoming an open outlet for thoughts discussions about alternative theories surrounding just about any topic. This was the point at which the groundbreaking work of Barry Fell, a Harvard biologist professor who also had an expertise in inscriptions and several ancient languages, began to be discovered by the general public. He co-founded the Epigraphic society in 1974. Fell, who died in 1994 just shy of the Dot Com bubble, had published a series of books that contained detailed evidence directing readers toward pre-Columbian exploration theories. This includes inscriptions that Fell believed to be ancient, as well as archaeological evidence indicating that Europeans and others cultures were possibly quite active in America many millennia before Columbus, or even the vikings, arrived on her shores.

Throughout his books, Fell points out numerous petroglyph inscriptions around North America that are written in ancient languages understood by few people today. It is important to consider that until the last few centuries, no one understood many of these languages. This serves as evidence that certain inscriptions could not have been forged prior to that time. Many of these sites were discovered in the 19th century and early 20th century, at which point very few people were able to translate what was written in them. Fell, with his expertise in ancient scripts, translated many of these inscriptions as evidence supporting the claims in his books. One of his books discussed the Bronze Age, a period some millennia ago in the Old World during which bronze was widely used–yet no one seems to know where it came from; Fell’s answer? ancient copper mines in America. These books were met with loads of criticism and virtually non-existent support from fellow scholars; a 1983 survey among teaching archaeologists showed that an astounding 95.7% of them had negative views of Fell’s work; of the remaining percentage, 2.9% maintained a “neutral” point of view, with a mere 1.4% of respondents expressing support.

Another instance in which the widely accepted narrative has been threatened with all but undeniable evidence is the case of the Finaeus map. This little-known map published in 1531 contained a strikingly accurate depiction of the continent of Antarctica–without any ice. The map appears on the Library of Congress website, and has never been criticized as a fake or phony; yet according to the textbooks, Antarctica wasn’t officially discovered–much less mapped–until nearly three centuries later. This map is rarely, if ever, mentioned in academic works. The LOC website’s description of the map plays off the massive southern continent as “a hypothetical continent that geographers posited had to exist to counterbalance the weight of the northern land masses.” This, then, poses the question: how did the map contain such an accurate representation of the continent if no one had actually seen it or been there?

All this to say, there is clearly a discrepancy between the commonly accepted narrative versus alternative views to which a lot of evidence can point. This leads us to the root question: why none of this evidence, if so apparent, ever makes it into textbooks or other major works of academia, and why scholars continually mock and laugh at this evidence, no matter how convincing it may be. What is the motivation for gatekeeping what may quite possibly be the hidden history of ancient civilization in North America? Of course, no one likes to be wrong. In a society where such ideals as the “Columbus-first” theory have become so engraved in our thinking that any other possibility is immediately shunned, it’s no surprise that evidence contradicting it will quickly be rejected on the basis of simple ideals if for no other reason; yet one should still ask why. Why have textbooks, historians, and academic experts withheld this information from us our entire lives? It is certainly possible that there was on this land a past civilization or society before us, or some specific aspect thereof, that they want us to be unaware of. This is just one piece of the puzzle, though. What about the Finaeus map? There must be some motivation for maintaining the common narratives; but getting to the bottom of that motivation is no easy task.

In a world full of lies and deception, we may never be able to fully uncover the truth of history, or on any other matter. However, one thing is apparent: based on the evidence of scholars such as Barry Fell contradicting the common narrative–just one example of many in which the most common fundamental beliefs are challenged–it seems that we may not have been told the full story. Exactly what is being hidden may never be known in our lifetimes, but we can see based on the evidence before us that the reason this information is not taught in American history textbooks is that it contradicts the narrative we are supposed to believe. We should keep an open mind and think for ourselves rather than strictly believing only that which is universally taught.🔹