Ancient Ocean Crossings

“[ . . . ] this is an impressive and important book that brings together a large body of evidence for pre-Columbian transoceanic contacts, occurring on multiple occasions across different periods, and on both shores of the continent.”
—Journal of Pacific History
 
“Evidence for pre-Columbian contact with the Americas has long been debated in academic and non-academic circles. Geographer Jett, a major scholar of contact across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, provides an exhaustive discussion of the evidence in support of diffusion of a wide variety of items flowing into and out of the Americas by boat. This 508-page well-researched and written book has 33 pages of notes and a 60-page bibliography. For those interested in pre-1492 long-distance travel and contact over the world’s oceans, this book is a must. Essential.”
—CHOICE
 
“Overall, the entire book is an excellent example of academic erudition and powerful insight, presenting the case for long-distance ocean travel in the past, contributing to rethink our suppositions, and contradicting the paradigm that is widely accepted today. A ‘must read’ for all interested in navigation, long-distance contact and the rewriting of history.”
—International Journal of Nautical Archaeology
 
“An extraordinary study that is exceptionally well researched, written, organized and presented, Ancient Ocean Crossings: Reconsidering the Case for Contacts with the Pre-Columbian Americas is a seminal work of outstanding scholarship that is unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library collections.”
—Midwest Book Review Bookwatch
 

“Ancient Ocean Crossings is a stupendous work, one chock full of exciting ideas and fascinating facts about the cultural history of the world. The work gives new meaning to the expression tour de force.”
—Daniel W. Gade, author of Curiosity, Inquiry, and the Geographical Imagination and Nature and Culture in the Andes
 
“By most accounts, the heyday of scholarly explanations of cultural origins and change involving early transoceanic diffusion has long passed. Stephen Jett’s massive reprise of themes long dormant, along with new evidentiary material, could force major reconsideration of specific cases as well as general propositions. Jett makes the case(s) for early transoceanic diffusion with unprecedented clarity and thoroughness.”
—Kent Mathewson, coeditor of Carl Sauer on Culture and Landscape: Readings and Commentaries