Article
SHERMAN, TEXAS—Did ancient sea trade routes include travel to the Americas? German scientist Dominique Goerlitz and his team believe it is possible that seafarers of the distant past navigated far beyond what is commonly accepted. Team leader Dominique Goerlitz and his business partner Stephan Meyer-Brehm will speak on The Abora Project, their scientific expedition to discover more about the question, at Austin College on Thursday, September 29, at 11 a.m. in Hoxie Thompson Auditorium of Sherman Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.
In his botanical research, Goerlitz was intrigued by the limited ability of scientists to explain how seeds and plants from the Americas came to be found in ancient Europe and North Africa.
In addition to being a botanist, Goerlitz is an experienced sailor. He developed a theory that ancient mariners may have learned to sail across the Atlantic, establishing primitive trade routes and moving plants and other goods between continents.
Goerlitz has built upon the work of 1960s Pacific anthropologist/explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who sailed from South America to Polynesia on the Kon-Tiki balsa raft in 1947 and proved that man could sail the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
In 1970, Goerlitz crossed the Atlantic from Morocco to the West Indies on a reed boat to show that ancient Egyptians might have reached America long before the Vikings and Columbus. In 2002, he used Abora, a Bolivian-made reed boat to travel more than 450 nautical miles between Egypt, Lebanon, and Cyprus. The Abora III began a transatlantic trip in 2007, but storm damage prevented success.
Goerlitz and his team now are building the Abora IV to further test his cross-Atlantic theory.
His boats were fashioned after boats depicted in rock painting found in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Canary Islands and similar to those stillwebintern@austincollege.edu. used by the Aymara Indians in Bolivia.
Both science and economics faculty at Austin College are interested in the presentation, scientists looking for evidence to explain the spread of plant species, economists interested in the potential of ancient trade routes.
Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas. Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original charter and name, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges That Change Lives.
Gallery