4 ms·

Old news (~2013). Australian Geographic had a feature on it years ago. Here's one of their articles: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-cult

Old news (~2013). Australian Geographic had a feature on it years ago. Here's one of their articles: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2014/08/mystery-of-ancient-african-coins-found-in-australia/ https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-cultu... Apparently they also found Chinese coins https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2014/08/18th-century-chinese-coin-found-in-arnhem-land/ https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2014/08/18th-ce... Personally, having studied Chinese history, travelled the area fairly extensively, and read all of the Ming Dynasty texts around Zheng He's voyages (~1400s), I am sort of convinced it would have been unthinkable for the Chinese not to have visited northern Australia, since (a) presence of land should have been well known / established through local knowledge, currents, clouds, winds, and seabird migrations; (b) they went to so many other places, it seems insane they would stop just after the equator when they already had compass-aided navigation and strong (for the period) navigational astronomy. Still, stranger things have happened...

netcan 8y ago
Wouldn't it be odd for the Ming fleet to have "found" Australia, but not have left surviving documentation? Is suppose they mightn't have realized the size of Australia.
- unixbeard1337 8y ago
  Manuscripts had to be copied, and the copyists were Confucians who, as a class, had little interest in such things.
- Retric 8y ago
  That or it may not have seemed like a valuable trade route. Trade requires both sides to have something the other wants that’s also worth transporting the distance.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
gregn610 8y ago
there's a fascinating audio book called 1434 putting together a pretty convincing argument that many of the European "discoveries" where predated by Chinese. http://www.gavinmenzies.net/ http://www.gavinmenzies.net/
- fishnchips 8y ago
  > pretty convincing argument I read the printed version of the book and found the nature and quality of the argument to fall somewhere between von Daniken ("we don't know exactly how the ancients built the pyramids, so it must have been aliens") and Thor Heyerdahl ("I can sail this thing so Polynesians must have come from Peru").
  - mamon 8y ago
    Also, noone really cares if some lone Chinese sailor "discovered" America, or some other land, if the knowledge about this discovery was lost. The reason Columbus is considered the one to discover America is because him landing on America's shores started a new era in history, not because he was first human there (there were Native Americans there, after all).
shas3 8y ago
Likewise Indian and East African sailors. They traded extensively with Indonesia. If you look at the map, it is hard to imagine anyone trading with Indonesia not stumbling upon Northern Australia.
ChrisRR 8y ago
It's new to me! I'm one of the lucky 10,000 Edit: From a brief skim of the OP article, this is about a new coin found and references the five coins found in your article. I've only skimmed the articles though so they may be referencing the same thing
rmbeard 8y ago
This was my first thought as well. Zheng He did not reach Australia, based on what I know of the Chinese sources, but that doesn't mean that is not the source of the coins, as he famously paid for tribute. He was definitely in what is now Indonesia. Northern Australian aboriginal tribes have traded with Indonesia for centuries so a find of this nature shouldn't really be that surprising although it is definitely interesting.

netcan 8y ago

Wouldn't it be odd for the Ming fleet to have "found" Australia, but not have left surviving documentation? Is suppose they mightn't have realized the size of Australia.

unixbeard1337 8y ago
Manuscripts had to be copied, and the copyists were Confucians who, as a class, had little interest in such things.
Retric 8y ago
That or it may not have seemed like a valuable trade route. Trade requires both sides to have something the other wants that’s also worth transporting the distance.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

gregn610 8y ago

there's a fascinating audio book called 1434 putting together a pretty convincing argument that many of the European "discoveries" where predated by Chinese. http://www.gavinmenzies.net/ http://www.gavinmenzies.net/

fishnchips 8y ago
> pretty convincing argument I read the printed version of the book and found the nature and quality of the argument to fall somewhere between von Daniken ("we don't know exactly how the ancients built the pyramids, so it must have been aliens") and Thor Heyerdahl ("I can sail this thing so Polynesians must have come from Peru").
- mamon 8y ago
  Also, noone really cares if some lone Chinese sailor "discovered" America, or some other land, if the knowledge about this discovery was lost. The reason Columbus is considered the one to discover America is because him landing on America's shores started a new era in history, not because he was first human there (there were Native Americans there, after all).

shas3 8y ago

Likewise Indian and East African sailors. They traded extensively with Indonesia. If you look at the map, it is hard to imagine anyone trading with Indonesia not stumbling upon Northern Australia.

ChrisRR 8y ago

It's new to me! I'm one of the lucky 10,000 Edit: From a brief skim of the OP article, this is about a new coin found and references the five coins found in your article. I've only skimmed the articles though so they may be referencing the same thing

rmbeard 8y ago

This was my first thought as well. Zheng He did not reach Australia, based on what I know of the Chinese sources, but that doesn't mean that is not the source of the coins, as he famously paid for tribute. He was definitely in what is now Indonesia. Northern Australian aboriginal tribes have traded with Indonesia for centuries so a find of this nature shouldn't really be that surprising although it is definitely interesting.