Carthies in the new world?

[miotas]

I think Jolt has nailed it. The route was just too difficult with Iron age tech. Maybe the Classical mediterranean civilisations were more advanced in some ways than the medieval Atlantic civs, but their naval architecture sucked by comparison.

Sorry but that's just bupkis. If it is possible to cross the pacific in a small raft(landed in my home town) then I don't think the Phoenicians would have had too much trouble surviving a trip across the Atlantic. I do think we would have heard more about it if it did happen though, but perhaps it was a closely guarded state secret that was lost when the Romans destroyed Carthage

You have read The Hatchet? By Gary Paulsen?? And the sequel? Those were only OK/mediocre/borderline rotten books, not to mention teen fiction. Very simple and un-sophisticated, not to mention, written by a half-amateur, despite the amount of books Paulsen wrote. Please, the best survival books are: Mysterious Island (Jules Verne) - the best of them all, Swiss Family Robinson, and of course, Robinson Crusoe and the sequel.

Sorry to trash your favourite book like that :P

I've never heard of "The Hatchet" but I read the whole of "The Swiss Family Robinson" when I was 9, I remember I was rather proud of myself for reading such a big book It's a brilliant book, but I never did understand why there were kangaroos there. And then reading it when I was older I realised there was a whole cornucopia of plants and animals that just shouldn't have been there. Still one of the best books I've ever read though.