The Atlantic as the great mother: the stepping-stone test

SUMMARYThe Atlantic as the great mother: the stepping-stone test (Nov 3, 2026). Tito's test: "If the Atlantic was traveled forever, we have to find proof of consistent trade and knowledge of each other's existence." His screenshots show the island chain: Azores, Madeira, Canaries, Bermuda, Tristan da Cunha, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
RECORD, the ocean is a loop: the Canary Current and trade winds carry boats from the Canaries/West Africa to the Caribbean (Columbus's route); the Gulf Stream and westerlies carry them back to Europe. The Atlantic is a wheel, not a wall.
RECORD, islands occupied before the "discoverers": lake sediments show people, livestock, fire and rye on the Azores around 700–850 AD, about 700 years before the Portuguese (Raposeiro et al., PNAS 2021). The Canaries were inhabited (Guanches) when Europeans arrived; Pliny records King Juba II's expedition there around 25 BC

DISPUTEDin 1749, Carthaginian and Cyrenaican coins were reported found in a pot on Corvo (Azores) and written up by Podolyn in 1778; the coins are lost. The Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head is a Roman-style terracotta head excavated in Mexico in 1933 from a burial sealed before 1510; thermoluminescence gives about 2nd c. BC to 3rd c. AD (Hristov and Genovés 1999); critics say it was planted.
RECORD, Norse: L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, dated by tree rings to 1021 AD (Nature 2021). The Maine Penny is a Norwegian coin of 1065–80 found at the Goddard site in Maine alongside Labrador chert, which points to a Native trade network that moved it south.
SOUND

PATTERN (lens)Roma, Roman, mora, Moor; Greeks and Creeks. Record etymologies: Romani "rom" means man or husband; "Moor" comes from Latin Maurus; "Creek" comes from English traders' name for Ochese Creek (1700s)

LENSthe same-sound names across both shores are traces of one Atlantic people (Pattern; OPEN).
THE GAP (what proof is still missing): no Old World crops or animals (wheat, horses, iron tools) yet found in pre-1492 American digs; no maize or tobacco securely dated in pre-1492 European digs except the disputed mummy tests (P171). These are the targets that would prove consistent trade. Where to look: Canary and Azores excavations, Iberian port records before 1492, Mesoamerican burials with Old World material, residue re-tests of the Munich mummies.