Your views on "Diffusionism"?

I think it’s plausible to a degree. Humanity did not exactly experience parallel evolution on different continents. Genetics will show it if there was more than just goods exchanged. Not something I’m well read on but interesting.

My guess is that such contacts were more frequent than commonly acknowledged. The oceans and winds above them are fickle enough to frequently displace people sailing for a living from planned and established routes.

I’ll have to look this up on Google to get a link, but there was a woman who wrote a book, based on the idea that the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece was a description of an ancient voyage to Peru. I believe the Phoenicians may have had ships sturdy enough to make that voyage, we know they circumnavigated Africa for Pharaoh Necho. But I don’t think the early Greeks could have travelled that far.

I think that it probably occurred with much more frequency than we can prove both on the level of individuals and families and in terms of societies or cultures. There is always a contingent in all groups or societies that gives in to the urge to travel, to see if the grass really is greener in the next valley and they will venture out of their comfort zones to explore the unknown always.

At the opposite end of the spectrum we have the homebodies who will rarely go further than the pub down the road. A prime example being that of the teacher Adrian Targett of Chedder who turned out to be a direct descendant to the 9000 year old bones found in Cheddar Cave.