"Portuguese navigators spoke of strange corpses and curiously carved pieces of wood that floated in on the west wind" what is this in reference to?

by yosemite_marx

I just started reading Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America and he seems to suggest Europeans had evidence of a civilization not known to them pre Columbus. Did corpses and art work really float from the America's to europe/ its territories or were these just folk-tales?

mikedash

There is always more to say, but this question came up here a few months ago and got some fairly detailed responses from u/terminus-trantor and me, u/mikedash. You might like to review those earlier answers while you wait for fresh responses to your query.

Did the Portuguese ever find artefacts from America washed ashore prior to 1492?