>>20625
The theory of Phoenician discovery of the Americas suggests that the earliest Old World contact with the Americas was not with Columbus or Norse settlers, but with the Phoenicians (or, alternatively, other Semitic peoples) in the first millennium BC.[1]
It is possible that Mesopotamian ships could have gotten lost and sailed to the Americas, and left artifacts near the coast which could be tested for their veracity. Positive evidence would suggest eastern explorers discovered the Americas long before the Norse exploration of Newfoundland c. 1000 CE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Phoenician_discovery_of_the_Americas
I was thinking more along these lines...