I love this ! The way the blues, greys and browns blend with each other and have a similar tonal intensity really works.
Oh, and 1492 is a myth... as was proven when the US did the 400th anniversary celebration of Columbus' landing in 1892 and the Norwegians had build a longship which rowed across the North Atlantic and turned up unannounced in Boston harbour during the event 😁 So Lucky Leif got there first. Or maybe second after St Brendan, or third after the Carthaginians...... although the locals were there making beautiful art all along, of course.....
Oh yes, I've heard stories about the Norsemen but not the Cathaginians although both make perfect sense. St Brendan is new to me I shall have to look him up. It's more the terrible damage that came after Columbus that came to my mind.
Glad you liked the experiment 🙂
They found the first Viking settlement at L'Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland a few years ago, with evidence that they at least gathered foodstuffs further south although I don't think they've found any other definite settlements yet.
As for the Carthaginians, that's one of those "did they/didn't they" questions. They were great navigators. Their ancestors the Phoenicians travelled to the Cassiterides, which may have been Cornwall or the Scilly Isles, and Hanno of Carthage claimed to have circumnavigated Africa. Their ships were seaworthy enough that they could (just !) have made the journey, but the Romans took their remaining records in 146BC, after which everything gets a bit murky.