michaelr, why does it have to be a hoax? Good heavens, man - it's on the BBC. The BBC doesn't 'DO' hoaxes! It was also in one of the American 'big' papers recently; someone e-mailed it to me. They've got maps marked 'America' predating the Amerigo Vespucci (however that's spelt) claim and everything.

Hey, it isn't like we're staking any claims or anything! (Although if the Mandan natives hadn't died out, we might have; they were supposedly survivors of an even earlier Welsh exploration.)

Just be glad that ap Meurig (as we spell it today) didn't come from North Wales and name it after a local village, Penisarwaun. I'd hate to think how you might abbreviate that ...

sian