# Question regarding  ancient Egyptians and South Americans trading with each other.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ancient-egyptians-and-south-americans-trading-with-each-other/825548>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 4, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ancient-egyptians-and-south-americans-trading-with-each-other/825548 "2018-12-04T14:00:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ancient-egyptians-and-south-americans-trading-with-each-other/825548/61 "2018-12-28T16:57:40Z")

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> [@Moris](#):
>
> I’m sure Chukchees, Evenks, Yakuts, Yukaghirs all have been visiting their aunt living on the other side of the sea every year during the fishing season.
> 
> Siberian and Inuit-Aleut peoples lived there before Russians and Brits expanded.

Really the only cross-Bering people are the Inupiat Eskimos of the Diomede Islands, about 2½ miles apart. The Russia–U.S. border runs between them. In winter they can walk over to visit each other.

Chukchi are neighbors of the Siberian Eskimos, but they have no contacts on the American side. Still less Evenks, Sakhas, and Yukaghirs, who live hundreds of miles from the Bering Strait. The Ket people of the middle Yenisei are even farther away, but Ket is connected with the Na-Dene languages of America, so if any Siberians besides Eskimos had a motivation to check out their American cousins, it would be Ket people.

Some Aleuts have settled on the Komandorsky Islands, which are the other half of the volcanic island arc that is the Aleutian Islands. So Inupiat and Aleuts are the only peoples on both sides.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ancient-egyptians-and-south-americans-trading-with-each-other/825548/62 "2018-12-28T17:21:14Z")

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> [@ftg](#):
>
> Per the maps in my link, the Dorset people lived surprisingly far north, so the onset of the Little Ice Age would have really done a number on them regardless of European diseases.

At least according to the maps, the Dorset survived longest in the east, where they were closer to the areas the Norse reached, making the idea they were done in by European diseases less likely. Disease would likely have spread from east to west.

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