pre-Columbian

alternative precolumbian · alternative Precolumbian

1. historicalnot comparableBefore the voyages of Christopher Columbus of the 1490s which introduced greatly widened contacts between Eurasia and the Americas.

   since pre-Columbian times

   1 more example

   unknown in Europe in pre-Columbian times

   Antonyms: post-Columbian, postcolumbian

2. not comparableReferring to the cultures of the Americas before the European influence, specifically to the era before the continent was visited by Christopher Columbus.

   pre-Columbian cultures

   3 more examples

   pre-Columbian civilizations

   In fact, the dating of pre-Columbian Andean cultures was largely a matter of guesswork.

   1961, Margaret A. Towle, The Ethnobotany of Pre-Columbian Peru, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 2

   Boys trained to be warriors, but why did pre-Columbian peoples battle one another?

   2010, Marylou Kjelle, In Pre-Columbian America, Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 41