Exploration often meant finding routes to known places

Rome and China knew of one another, so distant contact does not always fit a simple story of discovering an unknown place. Navigators often established or recovered routes to places whose existence was already known. Marco Polo provides an example for reconsidering familiar discovery narratives. Clarke also cites unspecified maps he dates to the Viking period as evidence for extensive North American coastal voyages and connects their range to ships needing relatively small crews. No particular map is identified in this exchange.