So Vincas thinks that these two articles are note worthy. My reaction to them was rather less than he expected I think; they do not surprise me. It does not surprise me that these did not make the news until now. It does not surprise me that they are not big news now, the way, for example, a new old partial skeleton would be. It does not surprise me that they are there. We know James went to India, and Matthew evangelized Ethiopia. Do you really thing they stopped there? That they went no further? Well, perhaps, but personally, I think each, except Peter who settled his see in Rome, continued until death, imprisonment, or age prevented further travel. Further, Alexander the Great made it as far as India as well, so we know that, with the technology available at the time, long distance conquest and governance were possible. If they are possible, travel and trade are as well, and the common sense assumption is that where trade is possible, someone will find a way to make it profitable. Plus, even with the expense of travel, the silks and spices from the far east were enough to make Italy rich in the middle ages and renaissance, why would not not be profitable for those in the early centuries? Technology was not that much less when it came to travel, wagons are pretty much wagons after all.
Why does it not surprise me that it has not been noticed and is not making big news now? History and anthropology do not work that way. Both are firmly committed to the idea that human progress has been more or less linear, and to allow this sort of travel would undermine that. Both are more than willing to ignore evidence. Have you looked at roman roads? Cobble stone though they are, ours do not last half so long. Have you looked at their glass? Except that it is dirty, I doubt anyone short of an expert could tell it from the bubbly glass that the colonists made in Williamsburg. They had make-up rather similar to ours, and the greek fire is still more or less a mystery. Further back in antiquity we have even less records, and thus more room for speculation, and speculate we do. Do you really think these speculations are unaffected by our theories? Seriously?