Native (South) Americans reached Polynesia around AD1200

[painshill]

Genetic analysis by Paul Wallin, published in 'Nature':


We find conclusive evidence for prehistoric contact of Polynesian individuals with Native American individuals (around AD 1200) contemporaneous with the settlement of remote Oceania. Our analyses suggest strongly that a single contact event occurred in eastern Polynesia, before the settlement of Rapa Nui [Easter Island], between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.

https://media.nature.com/original/ma...20-01983-5.pdf

[Olden]

Neat story, but the Polynesians may have been late to the game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Phoenician_discovery_of_the_Americas

How did Polynesian wayfinders navigate the Pacific Ocean?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8bDCaPhOek

THE NAVIGATORS Pathfinders Of The Pacific

[sailorjoe]

A fascinating video. I watched about half of it tonight. I hope to see the rest of it later.

[Olden]

Lots of cultural/technical details in the documentary - I'm more interested in the boats, skills, and mindset needed to traverse such huge bodies of water. I don't think a hollow log or bull boat would cut it..

[painshill]

Neat story, but the Polynesians may have been late to the game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory...f_the_Americas

How did Polynesian wayfinders navigate the Pacific Ocean?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8bDCaPhOek

THE NAVIGATORS Pathfinders Of The Pacific

That's a theory which has no hard evidence in mainstream achaeology... but it's about the Polynesians travelling TO the Americas.

Wallin's research provides the genetic evidence for a theory that people travelled FROM the Americas (Colombia) to reach Polynesia, with a first contact around AD 1200

[flintguy]

I have to say I I found this information kind of shocking. To think Native Americans were that adapted to long distance sea faring is amazing. Changes a lot if it indeed happened this way. Leaves open the possibility that NA actually settled parts of Polynesia first. Also a mind bender for me. I guess the theory of them migrating down the coast from Alaska many years earlier is not so far fetched. Would like to take a look at one of those ancient boats, if somehow they were preserved.

[clovisoid]

It's a topic that I have been interested in for quite some time. The newer genetic evidence is particularly interesting because it kind of flips some earlier assumptions upside down. I think there were probably multiple small contacts, some of which lasted long enough to lead to DNA being swapped, and some probably ended with a couple of dead fishermen.

This poor cat survived in an open boat from Mexico to the Marshall Islands, a much greater distance... I doubt he's the first fisherman to get carried out on the currents. My guess is it was probably a one way trip for an Ancient American sailor that made it out. There isn't a lot of evidence for their ability history of deep water navigation. (Toss in some fishing gear, some bottle gourds of water, and a willingness to engage in cannibalism if needed, and a couple of people can make that journey. If you carry some stable food like , you are probably good for a year without eating your friends...)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%...ador_Alvarenga

The Polynesians were fully capable of making long journeys, and were able to sail back to where they came from. There is also some interesting reports of chickens being in the Americas (Chile & Peru) in pre-Colombian times, along with common words for adzes and other tools in Chile. (Usually dismissed because Chile has a history of trading with their Polynesian territory of Rapa Nui/Easter Island.) The Polynesians simply might not have liked what they saw when they arrived and only restocked and left.

https://www.researchgate.net/publica..._their_origins

I guess what I don't get for either scenario or a combo of both is why wasn't more technological exchange beyond a couple of sweet potatoes (and potentially bottle gourds & chickens.) The Pre-Columbian groups from Peru to Panama during the time of contact had metal, pottery, bow & arrows, musical instruments, different types of fishing gear, hot peppers, corn, chocolate, potatoes & other roots, etc. that might have been useful. They also had a pretty accurate calendar and knowledge of astronomy, but apparently not the understanding the Polynesians had for navigating. The Polynesians had some cool technologies like tattooing and different types of arts that are oddly absent from Colombia & Peru (but well documented elsewhere in the Americas.)

[CMD]

I have to say I I found this information kind of shocking. To think Native Americans were that adapted to long distance sea faring is amazing. Changes a lot if it indeed happened this way. Leaves open the possibility that NA actually settled parts of Polynesia first. Also a mind bender for me. I guess the theory of them migrating down the coast from Alaska many years earlier is not so far fetched. Would like to take a look at one of those ancient boats, if somehow they were preserved.

Unrelated, but it is a fact that the Maritime Archaic people of Maine, and Maritime Canada, often referred to as the so-called Lost Red paint people, were deep sea hunters, as evidenced by swordfish remains at their campsites. No, they did not have to venture hundreds or thousands of miles, but their vessels were ocean worthy, perhaps similar to Northwest Pacific cultures at a much later date.