Polynesians: Some of history's greatest Sailors?
In addition to the proof of the feasibility of Polynesian travels to and from the South American continent scientists have recently made a discovery that seems to confirm Heyerdahl's suspicions and it all comes down to chicken. For years anthropologists and others believed that chickens had come from the European explorers however scientists recently discovered some discarded bones that predate the European arrival in the New World. In addition they were able to get genetic samples from those bones and found that they share genetic similarities to those chickens that the Polynesians have at the eastern end of their range. This along with lingual and cultural similarities already documented by scientist seems to put out the last bit of doubt on this subject. It seems almost certain now that indeed there was some sort of contact between the Polynesians and South Americans long before the Spanish and others ever arrived. (2)
Sources
Informational Sources
1-Transoceanic Encounters: A Symposium Series in Observancy of The Columbian Quincentenary. Center for Arts & Humanities Department of History University Hawaii at Manoa.
2-http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/dna-from-chicken-bone-shows-polynesians-found-south-america-451758.htmlPhoto Sources
Catamaran Photo
http://historicalmysterywriter.blogspot.com/2009/12/mysterious-outlines-new-world-view.html
Heyerdahl Route
http://azeri.org/Azeri/az_latin/latin_articles/latin_text/latin_82/eng_82/82_heyerdahl.html
1-Transoceanic Encounters: A Symposium Series in Observancy of The Columbian Quincentenary. Center for Arts & Humanities Department of History University Hawaii at Manoa.
2-http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/dna-from-chicken-bone-shows-polynesians-found-south-america-451758.htmlPhoto Sources
Catamaran Photo
http://historicalmysterywriter.blogspot.com/2009/12/mysterious-outlines-new-world-view.html