Polynesians: Some of history's greatest Sailors?
Photo is a Polynesian catamaran from approx. 1000BC -1
Having studied the massive dugouts used by the indigenous people of Peru Heyerdahl became convinced that this was where the Polynesians had come from. Thus he built a 30 foot long log raft and managed to successfully sail it from Peru on the Humboldt current to Raroia Island 4300 nautical miles and 101 days from home where they struck ar reef. Thus he had proven that it was indeed possible for the Polynesians to have come from South America. Later another group's trip from Hawaii to Tahiti further proved that the Polynesians did indeed have vessels capable of traveling across oceans. It was already known approximately when the Polynesians had settled in the areas they now inhabit and now how they did so was beginning to take shape. The last piece of the puzzle was determining how such a primitive group of people could have navigated such vast distances. Thus they set out to prove how they could have navigated the vast distances and they discovered that the likely answer was star navigation. Thus Heyerdahl now had all the pieces of the argument he needed to make his case. The prevailing currents would have helped carry them across the ocean, they had quite seaworthy boats that seemed to have been based on South American designs and finally they had the navigation skills necessary to guide them in their journey. Given all this information it seems extremely likely that there was indeed Pre-Columbian transoceanic travel except possibly in the opposite direction thousands of years before Spain was even thought of. (1)
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Of all the civilizations that have existed through time few have demonstrated the tenacity to sail across entire oceans with the most basic of navigational tools and yet it seems that for several millennia the polynesians have been doing just that. Their settlements form what has been called the Polynesian triangle which has its three corners at Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand. Each of these places is separated by hundreds if not thousands of miles of open sea. Originally thought to have been scattered by chance storms around Polynesia; some have come to the conclusion given the prevailing winds and currents that this is extremely unlikely to have occurred. In fact they say it's very likely if not highly probable that the Polynesians did indeed know how to navigate the open ocean and had vessels that were quite seaworthy. Thus enters Thor Heyerdahl and his radical theory about where these people likely came from.
 Heyerdahl's route-2
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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
