We of the GCAS prefer to keep this here website focused on the archaeological advances made in our own region, but we always make an exception for any DNA research that comes our way. [Maps on right via New York Times.] As reported in the New York Times of July 8, 2020, a new comparative study of the DNA of more than 800 people from Polynesian islands and South America's Pacific Coast discloses contact between ancient Polynesians and indigenous South Americans around 1200CE.
Researchers discovered that some people from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and other islands in the Eastern Pacific have Native American ancestry that derives from individuals of the pre-Columbian Zenu culture, who lived some 800 years ago in what is now Colombia. The geneticists propose that either Polynesians sailed some 3000 miles to South America and returned with Zenus to the Marquesas Islands in the Southern Pacific; or the Zenus themselves sailed to various islands of eastern Polynesia. (We would note that human beings tend to move around a lot, so it does not necessarily appear that these two scenarios are mutually exclusive.)
The article clarifies that it is known that people migrated from Asia across the Western Pacific Ocean into Eastern Polynesia including the Marquesas by about 800 BCE. It appears, then, that these travelers would have had ample time before 1200CE to sail back and forth between Polynesia and mainland South America.
As is typical with scientific discoveries, new evidence leads to more intriguing questions that demand further research. Perhaps further genetic studies of indigenous populations and ancient human remains found throughout the Pacific Basin may yield further clues and push further back the time line for migration by boat into the Eastern Pacific.
/s/ webmaster
Comments