A few days ago, I posted about the possibility that an ancient wave of people from what is now known as Melanesia (including Australia), reached America long before the Polynesian contact that has been suggested took place around AD 1200-1400. Today we will look into this scenario.
Polynesians are said to have originated in an "Out of Taiwan" migration that swept in a wide arch south, across the islands of Indonesia, and then across New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Bougainville, and the Solomon Islands. There they originated the Lapita Culture and established the Polynesian languages around 3,500 years ago. They then moved to the Islands southeast of the Solomons such as Vanuatu and Fiji (3,000 years ago). They stood still there for a long time before spreading into distant Polynesia around 800 AD, and Micronesia around AD 1250 their expansion ended in New Zealand.
The discovery and peopling of Eastern Polynesia required advanced sailing skills. An interesting paper delves in depth with this matter, and states that: "The immense seascape of East Polynesia and increasing contrary winds required advances in navigation and technology. The settlement of East Polynesia involved a package of technological innovations." The inner islands around New Guinea and Melanesia were easy to navigate with wind blowing in two directions, but crossing the ocean towards distant Polynesia meant sailing against the wind.
The invention of the sprit sail, more efficient V-shaped hulls (vs. U-shaped ones), and larger planked double-hulled canoes that could carry more cargo and people, all favored the exansion across Polynesia.
An Earlier Date for Arrivals of Human Beings the Southwestern Pacific
A study published in 2011 reports an "older" age for the first humans in the region:l
"Our results show that the maternal ancestors of most Remote Pacific islanders split from Asian mainland lineages ∼10–20 ka, rather than ∼5.5 ka, as would be the case if they were to be explained by the “out of Taiwan” model. They had established themselves in the Bismarck Archipelago by at least ∼6 ka, rather than arriving there ∼3.5 ka with the advent of Lapita pottery, as the model predicts."
This earlier date is interesting. Did these people have the seafaring abilities of the later ancestral Polynesians? Could their boats cross long ocean distances? It is doubtfull. The Aboriginal population of Australia who has lived on the Island-Continent for +60,000 years, possessed limited seafaring abilities.
See this interesting webpage with images drawn by Europeans during the discovery period (late 1700s) of the watercraft used by Aboriginal people. They used rafts, simple dugout, or bark canoes, tied-reeds, and similar rudimentary vessels, like the one picture below.
They resemble the canoes used by the Fuegian Yamaná and Alakaluf, and the Chono people of southwestern Patagonia. The reed canoes are similar to those used by the Uros of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. This shows that the ancestral skills of making simple watercraft were shared by all ancient human beings.
They couldn't have crossed the Pacific Ocean in one of these canoes.
The "Kelp Highway"
Another route using calm coastal waters was proposed by Jon Erlandson et al in a 2007 paper (The Kelp Highway Hypothesis: Marine Ecology, the Coastal Migration Theory, and the Peopling of the Americas). In it, they put forward the theory that the kelp seaweed forests along the North Pacific coasts of Asia and North America would have allowed people to find food, on their journey from Australia to Japan, Siberia, Alaska, California. South of this point, mangroves and coral reefs replace the kelp, but, serve the same purpose, guiding the migrants into South America. This kelp highway avoids the risky transpacific oceanic route.
Interestingly, the fuegian people thrived in an area with kelp-rich waters. Kelp algae form underwater forests, which support rich marine life such as fish, sea urchins, crabs, and sea otters. In the North Pacific they were the home of the herbivore Steller's Sea Cow, extinct since the 1700s.
An interesting theory!
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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