Jan 30 *
You guys, this is really interesting. I think I must have missed it when it was in the news, this feels like NEW news to me. Like, I don't think I knew about it until today.
I'm not saying Thor Heyerdahl was right about everything. In fact, I AM saying that he was definitely wrong about shitloads of things. But, it looks like he was right about this.
Here is the article. I hope it's clickable.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2487-2.epdf?sharing_token=YbYh7h-oFTVqiaIHO404B9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NQ-GCGXs3b23XyInVhVtT1AdcNQHZodtkKNjeo_SR6zt9f9aL_AX33870N0wZrUnumb_oEV09bctmUoZF9efqVOMerEWxA71IrXlxocHJ7nd8Ys94Z733tZMsOGzx8ERRP41ktd_opbdkfBKR0OcXfUPTeeUVaxDDWG8Iet1QiGN_VAUdlEj562PopOAZimCyrYOBuv4MX9wbCoB48uMAtpZPiP6J-tw8R-CK2JARfi4GVwJqKXEnROmln3_VlD_Uze7YRCi9nKCVqY5cS6ibd4YcLCgY7iLejjR6ZnoRb8Xn2oJqriUF5KXEGhelNMW-FPhd-Z8aZuWMSsR3hwpJGrp-3nqr9e9Ct3Pm2DMQ7xq7Zr2BpKRbpnWXMSUypzpwciVg0GWkw2D_CeMT7Z7AE&tracking_referrer=www.iflscience.com
The idea is that Easter Island was partially settled by people of (partial) Native American descent. But, those people came to Easter Island from the WEST, not from the east. There was some kind of contact in about the 12th or 13th century A.D. (not that any of the people involved would known what that meant, obviously) between the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia and somewhere in northerly South America, probably the Zenu people in what is now the nation of Colombia. And, also, if I am understanding this correctly, maybe some contact between Polynesians and the Zapotec people of Mexico, possibly a few decades earlier than the Zenu contacts.
They don't seem to be clear on exactly what happened, but the way they talk about it makes it sound like there may have been some kind of Native American colony, waaayyy out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I love that idea... Either that, or Polynesians rowed all the way to South America, and then later took a few women back with them, to the Marquesas Islands area.
Thor Heyerdahl made some crazy claims, but just the basic idea that there may have been some contact between South America and Polynesia is apparently correct.
I'm not saying Thor Heyerdahl was right about everything. In fact, I AM saying that he was definitely wrong about shitloads of things. But, it looks like he was right about this.
Here is the article. I hope it's clickable.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2487-2.epdf?sharing_token=YbYh7h-oFTVqiaIHO404B9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NQ-GCGXs3b23XyInVhVtT1AdcNQHZodtkKNjeo_SR6zt9f9aL_AX33870N0wZrUnumb_oEV09bctmUoZF9efqVOMerEWxA71IrXlxocHJ7nd8Ys94Z733tZMsOGzx8ERRP41ktd_opbdkfBKR0OcXfUPTeeUVaxDDWG8Iet1QiGN_VAUdlEj562PopOAZimCyrYOBuv4MX9wbCoB48uMAtpZPiP6J-tw8R-CK2JARfi4GVwJqKXEnROmln3_VlD_Uze7YRCi9nKCVqY5cS6ibd4YcLCgY7iLejjR6ZnoRb8Xn2oJqriUF5KXEGhelNMW-FPhd-Z8aZuWMSsR3hwpJGrp-3nqr9e9Ct3Pm2DMQ7xq7Zr2BpKRbpnWXMSUypzpwciVg0GWkw2D_CeMT7Z7AE&tracking_referrer=www.iflscience.com
The idea is that Easter Island was partially settled by people of (partial) Native American descent. But, those people came to Easter Island from the WEST, not from the east. There was some kind of contact in about the 12th or 13th century A.D. (not that any of the people involved would known what that meant, obviously) between the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia and somewhere in northerly South America, probably the Zenu people in what is now the nation of Colombia. And, also, if I am understanding this correctly, maybe some contact between Polynesians and the Zapotec people of Mexico, possibly a few decades earlier than the Zenu contacts.
They don't seem to be clear on exactly what happened, but the way they talk about it makes it sound like there may have been some kind of Native American colony, waaayyy out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I love that idea... Either that, or Polynesians rowed all the way to South America, and then later took a few women back with them, to the Marquesas Islands area.
Thor Heyerdahl made some crazy claims, but just the basic idea that there may have been some contact between South America and Polynesia is apparently correct.
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