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Polynesian seafarers discovered America long before Europeans, says DNA study
New DNA analysis of sweet potatoes, which were first cultivated in the Americas, suggests that Polynesians reached the New World long before Columbus.
Tue, Jan 22 2013 at 9:53 PM
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Photo: Wiki Commons
The prevailing theory about the "rediscovery" of the American continents used to be such a simple tale. Most people are familiar with it: In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Then that theory was complicated when, in 1960, archaeologists discovered a site in Canada's Newfoundland, called L'Anse aux Meadows, which proved that Norse explorers likely beat Columbus to the punch by about 500 years.
Now startling new DNA evidence promises to complicate the story even more. It turns out that it was not Columbus or the Norse — or any Europeans at all — who first rediscovered the Americas. It was actually the Polynesians.
All modern Polynesian peoples can trace their origins back to a sea-migrating Austronesian people who were the first humans to discover and populate most of the Pacific islands, including lands as far-reaching as Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island. Despite the Polynesians' incredible sea-faring ability, however, few theorists have been willing to say that Polynesians could have made it as far east as the Americas. That is, until now.
Clues about the migration patterns of the early Polynesians have been revealed thanks to a new DNA analysis performed on a prolific Polynesian crop: the sweet potato, according to Nature. The origin of the sweet potato in Polynesia has long been a mystery, since the crop was first domesticated in the Andes of South America about 8,000 years ago, and it couldn't have spread to other parts of the world until contact was made. In other words, if Europeans were indeed the first to make contact with the Americas between 500 and 1,000 years ago, then the sweet potato shouldn't be found anywhere else in the world until then.
The extensive DNA study looked at genetic samples taken from modern sweet potatoes from around the world and historical specimens kept in herbarium collections. Remarkably, the herbarium specimens included plants collected during Capt. James Cook’s 1769 visits to New Zealand and the Society Islands. The findings confirmed that sweet potatoes in Polynesia were part of a distinct lineage that were already present in the area when European voyagers introduced different lines elsewhere. In other words, sweet potatoes made it out of America before European contact.
The question remains: How else could Polynesians have gotten their hands on sweet potatoes prior to European contact, if not by traveling to America themselves? The possibility that sweet potato seeds could have inadvertently floated from the Americas to Polynesia on land rafts is believed to be highly unlikely.
Researchers believe that Polynesian seafarers must have discovered the Americas first, long before Europeans did. The new DNA evidence, taken together with archaeological and linguistic evidence regarding the timeline of Polynesian expansion, suggests that an original contact date between 500 CE and 700 CE between Polynesia and America seems likely. That means that Polynesians would have arrived in South America even before the Norse had landed in Newfoundland.
The findings show that the technological capabilities of ancient peoples and cultures from around the world should not be underestimated, and that the history of human expansion across the globe is probably far more complicated than anyone could have previously imagined.
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Hey, Honey, I was down at the beach and you'll never guess what I discovered coming onto shore in a boat.
Now, you might not believe this, but I discovered White People.
This part of the world was "Discovered" by nomadic humans about 20,000 years ago travelling in boats along the edge of the Ice during the Ice Age,
Discover is a useless term. The question is who opened the land for exploration, commerce and development (the determination of good or bad of that is a separate matter). If Leonardo had discovered the a bomb and didn't tell anybody, is he the discoverer?
“Italy, cradle of Western civilization, woke up today to the fact that it has never actually been discovered,” the New York Times reported at the time. “The situation, however, was remedied at 11:00 in the morning when the chief of the Indian Chippewa tribe, Adam Nordwall, stepped off an Alitalia jumbo jet and claimed it for the Indian people. The intrepid explorer, in full Indian dress, stood on the tarmac of Fiumicino Airport and took possession of Italy ‘by right of discovery.’”
Every one knows that "Americas" were not "discovered" by Europeans because there were people already in the "Americas" when they sailed.
Agreed. If the Native Americans had sailed to Europe in 1491, would they get credit for "discovering" Europe? Didn't think so....
This is very possible. Ancient Polynesians were extraordinary seafaring peoples who navigated by the stars and sailed with purpose.
http://web.archive.org/web/20090917235206/http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/L2wa...
http://www.exploratorium.edu/neverlost/#/home
I think that those researches should do a little more research on trade winds and ocean currents, to me it seems more likely that American Indians would have made the trip to Hawaii (and it might explain the menehune too)
sweet patoto grows from stems....or fruit its self..wy is da big fuss about the sweetpatoto??? other plans was brought across to the pacific land by our FORE Fathers...
I agree with this article, but Hawaii was NOT discover by anybody, the hawaiians were already here, south america was already inhabited by many different cultures. The polynesians visited south america, the same as Cook or Colombus visited different lands.
Humans did not originate on Hawaii. At some point the first person set foot on the islands, and eventually there were enough to start a population.
check out the other 27 voyaging plants our ancestors sailed ...it will shove your awareness out of your present paradigm... were not dead..some of us are still alive and live your stories...when you all stop killing the indigenous and let us speak you will learn there is a beautiful universe....
Interesting article. Thanks. There is a variety of sweet potatoes in Peru that has the same name as a variety in Aotearoa (New Zealand) itʻs called Kumara. Maybe the birds could talk or they brought the name tags of the seeds and shoots with them. Lol. Sorry couldnʻt resist.
Ancient Maori Whakapapa ties in with king Kamehameha and Sioux.
Spanish explorers wrote of their encounter on the West Coast, with a
tribe of tall, dark, warrior-women and their queen, Kalifa. They named
the land, California, in her honor.
Unfortunately, science and anthropology, reflected and re-enforced the racial and cultural biases of the time. Thanks to DNA , we can prove that mankind began in Africa, and migrated all over the globe.
Good article, but don't forget that some birds travel accross the pacific, and could have spread the seeds. I think actual human genetics is more promising for proof.
that would be true of some plants but remember sweet potatoes do not grow from seeds
Interesting, thanks!
So, what about the Chinese? The Chinese mapped the west coast of North America. Chinese coins are part of archological digs as far south as California. The Chinese have a type of squash that predates western introduced plant lines.