Polynesians definitely reached South America - study
Polynesians definitely reached South America - study
By Dan Satherley
Online Reporter
Friday 24 Oct 2014 6:21 a.m.
Polynesian travellers reached South America hundreds of years before Europeans explorers arrived, new genetic analysis has proven once and for all.
And two skulls belonging to the indigenous Botocudos tribe in Brazil analysed by scientists showed no trace of Native American ancestry at all, suggesting they are descended from early Polynesian explorers.
"Textbook versions of human colonisation events - the peopling of the Americas, for example - need to be re-evaluated utilising genomic data," says Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas of the Natural History Museum of Denmark's Centre for GeoGenetics.
Archaeological evidence has long suggested contact between Polynesians and South Americans, such as the presence of kumara on various Pacific islands, including New Zealand. But this is the first definitive proof that Polynesian travellers reached the Americas soon after settling Easter Island, around 1200 CE.
More:
http://www.3news.co.nz/world/polynesians-definitely-reached-south-america---study-2014102406#ixzz3GzuoTzBc
