DNA PROOF POLYNEISANS BEAT EUROPEANS TO AMERICA



Polynesians beat Columbus to the Americas
22:00 04 June 2007
NewScientist.com news service

Emma Young
Prehistoric Polynesians beat Europeans to the Americas, according to
a new analysis of chicken bones.

The work provides the first firm evidence that ancient Polynesians
voyaged as far as South America, and also strongly suggests that they
were responsible for the introduction of chickens to the continent -
a question that has been hotly debated for more than 30 years.

Chilean archaeologists working at the site of El Arenal-1, on the
Arauco Peninsula in south-central Chile, discovered what they thought
might be the first prehistoric chicken bones unearthed in the
Americas. They asked Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith at the University of
Auckland, New Zealand, and colleagues to investigate.

The group carbon-dated the bones and their DNA was analysed. The 50
chicken bones from at least five individual birds date from between
1321 and 1407 - 100 years or more before the arrival of Europeans.

Two-week journey

However, this date range does coincide with dates for the
colonization of the easternmost islands of Polynesia, including
Pitcairn and Easter Island.

And when the El Arenal chicken DNA was compared with chicken DNA from
archaeological sites in Polynesia, the researchers found an identical
match with prehistoric samples from Tonga and American Samoa, and a
near identical match from Easter Island.

Easter Island is in eastern Polynesia, and so is a more likely launch
spot for a voyage to South America, the researchers say. The journey
would have taken less than two weeks, falling within the known range
of Polynesian voyages around this time, says Matisoo-Smith.

First real evidence

Other researchers have found indirect evidence that Polynesians might
have made it to the Americas before Europeans. "But this is the first
concrete evidence - not something based on a similarity in the styles
of artefacts or a linguistic similarity," says Matisoo-Smith.

It is also the first clear evidence that the chicken was introduced
before the Europeans arrived.

Genetic studies of modern South Americans have not uncovered any
signs of Polynesian ancestry. But this is not surprising, says
Matisoo-Smith. Ancient Polynesians were great explorers, but tended
to settle only in uninhabited islands.

It seems that if they found other people, they would usually turn
around and go home, she says.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0703993104)




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