Re:Polynesian DNA suggests epic voyage to South America 800 ...
by irrational on Thursday July 09, 2020 @01:29AM
(#23777206)
> The technology to voyage over the south pacific definitely did not exists in 1600 BCE.
How do we know that? Archeological evidence of wooden boats from that long ago in the tropics would probably be hard to come by.
Re:Polynesian DNA suggests epic voyage to South America 800 ...
by runarberg on Thursday July 09, 2020 @02:29PM
(#23783410)
You are right, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. However extraordinary claims, require extraordinary evidence, and while there is no evidence of an ocean fairing civilization in the 16th century BCE I will believe the simpler explanation that the reason why American crops were cultivated in India is because seeds were brought by winds, currents, birds or insects, but not humans.
I guess I should have been more careful in may claim that “the technology did not exist”, and should have worded it as: “we have no evidence for such technology existing at that time in human history”.
There is also the possibility of more crossings over the Bering straight. Inuits and proto-inuit cultures have crossed the Bering multiple times. I find it dubious that they never crossed westwards. However, the technological niche which the cultures of the far north have mastered over the centuries have less values in warmer climates so I don’t think much would have been brought from the Americas to as far south as India via the Bering.
Anything crossing the south Pacific from around 500 AD however can definitely be attributed to human crossings as the Polynesian cultures from that time period for sure had the technology for such voyages.