Yeah in 1200-1300 not 700AD, but there is some evidence of eariler voyages to South America and Antarctica
Also the DNA is the other way around and also a coin flip as to whether it came from Madagascan slaves after the slave trade or from Polynesians hundreds of years earlier, and the sweet potato is also not hard evidence as it could be coincidence, and there is some evidence of it having spread earlier
However oral history is quite strong in Polynesia and for whatever reason there’s no stories of large landmasses to the east, only icy ones to the south
Essentially there’s no hard proof like there is with Leif Erikson and Columbus as it was at most a couple of accidental crossings which may not have even been return journeys, but there is a lot of evidence that suggests there was contact of some sort or another
IIRC the oral history could be explained, in that the folks on Rapa Nui were actually not the ones sailing to South America, it was actually the other way around.
Were that the case then South America wouldn’t necessarily be documented in an oral history, just visitors from a far away land.
Yeah in 1200-1300 not 700AD, but there is some evidence of eariler voyages to South America and Antarctica
Also the DNA is the other way around and also a coin flip as to whether it came from Madagascan slaves after the slave trade or from Polynesians hundreds of years earlier, and the sweet potato is also not hard evidence as it could be coincidence, and there is some evidence of it having spread earlier
However oral history is quite strong in Polynesia and for whatever reason there’s no stories of large landmasses to the east, only icy ones to the south
Essentially there’s no hard proof like there is with Leif Erikson and Columbus as it was at most a couple of accidental crossings which may not have even been return journeys, but there is a lot of evidence that suggests there was contact of some sort or another
IIRC the oral history could be explained, in that the folks on Rapa Nui were actually not the ones sailing to South America, it was actually the other way around.
Were that the case then South America wouldn’t necessarily be documented in an oral history, just visitors from a far away land.