Polynesians Discovered America by 1400 A.D.?
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| An Araucana hen. Araucanas, an odd-looking, colored-egg-laying breed, are possibly descendents of chickens brought to South America by Polynesians decades before Columbus. |
As a teenager, I had read that the odd, colored-egg laying chicken breed, Auranacas (some of which my son has raised), were originally from a South American Indian tribe. Well, even as a teenager, I knew enough about natural history, archaeology, etc. to know that just didn’t fit. These chickens didn’t look like other European chickens (called Mediterranean type chickens) and I thought the laying of blue/green eggs was a very odd trait to just pop up out of the chicken gene pool out of the blue (pun intended).
Chickens are known to be bred from original ancestors in southeast Asia. It was assumed, by most, that the Spaniards or Portuguese had introduced chickens to these South American Indians, but it seemed to me they must have had them already.
Now, a study has been done comparing the DNA of chicken bones found at an archaeological site in Chile with chicken bone DNA in the Polynesian islands of Samoa and Tonga with a very good match. The most likely scenario is that Polynesians traveled by boat to South America, and traded with Indians there. This also explains another anomaly – sweet potatoes in pre-Columbian Polynesia – when they were native to South America. The carbon-dating of the bones shows the chickens were there by around 600 years ago – about 100 years before Columbus. There could have been contact and trading for hundreds of years up to that point – or perhaps the contact was just a limited one or few visits. Hopefully, future scientific findings will paint a more complete picture.
While we’re on archaeological anomalies… there is speculation and study that the Chinese discovered America decades before Columbus. There are a few little bits of interesting evidence, but not enough to “write home” about.
An anomaly in science means one of two things, either:
- It’s a mistake in observation/or a hoax/otherwise not true… or…
- It is a valid finding, and your current theories are wrong or at least incomplete.
Perhaps some other scientific anomalies should be taken more seriously, to determine if fall under category 1 or 2, above.
Versions of the story on other sites:
Did chickens reach America before Columbus? (ScientificBlogging.com)
More about Araucanas:
Araucanas on Wikipedia
AraucanasOnline.com: a knowledgeable website on Araucanas.