Sail Away: Tools reveal extent of ancient Polynesian trips
By Bruce Bower
The ocean wasn’t enough to hold back the daring seafarers who settled the islands of East Polynesia beginning around 4,000 years ago. A new analysis of stone tools underscores the nautical skill of ancient Polynesian mariners. It indicates that, about 1,000 years ago and prior to European contact, these intrepid canoeists transported rocks for toolmaking from Hawaii to islands more than 4,000 kilometers to the south.
Legends recounted by Polynesian islanders refer to ancestors in the distant past who used canoes with sails to travel south from the Hawaiian Islands to Tahiti and then east to the Tuamotu Islands. Chemical studies of stone tools previously recovered in the Tuamotu Islands back up those local accounts, say geologist Kenneth D. Collerson and archaeologist Marshall I. Weisler of the University of Queensland in St. Lucia, Australia.