Hacker News Reader

Comment by behnamoh | Hacker News Reader

> 2000 miles off the coast of Chilli.

I wonder how did the ancient people get there? I find it hard to believe that they just got on boats heading east deep into the largest ocean on the planet hoping that they would find an island? Unless of course, they were already there and humans' history dates way back (i.e., before the island shifted east due to tectonic plates movements)?

The island does not have much resources either, so how could they survive? Did they cut down all the trees to use and rails for these huge pieces of stone? And why can we only see the heads, not the entire body buried under the ground?

View on HN

Everything suggests this is what happened. Polynesian people had for centuries boats that could make such voyages. It’s possible the original settlers got lucky/unlucky but the technology needed for it existed for them.

There’s also plenty of history showing smaller pacific islands that are colonized, so it looks like living of fish and the sea is possible and not a problem.

There’s plenty of information about this in Wikipedia. Alternatively, you can watch Moana.

> I find it hard to believe that they just got on boats heading east deep into the largest ocean on the planet hoping that they would find an island?

Considering that they did exactly that in order to colonize all of Polynesia, it wasn't a belief without solid priors. They had gotten pretty good at picking up signs of land, like by watching migrating birds. Also, many of them probably tried and failed to find new land. We can only see the successes in what were likely many attempts.

It's not 'exactly that' though, as they had clues to where there might be land, star bases navigation systems etc

In a sense it's still based on luck but it's far removed from choosing a direction and hoping for the best.

The Austronesian people (kinda) had ocean sailing tech before the foundation of Rome (753 BC), as they settled fiji and Samoa at that time. If i rember correctly they mapped the sea using weaved twigs and stones in correlation to the stars.

Easter island is home of an ecological collapse as all trees and most fauna were extinguished resulting in (necessary) cannibalism

> I find it hard to believe that they just got on boats heading east deep into the largest ocean on the planet hoping that they would find an island?

At that point they would have known the island was there. People with boats usually used them for fishing first.

You could just look this up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island - it's all pretty well understood at this point.

Rapa Nui arrived between 300 and 1200CE, from eastern Polynesian islands (Cook and/or Marquesas). Both genetics and cultural similarities confirm this. Tectonic plate movements take (hundreds of) millennia more to have a meaningful impact here.

The first settlers most likely made it to Rapa Nui from East Polynesia, this trip has been done in 19 days in a replica canoe in 1975.

The island used to be almost completely covered by a forest, it got deforested over time. Initially it wouldn't have been hard to survive, there are lakes and caves with drinkable water and you can easily catch fish, there were also several species of land and sea birds.

You can only see the heads in this picture because they were carved out of stone hundreds of years ago and got buried by sand and soil over time. Winds are very strong on the island and they blow directly towards this place most afternoons, it is also situated right under the crater wall of the volcano so material will naturally accumulate there. If you walk down a few minutes from the quarry statues lay in the ground almost completely uncovered. This only happens at the quarry location, many statues stand erected (or toppled over) all over the island.

Polynesians made it to what is now Chile in the early 1300s. They left chickens there the bones were discovered in archaeological digs. Chickens are are native to SE Asia. And they took back sweet potatoes native to S. America which appeared in SE Asia a few decades later.

> I find it hard to believe that they just got on boats heading east deep into the largest ocean on the planet hoping that they would find an island?

Considering the historic transgressions of humans done unto other humans, I find it rather easy to envision situations where escaping by boat into the unknown is the most attractive option.

Polynesians are Asian in origin.

Easter Islanders are believed to be Polynesian.

Here's a strange thing: there's some Asian-origin DNA in some of the indigenous people of Latin American. For some strange reason this is not discussed much.

It is discussed though, people write articles about it and very recently more evidence seems to support it. The sweet potato could also be supporting evidence for some contact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_co...

Datura metel is another one.

I suppose the fact that "native americans" were also from Siberia/Asia makes it complicated to separate Polynesian/Asian DNA from "native american" DNA.

The Mapuche people look stunningly Polynesian/Asian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche

What's strange about that? It seems pretty likely(i'm not even saying it's true, just intuitive), that indigenous american and south america peoples are more closely related with east Asian folk than with indo European or African folk. Due to visual similarities as well as conceivable migration routes.

Islands may be detectable from 100+ miles away, based on how they affect wave, wildlife, and cloud patterns. Rapa Nui is 2000 mi from Chile, but "only" 1000 mi from Pitcairn islands, which were occupied by Polynesians in ~1000AD.

Also, consider how many expeditions probably went out into the Pacific and everyone died there. Calories are relatively easy to harvest in many polynesian islands, leading cultures to send excess people on expeditions to discover and colonize new islands.

>Unless of course, they were already there and humans' history dates way back (i.e., before the island shifted east due to tectonic plates movements)?

this hypothesis' timeline is way way way off. modern humans have been around on the scale of hundreds of thousands of years. significant tectonic shifts are on the scale of tens of millions

sea level changes? maybe. tectonic shifts? definitely not

Seriously? Those heads have bodies?

I never knew.

So did they build them and then plant them? Or did they dig a pit and then build it in the pit and then filled in the pit.

I suspect they were built. Then lots of time passed. Sea levels changed. Sediment collected, partially burying them.

So ya, tons of time.

---

Also, yr reply got strange downvotes. Maybe you hit a dogma nerve.

I think they reference Chili because that is who claims ownership of the island. The island closest to it is only 250 miles away.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com