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Comment by mikhailfranco | Hacker News Reader

I think my favorite strange factoid of human migration, is that Madagascar was (majority) settled from Borneo, not from Africa.

https://theconversation.com/how-the-banjar-people-of-borneo-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Madagascar

includes the nice map:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Madagascar#/media/F...

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Another interesting way to headline this is, Madagascar was the last place on earth to be settled, despite being right next to the first

> Madagascar was the last place on earth to be settled

I believe that honor belongs to antarctica.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Antarctica

Apart from Antarctica - New Zealand seems to be the last large landmass to be settled in 1200 AD (see map linked above).

But even in NZ, there are some inconclusive claims of previous civilization. The gov has banned access and excavations to verify or refute the claims. One example:

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-oceania/kaima...

Kind of looks natural to me, and if there were a civilization that made one wall like this I'd expect a lot more walls like it. That said, it seems worth investigating. Why would the New Zealand government want it covered up?

Scientists have, in fact, investigated it [1] and concluded it is a natural feature. Reading up on ancient-origins.net seems to suggest that it lets a lot of pseudoscience and conspiracy theories (ancient aliens and so on) creep in alongside credible articles.

1. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/waikato-news/news/kaimanawa-wall-...

The NZ government has a vested interest in not examining the pre colonial past.

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