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> But it is meaningless since they did not write about it not they stablished commerce Depends on what you find meaningful! There was almost certainly exchange

> But it is meaningless since they did not write about it not they stablished commerce Depends on what you find meaningful! There was almost certainly exchange of goods between Polynesians and South Americans. The presence of early sweet potato agriculture in Polynesia and genetic admixture in both regions points to non-trivial contact. There are even parallels in terms of folk-tales [0]! (Though these are likely older events, more to do with ancient dispersal). There are also possibly earlier relationships across the Pacific, but these would have been ancient and interesting largely from historical curiousity [1]. [0]https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-39445-9_5 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-39445-9_... [1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aav2621 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aav2621

mtoohig 5y ago
I live in Vanuatu and is it very far to the west side of the Pacific yet the almost southern most island of Vanuatu, Aneityum, has stories of what they called the "Yellow People" that were on the island before they, Melanesians, arrived from northern islands. These people on the island were excellent stone carvers and could make stone walls which the current locals admit they never learned from the "yellow people". Old engravings exist still of these original people that to me sound like those may have come from the east, South America. I don't have photos though, this is a story I just heard recently from family members of that island.
- koboll 5y ago
  Wow. You should really, really write a blog post about this, and get some of them on the record about it. A Google search for 'Aneityum "yellow people"' returns only 4 results. However, one of those four is this dissertation: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/26687/Wood_oregon_0171A_13067.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794... Which reads: >His canoe and his moiety were the first to adopt the chiefly system, and it was brought to Aneityum by natimi-yag (yellow-people), which he now believes to have been Polynesian.
- chana_masala 5y ago
  I don't think I've come across anyone on HN from Vanuatu. If you're open to answering, I wonder if you work in tech? What's the tech industry like there?
  - davidw 5y ago
    That is really cool isn't it? I was awestruck when I discovered in the early 90ies that I could converse online with people in locales very, very far from me.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
  Could also be that last push of Denisovans that was recently discovered through the genetic record.
chestertn 5y ago
I have talked about this a bit more in another comment below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28936345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28936345 There are also possible contacts between ancient peoples in Europe and the Americas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_contact_theories#Claims_of_travel_in_Roman_times https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_co... But as I mention, the impact of 1492 eclipses it all (that is why is called Pre-Columbian!)

mtoohig 5y ago

I live in Vanuatu and is it very far to the west side of the Pacific yet the almost southern most island of Vanuatu, Aneityum, has stories of what they called the "Yellow People" that were on the island before they, Melanesians, arrived from northern islands. These people on the island were excellent stone carvers and could make stone walls which the current locals admit they never learned from the "yellow people". Old engravings exist still of these original people that to me sound like those may have come from the east, South America. I don't have photos though, this is a story I just heard recently from family members of that island.

koboll 5y ago
Wow. You should really, really write a blog post about this, and get some of them on the record about it. A Google search for 'Aneityum "yellow people"' returns only 4 results. However, one of those four is this dissertation: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/26687/Wood_oregon_0171A_13067.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794... Which reads: >His canoe and his moiety were the first to adopt the chiefly system, and it was brought to Aneityum by natimi-yag (yellow-people), which he now believes to have been Polynesian.
chana_masala 5y ago
I don't think I've come across anyone on HN from Vanuatu. If you're open to answering, I wonder if you work in tech? What's the tech industry like there?
- davidw 5y ago
  That is really cool isn't it? I was awestruck when I discovered in the early 90ies that I could converse online with people in locales very, very far from me.
bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
Could also be that last push of Denisovans that was recently discovered through the genetic record.

chestertn 5y ago

I have talked about this a bit more in another comment below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28936345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28936345 There are also possible contacts between ancient peoples in Europe and the Americas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_contact_theories#Claims_of_travel_in_Roman_times https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_co... But as I mention, the impact of 1492 eclipses it all (that is why is called Pre-Columbian!)