When you purchase through links on our web site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
One thousand years ago , the first settlers of Rapa Nui — also know as Easter Island — feed on a fusion culinary art of plants native to Polynesia but also ones indigenous to South America , around 2,300 Admiralty mile ( 3,700 kilometers ) away , a raw survey find .
Researchers discovered the food remnants by name starch grain clinging to obsidian brand at the archaeological site of Anakena , the early known settlement on Rapa Nui , which was use up from about A.D. 1000 to 1300 , according to the study , bring out Wednesday ( March 20 ) in the journalPLOS One . The determination suggest that the early Polynesians had veritable contact with the people of South America as far back as a millenary ago .
Anakena is the earliest known settlement on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island.
The southeastern Pacific island Rapa Nui is known primarily for the hundreds of monolithic human statues telephone moai that were put up on stone ceremonial platforms forebode ahus . The island was forge from three volcanoes , two of which are now out , and other settlers carved the moai from the amalgamated volcanic ash tree .
Although Rapa Nui was not know to the broad world until Dutch explorers landed there on Easter Sunday in 1722 , the native masses had already lived on the island for hundreds of days . But the specific timing of their settlement and their geographical line rest fairly mysterious , and experts disaccord about whether the early settlers came from Polynesia , South America orboth . Theoral chronicle of the Rapa Nui peoplesuggests that at least one rotund - trip voyage to South America was made from the island during the early twelvemonth of its colonization .
To investigate the early years of the Rapa Nui colonisation , researchers take up a rich dive into ancient food resources . scientist already knewfrom animal bonesthat early settlers down fish , dolphinfish , seal , volaille and rat , but flora remains have not been as soundly investigated .
The 20 obsidian blades found at the archaeological site of Anakena on Rapa Nui. Researchers analyzed starch grains left on these blades and found a variety of Polynesian and indigenous South American starches.
Related : Undeciphered book from Easter Island may predate European settlement
The researchers looked at 20 obsidian blade hollow from under the ahu at Anakena in 1987 , which expose evidence of 46 amylum grains . Due to their size of it and preservation , though , only 21 grain could be classify , belonging to eight species : breadfruit , cassava ( also known as yuca or manioc ) , taro , purple yam , gratifying tater , Tahitian apple , achira and ginger . There were , in some case , multiple mintage on a individual obsidian vane , so the research worker suggested that the pecker were multipurpose , used for cutting , scraping off Sir Robert Peel , grating or other variety of processing .
Starch grain from yam and eddo were not a surprise , having been previously key out on Rapa Nui , but the squad ’s find of breadfruit and Tahitian apple is new , as neither industrial plant had been found on the island before , and their discovery of ginger is a first for Remote Oceania , the researchers write . Both breadfruit and Tahitian apple are substantive Polynesian crop , probably brought on canoes by the earlier Polynesian settlers , while ginger may have been used as a medicine and spice .
In plus to the Polynesian crop , the researchers set up three species of South American starchy foods : achira , sweet-scented potato and manioc . In special , " the identification of sweet tater amylum grains in the lower degree of the Anakena land site suggests an launching of this species to Rapa Nui during the early colony period , " the research worker wrote . Cassava also seems to have been present on Rapa Nui long before European explorers visited its shoring .
" Our results show that , by the time that people were living at the Anakena situation , they already had navigate to the South American coast and been in link with South American peoples,“Andrea Seelenfreund , an archeologist at the Academy of Christian Humanism University in Chile and one of the subject area author , told Live Science in an email .
" We argue that Polynesian ( Pacific ) voyager reached the coast of the American continent and interact with local American populations and , at some late tip , bring back to the Pacific islands with some American crops that were then cultivated on different island alongside traditional Pacific crops , " Seelenfreund said .
Jo Anne Van Tilburg , an archaeologist at UCLA and director of the Easter Island Statue Project , recount Live Science in an e-mail that this research " contributes new information to the on-going discussion of Rapa Nui prehistoric culture . " Van Tilburg , who was not involved in the study , tell that , while the results are interesting and thought - provoking , some skepticism about the researchers ' inference is warranted because their method of identifying the ancient amylum grains had low accuracy in some cases .
— New Moai statue that ' deified ancestors ' find on Easter Island
— Easter Island ' arson blast ' have ' irreparable ' hurt to sacred moai statues
— old human - made structure in the Americas is older than the Egyptian Pyramid
While the researchers caution in their report that more work need to be done — such as looking for other plant coinage from the wider Pacific — they suggest it is extremely potential there was free burning interaction between Polynesian and South American peoples nearly a millennium ago .
" We have to keep in idea that prospicient aloofness ocean voyaging was a highly developed skill by Pacific Island people , " Seelenfreund said .
