Hello all, i was browsing through this article today, largely anticipating most of the claims made. The weakest claims in my view are those supported by dubious cultural similarities, while others were downright pseudo-historical like those of Van Sertima or about King Soloman. The claims of Islamic contact are perhaps more reasonable or are at least possible given the descriptions in some of the Arabic sources, but most of them lack the support of physical evidence.

[en.wikipedia.org]

However, some of the claims of trans-Pacific voyages did catch my attention. For example, there's this claim which, according to the wikipedia article, has been confirmed quite recently:

A 2007 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of chicken bones at El Arenal near the Arauco Peninsula, Arauco Province, Chile provides "unequivocal evidence for a pre-European introduction of chickens to South America",[4] and strongly suggests Oceania-to-America contact. Chickens originated in southern Asia and the Araucana species of Chile was thought to have been brought by the Spaniards around 1500; however, the bones found in Chile were radiocarbon-dated to between 1304 and 1424, well before the documented arrival of the Spanish. DNA sequences taken were exact matches to those of chickens from the same period in American Samoa and Tonga, both over 5,000 miles (8,000 km) away from Chile. The genetic sequences were also similar to those found in Hawaii and Easter Island, the closest island at only 2,500 miles (4,000 km), and unlike any breed of European chicken

This is interesting, because it could very well be related to the following claim further down in the article about Tupac Inca Yupanqui:

Tupac Inca Yupanqui, the tenth Inca emperor, is said to have led a ten-month expedition into the Pacific Ocean around 1480. The islands he visited are sometimes identified as the Galapagos, but more usually as eastern Polynesia, possibly the Tuamotus, Marquesas, or Easter Island. Being a seafaring people the Polynesians would not have been surprised by visitors from far across the sea, and oral traditions from Mangareva in the Tuamotus mention a light-skinned visitor from the east. Additionally Easter Island genealogies mention a king Tupa who reigned briefly before leaving by boat, and South American microorganisms have been identified there from a date comparable to Tupac's reign

Does anybody here have more information regarding these two instances of pre-columbian trans-oceanic contact? In fact, i have seen claims of trans-Pacific voyages by either the Peruvians or the Polynesians in mainstream orthodox literature, but what physical evidence that exists is usually attributed to oceanic drifting and is seen as inconclusive. Perhaps these views are now being overturned.


Dar




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2008 10:57AM by darkuser.