Did ancient Easter Islanders have friends from afar? Yes, say scientists.
| Washington
They lived on a remote dot of land in the middle of the Pacific, 2,300 miles (3,700 km) west of聽South America聽and 1,100 miles (1,770 km) from the closest island, erecting huge stone figures that still stare enigmatically from the hillsides.
But the ancient Polynesian people who populated聽Easter聽Island, or Rapa Nui, were not as isolated as long believed. Scientists who conducted a genetic study, published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology, found these ancient people had significant contact with Native American populations hundreds of years before the first Westerners reached the island in 1722.
The Rapa Nui people created a unique culture best known for the 900 monumental head-and-torso stone statues known as moai erected around聽Easter聽Island. The culture flourished starting around 1200 until falling into decline by the 16th century.
Genetic data on 27聽Easter聽Island natives indicated that interbreeding between the Rapa Nui and native people in South America occurred roughly between 1300 and 1500.
"We found evidence of gene flow between this population and Native American populations, suggesting an ancient ocean migration route between Polynesia and the聽Americas," said geneticist聽Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas聽of the Center for GeoGenetics at the聽University of Copenhagen, who led the study.
The genetic evidence indicates either that Rapa Nui people traveled to聽South America聽or that Native Americans journeyed to聽Easter聽Island. The researchers said it probably was the Rapa Nui people making the arduous ocean round trips.
"It seems most likely that they voyaged from Rapa Nui to聽South America聽and brought South Americans back to Rapa Nui and admixed with them," said聽Mark Stoneking, a geneticist withGermany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology聽who collaborated on a related study of聽Brazil's indigenous Botocudo people. "So it will be interesting to see if in further studies any signal of Polynesian, Rapa Nui ancestry can be found in South Americans."
In making their way to聽South America聽and back, the Rapa Nui people may have spent perilous weeks in wooden outrigger canoes.
The researchers concluded that the intermixing occurred 19 to 23 generations ago. They said Rapa Nui people are not believed to have started mixing with Europeans until much later, the 19th century. Malaspinas said the genetic ancestry of today's Rapa Nui people is roughly 75 percent Polynesian, 15 percent European and 10 percent Native American.
A second study, also published in Thursday's issue of Current Biology, illustrates another case of Polynesians venturing into聽South America. Two ancient human skulls from聽Brazil's indigenous Botocudo people, known for the large wooden disks they wore in their lips and ears, belonged to people who were genetically Polynesian, with no detectable Native American ancestry.
"How the two Polynesian individuals belonging to the Botocudos came into聽Brazil聽is the million-dollar question," said聽University of Copenhagen聽geneticist Eske Willerslev of the Center for GeoGenetics, who led the study on the Botocudos.
The findings suggest these Polynesians reached聽South America聽and made their way to聽Brazil, either landing on the western coast of the continent and crossing the interior or voyaging aroundTierra del Fuego聽and up the聽east coast, Stoneking said.
"In either event it is an amazing story," he said.
