Basically, Thor Heyerdahl was right
Thor Heyerdahl spent a lifetime looking for traces people crossing the world’s oceans and connecting cultures. Like Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and South America. Mostly he was not taken seriously by experts. New research now shows that he was right, at least to a certain extent.
The world's leading multidisciplinary science journal, Nature has recently published DNA-analysis proving that people on Rapa Nui carry around 4-11% DNA from South American indigenous populations. The researchers estimate that this mix happened between 1250 and 1430 Ce. The first people to settle Rapa Nui was Polynesians travelling from West to East. However, Thor Heyerdahl’s belief in a contact between these two prehistoric populations have now been proven. – Basically, Thor Heyerdahl was right that there was contact with South America, but he was not right that everyone came from there, says archaeologist Mads Ravn to the Norwegian Broadcasting Cooperation NRK. Ravn is also a Board Member of The Kon-Tiki Museum. Mysteriene rundt Påskeøya blir avslørt – avviser kollaps og bekrefter kontakt med Sør-Amerika – NRK Trøndelag – Lokale nyheter, TV og radio
An international team of expert on ancient DNA, led by researchers from the University of Copenhagen, have made complete DNA profiles of 15 individuals from dated samples. This finally proves a hypothesis first put forward by Erik Thorsby of the University in Oslo, that the population of Rapa Nui has a small contribution of DNA from South America, dated to pre-European times. The researchers clearly states that the main part of the DNA of these individuals are Polynesian, stemming from the Western Pacific, and that these people were the first to settle the island.
However, the samples also prove that about 4-11% of the DNA of these individuals are consistent with DNA from populations in the Andean area, maybe in the areas of Colombia. Through estimates on recombination of DNA, the researchers believe that sometime between year 1250 and 1430, and after the initial settlement of the island, these two social groups met, and an exchange of DNA took place. It has long been discussed whether Polynesian sailors voyaged across the Pacific and landed for a brief time on the South American coast, or as Thor Heyerdahl argued, that South Americans in pre-European times sailed their balsa-wood rafts out into the Pacific. The present study doesn’t answer this question, but currently the evidence seems to favor Polynesians sailing to South America, even though DNA studies on living-population blood samples published in Nature in 2022 argued for an earlier South American incursion to Fatu Hiva, in the Marquesan Islands.
This study also give evidence to another very interesting aspect. In his book Collapse from 2005 Jarred Diamond argued for an environmental, social and population collapse on Rapa Nui because of deforestation and resource overexploitation. The current study doesn’t find any supporting evidence for the population collapse in their analysis of the data.
- It is a strong narrative because it is a bit similar to the one, we have today, where we exploit nature for our own gain, vanity and wealth. That is why it is a difficult story to get rid of, says Mads Ravn in the interview. But this new study presents evidence that Diamond was wrong, according to Ravn.
- Because the DNA analyzes show that the number of people has not decreased. They have poked holes in the theory that it was the people who did it to themselves.
The study was published by the international renowned journal Nature on September 10th, 2024, entitled: Ancient Rapanui genomes reveal resilience and pre-European contact with the Americas (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07881-4) by J. Victor Moreno-Mayar, Bàrbara Sousa da Mota et. al.