A 600-year-old canoe discovered in New Zealand has solved the mystery of how early Polynesian seafarers crossed the vast oceans to colonize Samoa and New Zealand.
In a pair of new studies published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it has been revealed that the 600-year-old canoe, which was made of "sophisticated" early sailing technology, was used by early human settlers to colonize New Zealand. The studies also showed that favorable winds may have helped the colonization efforts as well, reports Live Science.
Centuries ago, East Polynesia was amongst the last habitable places on Earth, therefore also the last to be taken over. Despite this, Polynesian sailors were amongst first humans to colonize land, sailing to New Zealand as long ago as 1200 CE (Common Era).
According to Nature World News, New Zealand's human history began during that time, around 1200-1300. The brave voyagers used boats to travel the world by seas.
This knowledge was superseded by the new revelations from the 600-year-old canoe. Apparently, no one had known that the Polynesians sailed vast seas boarding only wooden canoes.
The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences preserved the 600-year-old canoe, which is only one of two canoes which date back to the year 1400.
News Ledge reports that the 600-year-old canoe was originally discovered back in 2012, in New Zealand's South Island near the Anaweka estuary. It was reportedly pulled from a sand dune after a major storm passed through the area.
Described as a "complex and robust composite canoe, carved from a single timber" by the studies' authors, the 600-year-old canoe measures just about 20 meters (about 65 feet) long when fully intact.
"It kind of took my breath away, really, because it was so carefully constructed and so big," senior researcher Dilys Johns from the University of Auckland in New Zealand told Live Science.
Canoes from the year 1400 rarely survive long trips. This is because wood rapidly decays. However, researchers discovered that the environment the wooden 600-year-old canoe, was in, helped preserve it.
Johns was reportedly surprised finding out that the boat, known as a waka, was more sophisticated than canoes used by the first Europeans to travel to New Zealand later on.
The 600-year-old canoe appeared to have been crafted using ancestral plank technology mixed with new resources found on New Zealand such as black pine.
While one study from the Sept. 29 findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences focused on the boat, the other paper reportedly looked at wind patterns.
Shifting ancient wind patterns could have formed ideal windows of opportunity for the ancient seafarers.
Apparently, both the sophisticated boat technology and favorable winds were found to have been the reasons how the early Polynesians conquered lands as far as New Zealand.
The research team behind the discovery of the 600-year-old canoe utilized data from samples of tree rings, sediments and stalagmites. They simulated the conditions in Polynesia during the 800s to 1600s, to find out where trade winds toward New Zealand strengthened.
They discovered that for decades at a time, wind shifts allowed for easier access to locations hard to reach from Polynesia by canoe. However, the changing wind patterns stopped after 1300. Ocean travel after that became more difficult for sailors.
"There are these persistent 20-year periods where there are extreme shifts in climate system," Ian Goodwin, the head author of the study, and a marine climatologist, geologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, told Live Science.
"We show that the sailing canoe in its basic form would have been able to make these voyages purely through downwind sailing," he added.
Still, it remains unclear whether the Polynesians were hindered by the wind patterns while they used boats with technology similar to the 600-year-old canoe.
Johns told the Los Angeles Times, "We're going to have to discuss, clearly. We think Polynesians were really good sailors ... we think they were able to sail down here with or without help."
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