Canoes Suggest Hawaiians Settled New Zealand
6 Oct
Was New Zealand originally settled by canoeists from Hawaii?
It’s a possibility seen in a study of traditional Pacific Ocean canoe designs undertaken by Stanford University researchers Marcus Feldman, Paul Ehrlich, and Deborah Rogers. The trio examined a 1930s-era study of traditional canoe designs by A.C. Haddon and James Hornell in order to track the evolution of boat design across the Pacific.
The Stanford team’s findings led them to resuscitate an out-of-fashion idea that New Zealand, located south of Australia, was originally populated by canoed-borne seafarers from Hawaii.
The researchers believe travelers from China and Southeast Asia originally colonized western Pacific islands between 1400 BC and 900 BC. Those seafarers became the Polynesians who later settled several island groups east of Tonga and Samoa beginning about 500 BC, arriving in the Marquesas about 300 AD, the Hawaiian islands between 800 AD to 900 AD, and finally reaching New Zealand around 1200 AD.
The New Zealand Herald has a comprehensive story on the research HERE.
We noted earlier research by Rogers and Erlich, HERE, last February.
