FfFfFfFF 58,120 Posted October 19, 2021 Share Posted October 19, 2021 Easter Island’s famous megaliths have relatives on islands thousands of miles to the north and west, and so did the people who created them, a study has found. Over a 250-year period separate groups of people set out from tiny islands east of Tahiti to settle Easter Island, the Marquesas and Raivavae – archipelagos that are thousands of miles apart but all home to similar ancient statues. “These statues are only on those islands that are closely connected genetically,” the study’s lead author, Alexander Ioannidis of Stanford University, told AFP. Ioannidis and his team were able to map and date the first Polynesians’ path of settlement, which began in Samoa and fanned out across the Pacific between the years 830 and 1360, using cutting-edge analysis of modern DNA. The expansion happened rapidly – over about 17 generations – outpacing major changes in language or culture that could have served as markers, the findings show. The researchers were able to piece together the puzzle of trans-Pacific migration by comparing the genetic material in 430 present-day inhabitants across 21 islands. Source - https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/sep/22/genetics-reveal-how-humans-island-hopped-to-settle-remote-pacific Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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