Antarctica was likely discovered 1,100 years before Westerners 'found' it

By Laura Geggel - Editor 15 days ago

Polynesians may have discovered Antarctica in the early 600s.



Gentoo and chinstrap penguins hang out on an iceberg Western Antarctic. (Image credit: Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft Media / Getty Images))

The first humans to discover Antarctica weren't seafaring Westerners but rather Polynesians, who found the coldest continent 1,300 years ago, a new study suggests.

Researchers in New Zealand assessed oral histories about a Polynesian explorer spying an icy, mountainous continent untouched by the sun. To find the evidence, they sifted through "gray literature," or historical reports that weren't published in peer-reviewed journals, and integrated them with Indigenous oral histories and artwork. This deep dive into Indigenous history revealed that Polynesians likely discovered the southernmost continent more than a millennium before Westerners first spotted it in 1820, according to most historic reports.

"Māori (and Polynesian) connection to Antarctica and its waters have been part of the Antarctic story since circa [the] seventh century," the researchers wrote in the study. After Westerners first reached Antarctica in the 19th century, a handful of Māori joined their voyages as crewmembers and even medical professionals, although prejudice against Indigenous people at that time was prevalent, the researchers said.

Antarctica has eluded humans since ancient times. The ancient Greeks theorized that Antarctica existed, as a lower continent would likely be needed to balance out the Arctic in the Northern Hemisphere, they reasoned, according to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. The Greeks named this hypothetical continent "Antarktikos," or the land "opposite of Arktos," the bear-shaped constellations (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) in the north.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/indigenous-people-discovered-antarctica.html