Did Ancient Polynesian Sailors Reach Antarctica? Not Quite, Study Says

Polynesian peoples were sailing far and wide across the southwestern Pacific Ocean long ago, demonstrating a seafaring skill that is both impressive and awe-inspiring.

Given how far they advanced in their Pacific explorations, it is natural to wonder whether or not they ever reached Antarctica. Some researchers have claimed they did, and that they were actually the original discoverers of that continent. But in a study recently published in the journal Archaeology in Oceania, a team of scholars present the evidence that caused them to conclude that the ancient Polynesians never made it quite that far south, despite the astonishing success of their long-distance explorations.

The Polynesians on Enderby Island, Just 1,200 Miles from Antarctica

The archaeologists and paleoecologists who collected this evidence have been studying ancient Polynesian culture for some time. In their new article, they explain what they discovered while performing excavations at Sandy Bay on Enderby Island, a rugged patch of land that is part of the uninhabited Auckland Islands archipelago located 460 miles (740 kilometers) south of the New Zealand mainland. Enderby Island is the northernmost member of the Auckland Islands group, located at 51°S latitude.

Sea lions lying on the beach at Sandy Bay, Enderby Island. (Public domain).

It is here, in this extremely remote place, that prehistoric Polynesians built their southernmost settlement, after making landfall at Sandy Bay between 700 and 800 years ago.

The Sandy Bay archaeological site was first discovered by Dr. Atholl Anderson from the Ngāi Tahu Research Center at the University of Canterbury in 1998, and Dr. Anderson returned to the site in 2003 to undertake additional excavations. When he came back, he found that eroding dunes had revealed various occupation layers containing Polynesian middens (garbage heaps) and the remains of ovens, proving conclusively that it was the Polynesians who had made it this far south.

Radiocarbon dating of organic remains at the site pushed the time of the Polynesian arrival to before European contact, showing that the settlement at Sandy Bay had been constructed in either the 13th or 14th centuries AD.

In 2020 Dr. Anderson brought several colleagues from Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom with him to complete one more round of excavations at Sandy Bay, which the researchers were certain still had secrets to reveal.

The timing proved to be fortuitous. Further erosion at the site had uncovered more samples of charcoal and animal bones that were suitable for radiocarbon dating, and some of this material was collected and a new round of testing was completed.

Using a mathematical formula known as Bayesian statistical analysis, the researchers were able to pin down a more exact range of dates for the Polynesian occupation of Enderby Island.

“The combined results show that the Sandy Bay site was most probably first occupied about AD 1250–1320, consistent with known ages for the same colonizing event in New Zealand and other remote islands of East Polynesia,” stated study co-author Dr. Janet Wilmshurst in a press release from Manaaki Whenua—Landcare Research, an environmental institute located in New Zealand (Dr. Wilmshurst is affiliated with this organization).

The data obtained from the extensive dating showed the Sandy Bay colony had been small and only occupied sporadically over a period of about 100 years. A pollen analysis of core samples taken from the Sandy Bay garbage heaps, and additional areas on the main Auckland and Campbell Islands further south, revealed no impact on the region’s vegetation from human activity, which was strong evidence to suggest that the Polynesians hadn’t stayed on Enderby Island continuously.

In the 14th century, the climate on Enderby Island was impacted by the Little Ice Age, a global cooling event that caused temperatures across the planet to drop by about 2°C (4°F) on average. This would have driven the Polynesians off the island, never to return (the Auckland Islands weren’t occupied again until the arrival of European ships in 1806).

Antarctica Was So Close, but So Far Away

During the time they did occupy Enderby Island, the Polynesians were tantalizingly close to Antarctica. The frozen continent was just 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) away, a mere stone’s throw distance when compared to the 24,000 mile (40,000 kilometer) circumference of the earth as whole.

So could they have made the jump from Enderby and Antarctica at some point, as other researchers have asserted?

1896 illustration of ancient Polynesian seafarers. (The History of Mankind (1896)/Internet Archive Book Images).

Based on his team’s discoveries, Dr. Anderson says no.

 “The dating results from Sandy Bay now make Enderby Island the southernmost known viable site for prehistoric Polynesian habitation,” he stated. “Although Polynesian exploration into high latitudes is a remarkable achievement in terms of seafaring skill and ambition, radiocarbon dating material evidence of their visits indicates they reached a southern boundary about 2,000 kilometers short of Antarctica.”

One factor that causes him to dismiss any voyages to Antarctica is the lack of any evidence of Polynesian occupation of nearby islands farther south, in the Aucklands or elsewhere. If they’d ever gone to Antarctica, they would likely have stopped off at these other islands first. But after decades of searching, there is nothing to suggest they did.

Also, the researchers consider it significant that the latest dating of the Polynesian arrival on Enderby Island shows they only came there as part of a greater mass migration that saw them reach New Zealand and several islands to the east. They did not reach Enderby as a result of any separate travels, as would be expected if they were deliberating trying to push as far south as they could go.

And even if they did try to sail to Antarctica, Dr.  Anderson believes it would have been impossible. While 1,200 miles would not have been a great distance to travel for these skilled seafarers in normal waters, in the extreme south Pacific this last 1,200 miles would have been a difficult trek to complete.

As Dr. Anderson points out, the Polynesians wouldn’t have had the clothing, the sailing technology, the necessary wood and fiber to make boat repairs, or the capacity for breaking through icy waters to complete their mission.

“This research reveals the adaptability and resilience of early Polynesian navigators in this remote and harsh sector of the South Pacific Ocean, as well as the significant limitations to successful return travel that would have arisen if ventures any further south had occurred,” he concluded, in an attempt to put to rest an idea that others are not likely to give up on so easily.

Top image: Mt. Herschel, Antarctica in the wintertime.    Source: Andrew Mandemaker/CC BY-SA 2.5

By Nathan Falde