Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T23:23:46.549Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Feasible Ocean Routes to and from the Americas in Pre-Columbian Times

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Abstract

Botany, which once bred the belief that the two oceans surrounding the New World formed a complete barrier for pre-Columbian voyagers, now demonstrates that some form of trans-oceanic contact has taken place. A reappraisal of contact areas seems warranted. Current geographic misconceptions concerning feasible aboriginal sea routes are examined. It is erroneous to believe that hypothetical voyagers from, for example, southern China to Peru can make a short-cut by way of the Pacific equator. The route between these two antipodes is a complete semicircle of equal length in dead miles whether we go by way of the middle Pacific, by way of Hawaii, or even by way of the Aleutian Islands. In traveling distance and time the route north of Hawaii is far shorter due to the flow of the main currents. A true traveling distance is not measurable unless we know the ratio between the surface speed respectively of the vessel and the current. Thus, an aboriginal craft plowing the ocean surface with a speed of 40 miles per day will have to cross about 1000 miles of surface water to get from Peru to the Marquesas Islands, but 7000 miles to get from the Marquesas to Peru.

Three feasible routes of aboriginal oversea arrivals to the New World, and two of departure, are suggested and named after European voyagers who initiated the route in historic times.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1963

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bisschop, Eric de 1939 Kaimiloa. Librairie Plon, Paris.Google Scholar
Candolle, Alphonse de 1884 Origin of Cultivated Plants. Kegan Paul, Trench & Company, London.Google Scholar
Greenman, E. F. 1962 The Upper Palaeolithic and the New World. Current Anthropology, Vol. 3 (in press). Chicago.Google Scholar
Merrill, Elmer Drew 1930 The Improbability of Pre-Columbian Eurasian- American Contacts in the Light of the Origin and Distribution of Cultivated Plants. Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, Vol. 31, pp. 209212. New York.Google Scholar
Merrill, Elmer Drew 1931 The Phytogeography of Cultivated Plants in Relation to Assumed Pre-Columbian Eurasian- American Contacts. American Anthropologist, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 375–82. Menasha.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merrill, Elmer Drew 1946 Merrilleana. A Selection from the General Writings of Elmer Drew Merrill, edited by Verdoorn, Frans. Chronica Botanica, Vol. 10, Nos. 3-4. Waltham.Google Scholar
Merrill, Elmer Drew 1950 Observations on Cultivated Plants with Reference to Certain American Problems. Ceiba, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 236. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.Google Scholar
Merrill, Elmer Drew 1954 The Botany of Cook's Voyages and Its Unexpected Significance in Relation to Anthropology, Biography and History. Chronica Botanica Company, Waltham.Google Scholar