Ancient people conquered many new lands thanks to El Nino

We often wonder how the ancient inhabitants could travel to the most remote areas of the world without the need for modern means such as airplanes, boats, even GPS. And now, researchers have found new clues to solve that question.

According to Science Alert, the study focused on one of the most distant lands, Oceania, where there were signs of human habitation about 3400 years ago.

Residents in remote islands of Indonesia.

Using statistical methods, computer analysis and modeling, researchers have identified the routes that lead to today's islands of Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Micronesia and Fiji. At the same time they also sketched how ancient voyages took place, thus showing that our ancestors knew very well about the weather cycles.

"We have compiled a lot of weather data and run many simulation models to find the routes and starting points of ancient immigrants," said anthropologist Scott Fitzpatrick, University of Oregon.

Fitzpatrick and his colleagues have tried to find the best possible migration path and found that the El Nino episodes (one of the phenomena of extraordinary catastrophic weather for humans from over 5,000 years) of South Pacific waters play a very important role.

Map combining weather data and computer simulations.

If migrants start their voyage at the time of El Nino (3 - 7 year cycle), the wind and ocean currents will make their trip much easier. Modeling data including satellite images, weather data, sea level data, archaeological data have yielded very reliable results to explain how dugout boats small can cross the ocean with a voyage of more than 4000km.

The simulations also explain the long period of more than 1000 years that the voyages were interrupted. That may be due to increased wind power and the weak technology needed to cross the sea.

"There has been a lot of research on the Pacific Ocean but it is impossible to simulate details like the models we have done. Over time, the climate patterns of the Pacific have changed a lot and seem to have changed. as residents in this area have adapted to the changing weather to increase their survivability and mobility , "Fitzpatrick added.

Ancient residents had knowledge of climate change.

The research team believes that the starting point of the migrations is Samoa island to the South Polynesian region, and for Hawaii and New Zealand it could be the Marquesas or Society.

But what makes the research team wonder is why people decide to go for such far-distance voyages (400 - 2500 miles). Do they need more resources due to population explosion or just for the purpose of adventure exploration?

The study was published in the Proceedings of the PNAS American Academy of Sciences.