Studying celestial bodies, birds, the wind, clouds, ocean currents and wave patterns provided ancient Polynesian wayfinders with vital information that helped them navigate the Pacific.
The latitudes of specific islands were also known, and the technique of “sailing down the latitude” was used. That is, Polynesians navigated by the stars through knowledge of when particular stars, as they rotated through the night sky, would pass over the island to which the voyagers were sailing.
The early Polynesian voyagers were some of the best wayfinders in history (Fig. 8.3). They were able to find their way across vast reaches of the Pacific ocean basin navigating by the sun, stars, and other natural cues.
When sailing out on the open seas in their dugout voyaging canoes, Polynesians would navigate by using the stars and all of the elements around them. In addition to following the path of the stars, navigators would use the currents and wave patterns to determine their direction and heading.
How did Polynesians settle the Pacific?
Beginning in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Polynesians began to migrate in waves to New Zealand via their canoes, settling on both the North and South islands. Over the course of several centuries, the Polynesian settlers formed a distinct culture that became known as the Māori.
How did the Polynesians navigate the Pacific? They used natural methods such as using the stars and ocean currents as well as wind.
What tools did Polynesians use?
Emory and Rowena Keaka. The stone adz was the most important tool of the Polynesians. With it they felled trees, shaped their canoes and canoe parts, and hewed timbers and household furnishings, wooden spears, and clubs.
What did the Polynesians contribute to ocean exploration?
What did the Polynesians contribute to ocean exploration? They had a keen sense of ocean currents and variations in bird and sea life in different places in the Pacific. They also were among the first people to use astronomical observations of the stars to help them navigate across the ocean.
What did the Polynesians do?
Masters of Ocean Currents
Over about 25,000 years, these people, called the Polynesians, eventually colonized the islands of the south and western Pacific, from New Guinea in the west to Fiji and Samoa in the middle. Then they moved onward to Tahiti and finally Easter Island in the eastern south Pacific.
How did the Polynesians get to Polynesia?
Scientists agree that early Polynesians were able to migrate across vast stretches of ocean in canoes, what has been a cause of curiosity, however, was how they managed to make their way to places that would have entailed sailing into the wind.
An ancient Polynesian canoe.
By 1500 B.C., these voyagers began moving east beyond New Guinea, first along the Solomon Island chain, and then to the Banks and Vanuatu Archipelagos.
What four continents surround the Pacific Ocean?
The Pacific Ocean is a body of salt water extending from the Antarctic region in the south to the Arctic in the north and lying between the continents of Asia and Australia on the west and North America and South America on the east.
What did the Polynesians make their sails from?
The sails were made of mats woven from pandanus leaves. These vessels were seaworthy enough to make voyages of over 2,000 miles along the longest sea roads of Polynesia, like the one between Hawai’i and Tahiti.
How did Polynesians travel to Hawaii?
The Hawaiian Islands were first settled as early as 400 C.E., when Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands, 2000 miles away, traveled to Hawaii’s Big Island in canoes.Shortly afterward, Western traders and whalers came to the islands, bringing with them diseases that devastated the native Hawaiian population.
What did the Polynesians eat?
In addition to bananas and coconuts, the Polynesians brought taro, a root fromwhich poi is made; plantain, the starchy cooking banana; breadfruit, a globe-like fruit that is eaten cooked; yams; and sugarcane. For meat, the Polynesians brought along pigs, dogs and possibly chickens.
Early seafarers were able to navigate over the Pacific Ocean using the stars, yearly ocean currents, and climate.
When and where did the Polynesians do most of their exploring?
The Polynesians
Rough estimates surrounding the dates of their voyages place their explorations between 1500 BC and 1000AD. New Guinea is thought to be one of the first places they settled, followed by the Solomon Islands, to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand.
How did ancient explorers navigate near shore and in the open ocean? – learned to use the sun, constellations, the North Star and sea conditions to navigate in the open ocean. -Greeks knew the Earth was a sphere, not flat. What major ocean discovery is credited to Greek Pytheas?
Te kapehu whetū – the Māori star compass – divides the 360 degrees around a canoe in the open ocean into different whare (houses). The location of these houses depends on where the sun, moon and stars set and rise. The navigator attempts to keep the canoe on a course relative to these observations.
What did Polynesians bring with them and why?
Polynesians carried pigs, chicken and dogs on all of their voyages to prepare for the eventual settlement of new islands. They would carry enough fermented starch to keep the animals alive for several months.
Who was Polynesia answer?
Answer: Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians, sharing many similar traits including language family, culture, and beliefs.
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