Re: Chicken in South America

Eric Stevens <eric.stevens@xxxxxxxxx > wrote:

On Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:25:39 -0700, chazwin <chazwyman@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Jun 5, 9:23 pm, Eric Stevens <eric.stev...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10443758

"A single chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the
strongest evidence yet to suggest that Polynesian seafarers
sailed to South America before the discovery of the New World by
European explorers.

The possibility that Polynesians had direct contact with the
indigenous people of South America has long intrigued experts on
ancient human migrations, but hard evidence has been difficult to
come by.

However, a study by scientists from New Zealand and Chile has
shown that chickens may well have been introduced into South
America from Polynesians sailing from the west rather than
Europeans coming from the east.

Chicken bones excavated from an archaeological site in central
Chile have been analysed by carbon dating and by DNA profiling.
One of the bones was dated to more than 100 years before the
first Europeans arrived in South America and its DNA shows a
strong correlation with the DNA of present-day chickens living
on the inhabited islands of the Pacific Ocean." ... more

Mind you, people George F Carter has been saying much the same kind
of thing since 1971.

Eric Stevens

All very well but RC dating is simply not up to the task if the bone
was only 100 years older than the arrival of the Spanish - sorry.
I would not deny the strong possiblity that polynesians were
perfectly capable of making the trip and probably did - afterall
they get at least as far as Easter Island - but this particular
piece of evidence is no evidence at all.

They would need to date more than one bone!
"A single chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the
strongest evidence yet to suggest that Polynesian seafarers sailed
to South America before the discovery of the New World by European
explorers." and it would have to be older than 100 years before the
Spanish arrived to be a secure dating.

There is also the complication that there is a peculiar wiggle in the
radiocarbon calibration curve in the 14th century which has the
potential to lead to multiple probable ages. See
http://www1.phys.uu.nl/ams/images/calibration.gif (which is a diagram
from http://www1.phys.uu.nl/ams/Radiocarbon.htm )

You can also see a similar lesser disturbance in the 16th century.
I've only just found this image, otherwise I would have produced it
for the earlier discussion of the age of the Newport Tower.



Eric Stevens

" For example, 14C dates from the period after 1660 AD
cannot be discriminated against modern material"

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Chicken in South America
    ... "A single chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the ... strongest evidence yet to suggest that Polynesian seafarers ... sailed to South America before the discovery of the New World ... The possibility that Polynesians had direct contact with the ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: Chicken in South America
    ... "A single chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the ... strongest evidence yet to suggest that Polynesian seafarers sailed ... to South America before the discovery of the New World by European ... Polynesians sailing from the west rather than Europeans coming from ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: Chicken in South America
    ... "A single chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the ... sailed to South America before the discovery of the New World by ... The possibility that Polynesians had direct contact with the ... but hard evidence has been difficult to ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: Chicken in South America
    ... strongest evidence yet to suggest that Polynesian seafarers sailed ... to South America before the discovery of the New World by European ... "A single chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the strongest ... America before the discovery of the New World by European explorers." ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: Chicken in South America
    ... strongest evidence yet to suggest that Polynesian seafarers sailed ... to South America before the discovery of the New World by European ... "A single chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the strongest ... America before the discovery of the New World by European explorers." ...
    (sci.archaeology)