Re: The lowly sweet potato may unlock America's past, How the root vegetable found it's way across the Pacific


One of the first things you need to be able to work metal is metal.

How about a controlled heat, a method of identifying ores and
extracting the metal
Stone hammers and stone anvils will work metal

IIRC the Pacific islands have very little in removable situations.
Deep in the interior of New Guinea is a rich copper and gold deposit,
but there is little on even the volcanic islands and none on the coral
atolls.

New Guinea was the end of the Pacific Pottery horizon.
New Zealand has clays and identifiable metal deposits that were only
accessed when the European arrived

So in your opinion the Polynesians wouldn't bother to trade for
pottery and metal tools with the South Americans ?
Not how ceramics and metal were sought after when the Europeans
arrived with such treasures?


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