HMN 2025: How Archaeologists examine evidence for Indigenous long-distance voyaging below 50°S

In a study published in the Journal of Coastal and Island Archaeology, Dr. Thomas Leppard and his colleagues, John Cherry and Atholl Anderson, evaluate the evidence for pre-European long-distance voyages below the 50th parallel by Indigenous peoples of the Southern Hemisphere.

While they found no evidence that such voyages occurred prior to European contact, they maintain this was not due to a lack of seafaring ability but rather due to the great environmental risk and impracticability of such ventures.

The Southern Ocean

South of the 50th parallel lies the Southern Ocean, which is known for its relentless winds, immense ice sheets, large waves, massive icebergs, and freezing temperatures. Many of the islands scattered across the Southern Ocean are bleak and treeless, home only to seals, seabirds, and other Antarctic animals.

It has been the commonly held belief that, prior to European contact, these landmasses were uninhabited, except for Tierra del Fuego in South America. However, recent claims have proposed that these islands were known to and inhabited by the Indigenous peoples of the Southern Hemisphere prior to European contact.

If true, these claims would revolutionize how we understand Indigenous seafaring technology and make voyaging below the 50th parallel a relatively common historical phenomenon.

New Zealand and the Subantarctic Islands

The M?ori were known as great navigators who inhabited New Zealand and the nearby Chatham Islands. Among the Rarotongan is a story, recorded by Stephenson Percy Smith in 1899, of a great navigator, Ui-te-Rangiora, who supposedly voyaged to Antarctica.

Smith believed this to be the case due to his translation of the word “tai-uka” to mean “frozen sea,” despite the pre-European Rarotongan having no word for ice or frozen. A more direct translation is that the sea was described as white, like the flesh of arrowroot “Tai-uka-a-pia.”

To investigate this claim, the evidence from islands south of the 50th parallel with signs of human occupation was scrutinized. It is known that the M?ori indeed settled Enderby Island.

This island is the northernmost of the Auckland Islands and was settled around 1300–1400 AD before being abandoned due to worsening climate conditions. Interestingly, despite the northernmost island having been inhabited, none of the southern islands have ever been found to have any signs of human occupation.

The researchers speculate that since Enderby Island is already an extremely harsh place to live, with island temperatures averaging around 8°C, having 300 rainy days a year, and receiving only around 1,000 hours of sun a year, living any further south, where conditions would be even worse, would not have been feasible.

Additionally, no human presence has been found on the islands beyond the Auckland Islands, further south, likely because the wood needed for ship repair could only be obtained at the farthest point on the Auckland Islands.

In contrast, flax would have needed to be obtained from New Zealand. Using bark or sealskin, which is available further south, would have been insufficient for return voyages, making such ventures highly dangerous if not impossible.

Beyond the Rarotongan oral tradition, there is also no known tradition that claims to have ventured deep into the Southern Ocean, explains Dr. Leppard, “We have not found any other oral histories of southern voyaging and we would not expect them because no offshore seafaring technology comparable to that in Polynesia was recorded in Australia or southern South America.”

Pre-European settlement from South America

To investigate whether the inhabitants of South America may have settled on islands such as the Falkland Islands, South Shetland Islands, South Orkney Islands, South Sandwich Islands, and South Georgia Islands, archaeological and historical evidence was analyzed.

While some artifacts linked to Indigenous peoples have been found, such as stone tools and even human remains, these are all linked to post-European contact activities. For example, the transfer of 150 Fuegians to Pebble Island in 1855 by the Patagonian Missionary Society, who created whalebone harpoons and stone tools. Or the remains of an Indigenous woman on Livingston Island linked to early sealing operations on the islands in the 1800s.

Additionally, while the maritime technology in pre-contact southern South America was ideal for navigating the interior waterways of the Fuegian archipelago, these were small, narrow, shallow-drafted vessels capable of carrying only a few people and supplies and would have been prone to swamping and capsizing. Even if a voyage was attempted, hypothermia and a lack of supplies for a multiday voyage would likely have led to death.

The lack of archaeological evidence is particularly significant given the preservation conditions in these environments. “In these environments, we’d actually expect organic materials to preserve better,” notes Dr. Leppard.

“In general, cold conditions inhibit decay, while warmer conditions exacerbate it. In addition, these islands have seen very little in the way of modern development, which would also mean we would expect any archaeological record to be better preserved. Considering this, the overall absence of an archaeological record prior to European arrival is telling.”

The researchers suggest that, given the low survivability and how maladaptive such voyages would have been, they were thus never attempted. However, they welcome and encourage data collection, which would prove their conclusion wrong.

“While we’re not planning another collaborative paper on the Antarctic in the near future, we look forward to continuing to work on issues of colonization, seagoing, and island adaptations,” Dr. Leppard concludes.

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