Ancient Polynesia: Pioneers of the Pacific

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

Despite sporadic food sources and the dangers of the deep sea, the remote islands of the Pacific Ocean have been home to Polynesians for more than a millennium. But what was life like for the first people to venture between Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island, to name a few? In this episode Christina Thompson explores the new evidence which can tell us more about what the ancient Polynesians ate and how they lived. From the DNA of ancient rats to the mystery of the sweet potato, this is an intriguing listen. Christina is the author of ‘Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia’.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the Entrance on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host. And in today's podcast
0:08.3	we are going back to the ancient Pacific. We're talking about the Polynesians. We're going
0:13.0	to be focusing in on what we know about food, what we know about the lifestyle of the Polynesians
0:19.2	in ancient history. Now for this episode I was delighted to be rejoined by the brilliant
0:26.5	legendary speaker that is Christina Thompson. Christine has been on the podcast once before to
0:31.4	talk about what we know about how the Polynesians navigated the Pacific in antiquity. And she's
0:37.9	back now we're going to be looking at food types, we're going to be looking at animals, we're going
0:41.6	to be looking at the topography of these various Polynesian islands, including some really intriguing
0:49.5	mysteries. Now Christina will be back on the podcast again very soon after this one to talk about
0:55.5	another incredible aspect of the ancient Polynesians and that is Polynesian mythology. So look
1:01.6	out for that one as well. But in the meantime here's Christina to talk about ancient Polynesian
1:06.6	food, topography, lifestyle and so much more. Christina it's great to have you back on the podcast.
1:17.3	I'm totally thrilled to be here. Well I'm thrilled that you agreed to come back on because we're
1:20.6	talking more Polynesians. Last time we really focused on the navigation and the reaching of these
1:25.4	islands. But when we now talk about food and we'll get on to myth later but food in particular
1:30.0	is quite a lot of debates, questions, mystery surrounding how certain foodstuffs did reach
1:37.6	these islands. Yes there is. Some of it is kind of well known and some of it is kind of mysterious
1:43.6	that is correct. We will absolutely get into the mystery as the time goes on. But let's start off with
1:48.8	let's say before the Polynesians to really set the background to all of this and this travel
1:52.4	these reaching these islands. And in particular a particular people Christina who were the La Pita
1:58.4	people? La Pita is the name of a cultural group and identifiable group of people who we can see in
2:07.3	the archaeological record basically between about 1500 BC and zero. So in the 1500 year period
	...

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