A genetic study provides evidence of contact between ancient Polynesians and indigenous South Americans around 1200 CE. The study compared DNA from more than 800 people from Polynesian islands and South America’s Pacific Coast. The analyses found that some people from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and nearby surrounding islands have Native American ancestry, which comes from individuals of the pre-Columbian Zenu culture. The pre-Columbian Zenu lived around 1200 CE in what is today Colombia.
The geneticists suggest that Polynesians journeyed to South America, bringing back Zenu individuals to the Marquesas and starting families with them. Alternatively, South Americans may have traveled to eastern Polynesia and encountered (and intermarried with) Polynesians who in turn traveled further east.
