A thought from Tuesday Mornign QB on Espn.com

[Mormon Red Death]

A Cosmic Thought About Reed Boats: Last month, German adventurer Dominique Gorlitz was forced to abandon ship in his attempt to cross the Atlantic in a reed boat. He was trying to demonstrate that ancient people might have traveled from the Old World to the New thousands of years before Columbus. A 21st-century escort vessel rescued Gorlitz and his crew. I am perfectly willing to believe that before technology, the ancients were able to make very long voyages: from Europe to Greenland or North America across the stormy Atlantic; far across the open Pacific to Easter Island or Hawaii; or on foot from Asia to North America across the Bering land bridge that was exposed when sea levels were low during the Pleistocene ice age. Yes, I am willing to believe the ancients could accomplish amazing journeys. Here's what creeps me out: Why did they try?

Millennia ago, people in Europe did not know there was a New World waiting to the west. Why undertake an extremely dangerous voyage without even knowing a destination existed? The Polynesians who crossed more than a thousand miles of open ocean to reach Easter Island some 1,700 years ago, or who undertook similarly perilous journeys to the Hawaiian Islands around that time, had no way of knowing there was any destination to reach. The canoelike boats used by Polynesians to reach Easter Island and Hawaii rode atop prevailing ocean currents; it was probably impossible that pretechnological longboat travelers could have reached the Easter or Hawaiian islands, charted them, then returned against the current to tell other Polynesians what they found. Long ocean crossings before roughly the Renaissance era were almost certainly one-way trips, so a traveler setting out from Europe toward the Caribbean, or from Polynesia toward the Hawaiian chain, would not know there was any place to reach; all they would have known is that everyone who previously set out in the same direction had never been heard from again. Similarly, why would the ancestors of the Paleo-Indians have walked more than 1,000 miles across the Bering land bridge if they had no way of knowing a bountiful new land was on the other side?

Their shadows still haunt the Southwest. Why did they walk here?
All these ancient journeys entailed incredible hardship -- just try walking 1,000 miles across wilderness Alaska today, finding all your own food, medicine and shelter en route! All these ancient journeys resulted in the travelers arriving in virgin lands that were physically beautiful but offered no farms or villages, no crops, only the remotest hope of survival. Plus, the global population then was a tiny fraction of today's. Probably there was little population pressure in Europe and eastern Asia thousands of years ago, no resource shortage or land shortage from which to flee. Why did the ancients undertake perilous, grueling journeys when they did not even know whether there was a destination? This paper suggests that ocean current variations late in the last ice age made the Bering land bridge warm, vegetated and rich in animal life, meaning Paleo-Indians might slowly have moved toward North America across many generations of good hunting, transiting farther east as each generation followed the game to find its source. This is the closest to a "why" I've heard on any of the big ancient journeys. I've never even heard a theory on why the Polynesians tried to reach the remote down-current Pacific areas, or why the ancient Old World might have launched reed boats toward the New.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Mormon Red Death

A Cosmic Thought About Reed Boats: Last month, German adventurer Dominique Gorlitz was forced to abandon ship in his attempt to cross the Atlantic in a reed boat. He was trying to demonstrate that ancient people might have traveled from the Old World to the New thousands of years before Columbus. A 21st-century escort vessel rescued Gorlitz and his crew. I am perfectly willing to believe that before technology, the ancients were able to make very long voyages: from Europe to Greenland or North America across the stormy Atlantic; far across the open Pacific to Easter Island or Hawaii; or on foot from Asia to North America across the Bering land bridge that was exposed when sea levels were low during the Pleistocene ice age. Yes, I am willing to believe the ancients could accomplish amazing journeys. Here's what creeps me out: Why did they try?

Millennia ago, people in Europe did not know there was a New World waiting to the west. Why undertake an extremely dangerous voyage without even knowing a destination existed? The Polynesians who crossed more than a thousand miles of open ocean to reach Easter Island some 1,700 years ago, or who undertook similarly perilous journeys to the Hawaiian Islands around that time, had no way of knowing there was any destination to reach. The canoelike boats used by Polynesians to reach Easter Island and Hawaii rode atop prevailing ocean currents; it was probably impossible that pretechnological longboat travelers could have reached the Easter or Hawaiian islands, charted them, then returned against the current to tell other Polynesians what they found. Long ocean crossings before roughly the Renaissance era were almost certainly one-way trips, so a traveler setting out from Europe toward the Caribbean, or from Polynesia toward the Hawaiian chain, would not know there was any place to reach; all they would have known is that everyone who previously set out in the same direction had never been heard from again. Similarly, why would the ancestors of the Paleo-Indians have walked more than 1,000 miles across the Bering land bridge if they had no way of knowing a bountiful new land was on the other side?

Their shadows still haunt the Southwest. Why did they walk here?
All these ancient journeys entailed incredible hardship -- just try walking 1,000 miles across wilderness Alaska today, finding all your own food, medicine and shelter en route! All these ancient journeys resulted in the travelers arriving in virgin lands that were physically beautiful but offered no farms or villages, no crops, only the remotest hope of survival. Plus, the global population then was a tiny fraction of today's. Probably there was little population pressure in Europe and eastern Asia thousands of years ago, no resource shortage or land shortage from which to flee. Why did the ancients undertake perilous, grueling journeys when they did not even know whether there was a destination? This paper suggests that ocean current variations late in the last ice age made the Bering land bridge warm, vegetated and rich in animal life, meaning Paleo-Indians might slowly have moved toward North America across many generations of good hunting, transiting farther east as each generation followed the game to find its source. This is the closest to a "why" I've heard on any of the big ancient journeys. I've never even heard a theory on why the Polynesians tried to reach the remote down-current Pacific areas, or why the ancient Old World might have launched reed boats toward the New.

This guy hasn't looked very hard into Polynesian history. There are several theories about their motivations, including population pressures, warfare, religious banishments and other social factors, or combinations. He is also rather ignorant about Polynesian travel, as it was most certainly two way. This didnt' happen a lot, mind you, but they most certainyl did have two way travel (I can't say I know this about Easter Island, but I believe there is evidence for two way travel with respect to the other Polynesian archipelagos). Indeed, he is looking at their feats through 21st cnetury eyes and without considering the time frames involved, which skews his persepctive (for example, polynesian navigators could 'feel' the swells change as they neared land, long before any land masses were in sight. This is an almost lost art but was important and well-used anciently).