The possibility of voyaging contact between prehistoric Polynesian and Native American populations has long intrigued researchers. Proponents have pointed to the existence of New World crops, such as the sweet potato and bottle gourd, in the Polynesian archaeological record, but nowhere else outside the pre-Columbian Americas 1 – 6 , while critics have argued that these botanical dispersals need not have been human mediated 7 . The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl controversially suggested that prehistoric South American populations had an important role in the settlement of east Polynesia and particularly of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) 2 . Several limited molecular genetic studies have reached opposing conclusions, and the possibility continues to be as hotly contested today as it was when first suggested 8 – 12 . Here we analyse genome-wide variation in individuals from islands across Polynesia for signs of Native American admixture, analysing 807 individuals from 17 island populations and 15 Pacific coast Native American groups. We find conclusive evidence for prehistoric contact of Polynesian individuals with Native American individuals (around ad 1200) contemporaneous with the settlement of remote Oceania 13 – 15 . Our analyses suggest strongly that a single contact event occurred in eastern Polynesia, before the settlement of Rapa Nui, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia. Genomic analyses of DNA from modern individuals show that, about 800 years ago, pre-European contact occurred between Polynesian individuals and Native American individuals from near present-day Colombia, while remote Pacific islands were still being settled.

中文翻译：

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美洲原住民基因在复活节岛定居之前流入波利尼西亚


史前波利尼西亚人和美洲原住民之间航行接触的可能性长期以来一直引起研究人员的兴趣。支持者指出，在波利尼西亚考古记录中存在新世界作物，例如红薯和葫芦，但在前哥伦布时期的美洲以外的任何其他地方都没有存在 1 – 6 ，而批评者则认为，这些植物传播不需要有由人类介导 7 .挪威探险家托尔·海尔达尔（Thor Heyerdahl）提出了颇具争议的观点，认为史前南美洲人口在波利尼西亚东部，特别是复活节岛（拉帕努伊）2 的定居中发挥着重要作用。一些有限的分子遗传学研究得出了相反的结论，这种可能性今天仍然像最初提出时一样激烈争论 8 – 12 。在这里，我们分析了波利尼西亚各地岛屿个体的全基因组变异，以寻找美洲原住民混合的迹象，分析了来自 17 个岛屿群体和 15 个太平洋沿岸美洲原住民群体的 807 名个体。我们找到了确凿的证据，表明史前波利尼西亚人与美洲原住民（大约公元 1200 年）的接触与偏远大洋洲的定居同时发生 13 – 15 。我们的分析强烈表明，在拉帕努伊定居之前，波利尼西亚东部发生了一次接触事件，发生在波利尼西亚人和与当今哥伦比亚土著居民关系最密切的美洲原住民群体之间。对现代人 DNA 的基因组分析表明，大约 800 年前，波利尼西亚人与来自现今哥伦比亚附近的美洲原住民之间发生了前欧洲人的接触，当时偏远的太平洋岛屿仍在有人定居。