Polynesian Navigational Expansion

Name: Polynesian Navigational Expansion
Start: 1270
End: 1279

Type Event Region Pacific Ocean Time 1270–1279

Around the 1270s, Polynesian navigators, relying on stars, currents, and bird observation, continued to carry out inter-island migration and settleme…

Timeline

1270–1279Samoa–Tonga cultural core area · SamoaPolynesian navigators used star-compass-style astronomical memory, wave pattern reading, and migratory bird patterns to plan routes; double-hulled canoes could carry dozens of people plus seed crops and livestock across the ocean, with navigation knowledge passed down orally within chiefly families.
c. 1275–1300North Island of New Zealand · New ZealandSome scholars believe that Polynesian fleets reached New Zealand in this period and completed settlement, bringing South Island jade, taro, and dogs; Hawaii and Easter Island may also have completed their final large-scale population influx around this stage.

Sources

On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact — Patrick Vinton Kirch (2017)
We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific — David Lewis (1994)