Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation Volume 10 Article 1 Issue 2 June 1996 1996 Rat Colonization and Polynesian Voyaging: another hypothesis Atholl Anderson Australian National University Follow this and additional works at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/rnj Part of the History of the Pacific slI ands Commons, and the Pacific slI ands Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Anderson, Atholl (1996) "Rat Colonization and Polynesian Voyaging: another hypothesis," Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation: Vol. 10 : Iss. 2 , Article 1. Available at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/rnj/vol10/iss2/1 This Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Hawai`i Press at Kahualike. It has been accepted for inclusion in Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation by an authorized editor of Kahualike. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Anderson: Rat Colonization and Polynesian Voyaging: another hypothesis Rat Colonization and Polynesian Voyaging: another hypothesis Atholl Ander on Division ofArchaeology and Na/ural His/OIY, Australian National University Robert Langdon (1995:77) disputes the long-standing Humboldt connecting these islands with New Zealand, and proposition that Rattus exulans was dispersed by Polynesian few large rafts of vegetation are debauched by their rivers voyaging and suggests tbat over hundreds of thousands or (there could bave been logs, but tbese are bigbly unstable in millions of years it "succeeded in getting from one island to a seaway), the probability of a successful natural drift event another witbout any human aid at aiL." Between this and the occurring during a maximum timespan of 2000 years before conventional view lies the possibility, not yet explored in demonstrated buman settlement of New Zealand, cannot be detail, that some rats were transported on canoes that had lost bigh.