At https://phys.org/news/2025-11-archaeologists-evidence-indigenous-distance-voyaging.html … Maori double hulled canoes of the 18th century. The link provides an illustration made at the time by Herman Sporing. Did indigenous people of the South Pacific sail below the 50th parallel? South of this zone lies the Southern Ocen – which is very windy, has huge waves that can overwhelm a boat, and there are icebergs and sea ice – and freezing temperatures. Islands in the Southern Ocean tend to be bleak and treeless. The home of seals, oenguins, sea birds, and so on. At one time the temporary home of whalers. Were these islands always uninhabited? The archaeologists set out to find evidence of settlement by humans – such as the Maori, famed for their long distance travels in the central Pacific. There were humans in Tierra del Fuego when European voyagers adventured that far south – but even the Falklands were uninhabited until claimed by European people.
The Maori lived in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. For a short while they also inhabited what is known as the Auckland Islands – until the weather became too cold and inhospitable in the 14th century. Possibly as early as the late 13th century. In fact, Enderby Island, the most northern island of the archeopelago, was the only one settled seriously. One reason these islands were little use to the Polynesians was because they lacked trees. These would have been used to make repairs to their ocean going canoes. No wood, no permanent settlement. Neither is there any evidence of humans on the South Shetlands, South Orkneys, or the South Sandwich islands or South Georgia. Archaeologists say there is no evidence of human settlement on these islands – at least over he last few thousand years. Buried evidence may exist from earlier periods but freezing soil rules out excavation of that kind. For the full research paper – see https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2025.2549845 …