How is it possible that humans just stumbled upon Easter Island? It's thousands of kilometers from areas of ancient civilizations. It's literally in the middle of nowhere.

by dotabob2625

Humans walked to America via the Bering. Humans walked across Canada to Greenland. Australia was hard to miss. Iceland sorta makes sense.

But Easter Island ?!

It was not attached to any other continent while humans existed. How could they hit it? I doubt ancient polynesians sent thousands of boats navigating the oceans metholidacally, thousands of kilometers from their homeland until they found it.

It boggles the mind.

jschooltiger

I mean, Polynesians basically literally did do that -- they were able to read wave patterns and find far-off islands before seeing them. u/b1uepenguin has written very extensively about Polynesian expansion/exploration here before -- this part of our FAQ may be of some interest to you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/oceania#wiki_pacific_islander_culture_and_navigation