Today, with navigation from point "A" to "B" just a Mapquest or YahooMaps search away, it's easy to forget that, not too many years ago, navigation required more than just a few keyboard clicks or a check of GPS coordinates.
Perhaps even more intriguing is how ancient navigators traveled from continent to continent and, from island to island without the convenience of today's GPS systems and multi-faceted computers.
Tahiti's first settlers reached the Marquesas Islands in approximately 300 B.C. Using ancient, complex celestial navigation methods, they were able to accurately travel hundreds of miles to the Marquesas from Samoa, with very few indicators as guides. Using the sun, moon, stars, and planets to navigate from one island to the next, these explorers relied on natural means to travel with confidence throughout the southern Pacific Ocean.
Celestial navigation is the process of using measurement of angles and distances of celestial objects, and measuring those to the horizon in order to locate one's position. Early Polynesian explorers used the rising and setting points of celestial bodies for direction. By dividing the horizon into sixteen parts, and using those points where the sun rises and sets as the cardinal point, they were able to arrive, often with pinpoint accuracy, at a desired destination.
By taking position in relation to the point of sunrise on the horizon, a navigator would then know his relative direction, and taking into the account the direction of wind and current, the navigator could calculate the direction he must steer in to approach his destination.
At night, the stars would guide the way. With the knowledge of where a star would rise over a particular island, the navigators, with amazing accuracy, were able to sail 24/7, reaching their destinations intact.
While we marvel at the power of today's Global Positioning Systems and satellite devices, it's a valuable lesson to look back at, or better yet -- look up to -- the origins of modern navigation systems.
History of the Marquesas
The first recorded settlers of the Marquesas were Polynesians, who, from archaæological evidence, are believed to have arrived before 100 CE. Ethnological and linguistic evidence suggests that they likely arrived from the region of Samoa. Polynesia (from Greek, poly = many and nesi = island) is a large grouping of over 1,000 islands in the central and southern Pacific Ocean. ...// Importance and applicability Most of human history is not described by any written records. ...-1...Ethnology (greek ethnos: (non-greek, barbarian) people) is a genre of anthropological study, involving the systematic comparison of the folklore, beliefs and practices of different societies. ...Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time, by means of examining languages which are recognizably related through similarities such as vocabulary, word formation, and syntax, as well as the surviving records of ancient languages. ...
