Erich Von Daniken - The Gold Of The Gods

4 - Temuen, The Island They Call Nan Madol
they have common linguistic roots and with only a few variations they have a common
appearance. They also have common gods!
The majority of Polynesian specialists-archaeologists, anthropologists and philologists-are
united in saying that culture and language spread from East Polynesia. According to this
version, the export of culture spread from the group of the nine Cook Islands and their many
atolls, from the large island of Tahiti (387 square miles), from the Tua-moto Islands, with
approximately 80 atolls, and from the Marquesas and the Mangareva Islands.
I dare not belittle these scientific conclusions, but I have some questions to ask.
How did the East Polynesians cover the vast distance between the islands when they were
carrying on their export trade in culture?
There is a theory that they boarded their canoes, rowed into the ocean currents and then
drifted. Where did they drift to?
It is half a century since research into marine currents has given us a pretty accurate idea of
the directions in which the large strong currents move and which coasts they touch. The
map of marine currents shows conclusively that the East Polynesian exporters must have
reached New Zealand, the biggest island in the South Pacific, in their primitive canoes
against the current.
A favorite explanation of this motorless and compassless traffic is that the seafarers
between East Polynesia and New Zealand traveled so far in a northerly or southerly
direction that they found themselves east or west of their goal-then the clever fellows
slipped into the currents at exactly the right place.
That would be all right if the ancient Polynesians had had modern maritime knowledge and
navigational aids. What did they know about the precise degree of latitude from which they
had to turn off to east or west? And how did they know their goal? Did they know that other
islands existed and where they were?
Anyone who assumes that the ancient Polynesians made exact use of the currents-that ran
counter to the directions of their expeditions-must be prepared to admit that knowledge of
marine currents was familiar to them. If scholars are ready to admit this necessary
prerequisite for navigation between the islands, I will gladly support the current theory, but
at the same time I must be allowed to ask the question whence they acquired this
knowledge.
We are concerned here with the export of culture from east to west over vast distances,
which I list here according to data supplied by international airlines:
Easter Island-Tahiti = 2,300 miles
Tahiti-Fiji = 2,670 miles
Fiji-Australia = 1,865 miles
California-Hawaii = 2,485 miles