Did Antarctica remain entirely unvisited by humans until the early 19th century?
score:25
We can be fairly certain that humans did not live on Antarctica, the continent, before the 20th century.
Since about 15 Ma, the continent has been mostly covered with ice.
Ref: Trewby, Mary, ed. Antarctica: An Encyclopedia from Abbott Ice Shelf to Zooplankton. Firefly Books. ISBN 1-55297-590-8.
Intermittent warm periods allowed Nothof*gus shrubs to cling to the Sirius group in the Dominion Range as late as 3-4 Ma. After that the Pleistocene ice-age covered the whole continent and destroyed all major plant life on it.
Ref: Stefi Weisburd, "A forest grows in Antarctica". Science News.
Since the earliest member of the Genus Homo is younger than that (c:a 2.3Ma) Humans can not have been living there at that point. So earlier hotter periods are not a possibility for human settlements.
Humans also got the technology for reliable oceanic travel at the earliest around two thousand years ago, so a prehistoric settlement would not have been possible, and a settlement in the last thousand or so years would likely have been accompanied by legends, like the Norse settlements in Greenland.
Also, the cultures that colonized Greenland had a much less extreme climate to deal with than the antarctic climate, and perhaps more importantly, they could develop the technology for that gradually, while moving further north. A culture that settled Antarctica would have to go from at worst a climate where winters average around freezing, to a climate where winters average -10C to -30C. This a gradual development of tools to survive in that climate would not have been possible, which means settlements would not have been possible.
It is possible that it would have been reached by sailors in prehistory, but making a viable settlement in Antarctica is highly unlikely because of the forbidding climate.
As such we can be fairly certain that the first human to set foot on Antarctica did this in the 19th century, although exactly who it was is disputed.
Upvote:-1
If Antarctica had no ice 1.5 million years ago or 500,000 years ago, perhaps there were humans on Antarctica then. NASA Imaging over Antarctica has a story to tell. Read it dudes. Maybe humans migrated north to South America and later into N America, from Antarctica before they froze to death at onset of Antarctic glaciation. There was also migrations going on over Beringia, as enough evidence for that these days. Oh, a fossil swimming reptile has been found recently in of all places ,,Antarctica. Was there some evolution going on down at South Pole before Ice Ages set in there
Upvote:2
Patagonians reached the Falklands and Maoris settled Sub-Antartic Islands thus in one sense humans did reach the periphery of Antartica.
Upvote:3
In addition to the other answers I would add that Antarctica is well protected by the Westerlies, a zone of westerly winds surrounding it from 30-60° S. These bands are named "Roaring Forties", "Howling Fifties" and "Screaming Sixties", try to guess why. Apart from mostly bad weather with regular storms of hurricane force and freak waves you must cross the oceans with continously decreasing temperatures and fields of pack ice. The only land near this regions is Patagonia in South America which is also quite inhospitable.
Under these circumstances it may be not so surprising that Antarctica was untouched until the l9th century.
Upvote:14
For reference, here is the official classification from Wikipedia of the conditions necessary for a "pleasant" Antarctic day:
Condition 3
Windspeed below 48 knots (55 miles per hour)
Visibility greater than 1/4 of a mile (402 meters)
Wind chill above −75 °F (−60 °C)
Description: Pleasant conditions; all outside travel is permitted.
Condition 3 is apparently the best forecast they give for most Antarctic stations, partly because of the great speed in which conditions can change. Note particularly the temperature requirement. Northern Quebec and Alberta never approached those temperatures in the 6 years I lived there.
Even with all our modern technology, it is difficult to maintain an Antarctic station through the long winter.
The notion that a pre0historic settlement could have somehow transported sufficient fuel from (not Patagonia as it doesn't have trees; The Falklands maybe, or the Cape, or Tasmania) in order to survive even one winter I find absurd. Only our technology provides us with the luxury, and means, for such research.
More post
- 📝 Who conducted the first "straw poll" in U.S. election politics, and when was it conducted?
- 📝 How was beer production affected by the war during WW2?
- 📝 How did Pocahontas die?
- 📝 Did Spain and the Republic of China (Kuomintang) have diplomatic relations between 1931 and 1939? Were they friendly or unfriendly?
- 📝 What time zone was used in Sikkim before it became a state of India in 1975?
- 📝 Was the Iron curtain actually present at the time of the Fulton speech?
- 📝 Why was France granted an equal status among victors of World War II?
- 📝 What was the alcoholic beverage of choice for British soldiers during WW2?
- 📝 Why are U.S. Northwestern metropolitan areas set back from the coast?
- 📝 What happened to Hitler's personal possessions and real estate?
- 📝 What was the nature of the Japanese presence in China in the later stages of World War II?
- 📝 Did "music pendants" exist in the 1800s/early 1900s?
- 📝 Would Stalin have dropped the nuclear bomb on Germany in 1945, if he had it then?
- 📝 Who named San Andreas, California?
- 📝 Was American slavery economically advantageous primarily due to being able to also sell offspring?
- 📝 Why do more historians state Rome was a superpower, than Persia?
- 📝 What is the difference between the union free state and the territories controlled by the federal government?
- 📝 What was the difference between Hussars and Chasseurs à Cheval in the 19th Century French army?
- 📝 Did Crimea and Russia exchange Ukraine for the Taganrog region?
- 📝 Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
- 📝 During WW2, Did Great Britain have any forced workers in the English coal mines
- 📝 Did Jim Morrison ever comment on his father's career choice or role in the Vietnam war?
- 📝 Was the death toll in the atomic bombing of Japanese territory greater than was expected by the US?
- 📝 What is the Thalassic Age?
- 📝 What is the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 Why did the Nazis invent videotelephony?
- 📝 What did contemporary countries in Europe call the Ottoman Empire?
- 📝 Which is the earliest surviving inscription of "SPQR"?
- 📝 Did Age of Sail fighting vessels have any anti-spall technology?
- 📝 Has there ever been a serious effort to reform the US Electoral College system?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did Antarctica remain entirely unvisited by humans until the early 19th century?
- 📝 Why did quill pens persist until the early 19th century despite the capacity to make metal dip pens?
- 📝 In what ways did the rise of a true middle class in Europe during the late 19th century become apparent?
- 📝 How did they measure speed in the 19th century so they could issue the first speeding ticket?
- 📝 Where and how did scientists of the 18th and 19th century learn foreign languages?
- 📝 What is the meaning of "£10 per cent" in the early 19th century in relation to a wage (30/- fortnight)
- 📝 What was the typical range of travel of a Pennsylvanian resident for everyday life in the late 18th early 19th Century Pennsylvania?
- 📝 What did Central America export in the early 20th century other than coffee and bananas?
- 📝 Identifying a military uniform from the early 19th century
- 📝 Percentage of Christians (Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians) in Asia Minor/Anatolia in the early 19th century
- 📝 How did laborers travel from China to Malaya in the early 19th century?
- 📝 How did 19th century European nations arbitrate the process of colonization among themselves?
- 📝 The history of rivalry between US and Britain in late 19th Century and early 20th Century
- 📝 Did the "loss" of the American territories in the first third of the 19th century have any impact on Spanish intellectual discourse?
- 📝 Why did Hitler's order to give SS members German Citizen remain in force until the 1960s?
- 📝 Was the Tsar's property separated from state property in Russian Empire in early 19th century (regarding land)?
- 📝 When did humans develop the ability to sail any direction regardless of wind direction?
- 📝 Why did Europe not see Roman-era numbers of men participating in battles until the 17th century?
- 📝 How did early adopters of the automobile fill up their cars?
- 📝 Why did modern "Romania" remain the most "Roman" part of the Balkans?
- 📝 During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, did society question whether or not recovered patients will remain immune?
- 📝 How did Native Americans refer to themselves in the 19th century?
- 📝 Why did Chamberlain remain Prime Minister of Britain until 10 May, 1940?
- 📝 Why did Germany not join the United Nations until 1973?
- 📝 Why did piracy thrive in the late 17th and early 18th centuries?
- 📝 Why did the island of Bali remain Hindu when most of the rest of Indonesia converted to Islam?
- 📝 In the early 1900s, how did US politicians treat black dignitaries from other countries?
- 📝 What would a Norseman in the early 11th century have worn as daily clothing?
- 📝 Were bookshops 'common' in the late 19th century, and how did they differ from modern ones?
- 📝 Why did families in 6th century Mecca send their babies to be raised in the desert?