Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

The Polynesian history of the (european) middle ages keeps getting more interesting and mysterious.<p>Evidence for polynesian contact with the Americas is mounting. Regardless, the medieval coonization of all the pacific islands is evidence of seamanship and navigation skills European mariners didn&#x27;t achieve until well into the age of sail. European sailing was much more trade&#x2F;cargo oriented &amp; we know a lot less about &quot;pre-contact&quot; polynesian maritime cultre so it&#x27;s hard to do put the technologies side-by-side. That said, it looks the polynesian ability to aim for and land on small remote islands circa 300CE was not surpassed by any other culture until the 18th century.<p>Then there&#x27;s the strange case of Easter Island with it&#x27;s giant stone statues. Giant stone statues &amp; &quot;how-the-f%£$-did-they-do-this&quot; megalithic monuments have existed for a long time (EG the sphinx), but these are usually produced by populous civic cultures. &quot;High civilization&quot; to use an out of date term. For a tiny island to produce this kind of an artistic culture without obvious predecessors or descendants is strange.<p>As always in prehistory (in the literal, &quot;before written records&quot; sense), what we know is very little. But, it wouldn&#x27;t be hard for me to believe that surprising numerical or mathematical systems existed there. It&#x27;s a culture that has surprised us to the point of disbelief several times.