# Was Antarctica Ever Inhabited By Humans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536 "2003-08-02T13:16:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/1 "2003-08-02T13:16:58Z")
A few years back, a University of Connecticut archaeologist was doing some work in the Falkland Islans…he had found evidence of human habitation , from 5-6000 years ago. Now, the Falkland Islands are more than 300 miles from the coast of S. America, and they are apretty bleak place-one would wonder why humans wouldlive there, given that there is much more hospitableareas just northwards on the mainland. Anyway, now I read that during the last Ice Age, the Antarctic Peninsula way have been attached to the S. American mainland (via an Ice Bridge). So, humans may have been able to reach the Antarctic mainland. Has abyone ever found any human artifacts in Anarctica? With the sea levels being around 100-150 meters lower than today, I would expect that large areas of the coasts would be exposed…so perhaps the early humans did inhabit Antarctica? Anybody know more about this? And,now that we know that humans werein Chile more than 20,000 years ago,(Monte verde), isit not unreasonable that they migrated southwards?😕 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/2 "2003-08-02T16:41:03Z")
First, the Falklands are on the same latitude as southern Argentina and Chile, not down in the sub-Antarctic. They are, however, IIRC, part of the “Scotia Arc” – a mostly-submerged rise that would have been an isthmus connecting South America and Antarctica. The Monteverde site’s dating to 20,000 YPB is somewhat controversial. There is, however, some evidence in the form of a document called “The Vineland Map” that the coast of Antarctica was known several hundred years before the continent was discovered. This is extremely controversial, and I believe largely discounted by experts in the field. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/3 "2003-08-02T17:30:32Z")
I think the Vineland Map was re: the Vikings and North America. [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr072902a.htm](http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr072902a.htm) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/4 "2003-08-02T18:21:26Z")
**Poly** , did you intend to type “Piri Reis” instead of “Vineland”? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/5 "2003-08-02T18:38:51Z")
[The Piri Reis Map Project](http://www.prep.mcneese.edu/engr/engr321/preis/piri_r~1.htm). While I can see where people would want to “discover” Antarctica on the Piri Reis map, to me the _portolano_ image of the map indicates that what is perceived as Antartica is simply the coast of South America, bent around by the perspective of the drawing. [One of many pro-Antarctica sites with the letter by Cap. Burroughs, USAF, supporting the Antarctica theory.](http://www.geocities.com/aleph135/PiriReisMap.html) ---
**Author:** ![Shiva418](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@Shiva418](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva418)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/6 "2003-08-02T18:56:03Z")
Check out Grahm Hancock’s book **Fingerprints of the Gods**. He proved much “evidence” that people once inhabited Antarctica. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/7 "2003-08-02T21:40:11Z")
No, Antarctica was never inhabited by humans. It was inhabited by . . . other thngs. Read _At the Mountains of Madness,_ by H.P. Lovecraft. _ **Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!** _ ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/8 "2003-08-02T21:43:02Z")
Yeah, I got the Piri Reis Map and the Vinland Map (of “and the Tartar Relation”) mixed up in my mind. My aplogies to **Ralph** and all for the misstatement. ---
**Author:** ![SweetLucy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@SweetLucy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetLucy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/9 "2003-08-02T23:54:03Z")
I’ve heard speculations about this subject. For example, there’s a theory that Antarctica was temperate until a few thousand years ago, and then some global catastrophe instantly freeze-dried the continent. Also, I used to read a lot of junky UFO/ghost/etc. books when I was a kid, and I remember that a famous Antarctic explorer, Roald Amundsen, was flying over the South Pole one day and thought that he saw a window into another dimension, where people and mastodons were running around. Weird stuff 😃 maybe I could dig around and find whether this is an apocryphal story or not. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/10 "2003-08-03T00:27:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SweetLucy \* > \*\* maybe I could dig around and find whether this is an apocryphal story or not. \*\* Why don’t we just assume that it is apocryphal? ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/11 "2003-08-03T00:50:12Z")
There are [more](http://aps.paradoxdesigns.com/PseudoSite/reiswasright.html) [sceptical](http://www.intersurf.com/~chalcedony/FOG9.html) takes on the Piri Reis map around. The excellent article on the web about the map in the context of its time was Gregory C. McIntosh’s one from the May/June 2000 issue of Mercator’s World magazine, but the [link](http://www.mercatormag.com/article.php3?i=73) appears to be broken. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-antarctica-ever-inhabited-by-humans/192536/12 "2003-08-03T01:17:18Z")
According to Edgar Allan Poe, _The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym_, Antarctica was inhabited by humans in the 19th century. In their language, their name for the mystery at the South Pole was… _ **Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!** _ Lovecraft stole that from Poe.