Did Antarctica remain entirely unvisited by humans until the early 19th century?

Question

Antarctica today is covered permanently by thick layers of ice, making it extremely inhospitable to humans. And, unlike the Arctic regions, it had no indigenous population of humans when modern man arrived there. (Presumably because unlike the Arctic regions, getting to Antarctica involves a danger-fraught journey over the open ocean, and once you're there, it's just as hard to get back.) See: Antarctica has no indigenous population

What do we know about possible ancient (or at least not modern) human settlement in Antarctica - perhaps during pockets of time when there was less ice, or people somehow settling in the ice - human extremophiles, as it were? Or, to expand the possibilities somewhat, settlement by some of the pre-human hominids in very ancient times, when there was perhaps less ice? Are there myths and legends suggesting such a possibility? Any archaeological finds that might indicate such a thing? Maybe at least along the coastlines which are not continually buried in ice? Do those exploring Antarctica today concern themselves at all with such a possibility?

We do know that there were periods in Earth's history when Antarctica was not covered by ice and would have been quite habitable, (see Lennart Regebro's citation: A forest grows in Antarctica) so it does have some history of habitability, but that history dates at minimum to 3 million years ago based on that source, long before hominids capable of settling in Antarctica arose. So that period would not be relevant to the discussion. Also see: Antarctica was not always cold, dry and covered in ice sheets..

I have no 'conspiracy theory' agenda here - I am not suggesting, as some 'unorthodox...' (pseudo) researchers have, that there is some hidden secret civilization existing today in Antarctica that is the source of UFO's etc. That is nothing but science fiction IMO. I ask this question simply because it seems rather incredible to me, that although humans had already reached virtually every place on earth in prehistoric times, a whole continent existed that humans never reached. In recent times, we have learned so much about the scope and ingenuity of human life in ancient times and far flung corners of the earth, and so I wonder: Have we perhaps learned something about humans in Antarctica?

Can we say with a degree of certainty (i.e. barring some sudden, spectacular revolutionary discovery) that Antarctica is an entire continent untouched by humans until modern man arrived there in the early 19th century? See: The first documented landing on mainland Antarctica was by the American sealer John Davis in West Antarctica on 7 February 1821,

(I am looking for more than just additional references to the wiki page which I already read - we can all find things in wiki - my hope is that on this site we can delve deeper and further. IMO wiki should not have the final word in all our historical inquiries.)

Answer 1

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 Nothofagus 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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 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.

Answer 4

Patagonians reached the Falklands and Maoris settled Sub-Antartic Islands thus in one sense humans did reach the periphery of Antartica.

Answer 5

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