While Dutch commander Jakob Roggeveen gets most of the credit for “discovering” Easter Island, that’s not entirely true. For one thing, Polynesian explorers are believed to have first settled the island as early as 1200 AD. Now, a new genomic study led by researchers from the University of Denmark suggests that Easter Island’s settlers had contact with the Americas long before Roggeveen’s 1722 voyage.

The findings are a reminder that “early human populations extensively explored the planet,” says Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas from the Natural History Museum of Denmark’s Centre for GeoGenetics. “Textbook versions of human colonization events — the peopling of the Americas, for example — need to be re-evaluated utilizing genomic data.”

A population of between 30 and 100 Polynesian men, women and children are believed to have settled on Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui) around 1200 AD, where they quickly got to work constructing the island’s famous statues. However, it didn’t take long for them to branch out, either – researchers have found evidence of crops native to the Americas in Polynesia long before the first European contact.

In the latest study, genetic analysis of 27 native Rapanui suggests that contact between Native Americans and Polynesians came early and often – evidence of interbreeding goes back as far as 23 generations to 1300 AD. Breeding with Europeans was later (about 1850), but much more prolific: The genetic makeup of today’s Rapanui is 76% Polynesian, 8% Native American and 16% European.

The researchers believe it’s more likely that the Rapanui were traveling to the Americas, not vice versa. For one thing, Polynesians were known for their sailing and navigating abilities. It’s also helpful that America is a tremendously large target on an outgoing voyage compared to Easter Island, which is easy to miss (after all, it took European settlers a long time to find it).

“All sailing voyages heading intentionally east from Rapa Nui would always reach the Americas, with a trip lasting from two weeks to approximately two months,” wrote the authors.