No previous human occupation of Norfolk Island was suspected until the first European settlement’s commanding officer, Lt. Philip Gidley King, discovered a type of banana growing near the first settlement site in 1788. Soon after, the remains of a canoe was found inland. And again later still, evidence of cultivation and the working of stone tools (“chizzles”) was discovered in the interior of the island.
It wasn’t until late in the 20th century that professional archaeologists found a positively identifiable Polynesian village structure near the Kingston foreshore.
See attached photo.