The Peopling of the Pacific

Abstract

The peopling of the Pacific was the greatest feat of maritime colonization in human history. If one begins at the beginning and chooses to trace all the movements of its major actors, the record spans perhaps two million years in time and extends beyond the Pacific proper as far west as Madagascar and as far north as mainland China above the Tropic of Cancer. Its main arena, however, consists of the islands of Southeast Asia, the subcontinent of Australia and its island neighbors, and the great ocean reaches of what today are called Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Its first maritime phase was well under way 40,000 years ago. By then certain hunter-gatherers had managed to cross a minimum of 70 kilometers of open water to settle Australia and New Guinea. Show more