Prehistoric maritime migration in the Pacific islands: an hypothesis of ENSO forcing
Date
2006
Authors
Anderson, Atholl
Chappell, John
Gagan, Michael
Grove, Richard
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sage Publications Inc
Abstract
Long-distance human migration across the Pacific Ocean occurred during the late Holocene and originated almost entirely in the west. As prevailing tradewinds blow from the east, the mechanisms of prehistoric seafaring have been debated since the sixteenth century. Inadequacies in propositions of accidental or opportunistic drifting on occasional westerlies were exposed by early computer simulation. Experimental voyaging in large, fast, weatherly (windward-sailing) double-canoes, together with computer simulation incorporating canoe performance data and modern, averaged, wind conditions, has supported the traditional notion of intentional passage-making in a widely accepted hypothesis of upwind migration by strategic voyaging. The critical assumption that maritime technology and sailing conditions were effectively the same prehistorically as in the historical and modern records is, however, open to question. We propose here that maritime technology during the late-Holocene migrations did not permit windward sailing, and show that the episodic pattern of initial island colonization, which is disclosed in recent archaeological data, matches periods of reversal in wind direction toward westerlies, as inferred from the millennial-scale history of ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation).
Description
Keywords
Keywords: El Nino-Southern Oscillation; Holocene; human settlement; migration route; wind field; Pacific islands; Pacific Ocean; Polynesia Colonization pattern; ENSO (El Nio-Southern Oscillation); Late Holocene; Pacific; Prehistoric seafaring; Remote Oceania; Wind reversals
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Source
Holocene
Type
Journal article
Book Title
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2037-12-31