Studies Prove People Of Madagascar Came From Borneo And Africa

Mongabay ^ | 7-10-2005 | MongaBay

[blam]

I'm thinking some kind of natural disaster compelled these people to make this trip. Any Ideas?

[blam]

GGG Ping.

Being in the jaws of a large hurricane is no excuse not to make GGG posts.

[Tax Government]

A volcano or tsunami might have gotten them thinking about new places to live.

Or, maybe they knew of the destination in advance from other travelers and thought it would be better.

Or, maybe the leader was crazy and commanded them to build a thousand boats.

[ReadyNow]

Even though the Africa coast is only one-twentieth of the distance to Indonesia, it appears that migrations from Africa may have been more limited, as less of the diversity seen in the source population has survived in Madagascar.

One wonders why the Africans weren't able to make the short journey to Madagascar.

[blam]

"A volcano or tsunami might have gotten them thinking about new places to live. "

I think there was an asteroid or comet swarm impacting in that time frame but, I'm not going looking for it now.

[Pittsburg Phil]

Who the hell cares where they came from as long as they don't end up here.

[blam]

"A volcano or tsunami might have gotten them thinking about new places to live. "

I think there was an asteroid or comet swarm impacting in that time frame but, I'm not going looking for it now.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

Being in the jaws of a large hurricane is no excuse not to make GGG posts.

Not even an excuse to migrate to Madagascar, but get rowin'. :')

Archaeological evidence suggests that this settlement was as recent as 1500 years ago - about the time the Saxons invaded Britain.

That figures. The damned Saxons probably invaded Borneo, too, and the Borneans had to paddle out of there, winding up in Madagascar.

I know what your thinkin', I know what you're thinkin'...

Sundaland? If it ever happened, it was too long ago to account for this.

My wild guess is that it's somehow related to the Polynesian expansion. Another possibility is that centuries before that, perhaps during the heyday of Greece and Rome, a population was transplanted for commercial reasons, perhaps to the eastern coast of Egypt, in the same way that a Tamil population was brought there, or came over on its own. Later, say, in the 7th century, they fled the rise of Islam. Shows they've got sense.

The gorilla-sized lemur species (and some other large mammals) went extinct shortly after the arrival of ancestors of the current human population. I do find it odd that such a large island hadn't been settled before, but then, perhaps it had, and no one has dug deep enough yet to find it.

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[SunkenCiv]

Someone named Kurt Saxon has posted the entire text of this cheesy old garage sale paperback, from the 1950s, which nevertheless is based on actual records modern and ancient:

Those About To Die
Chapter XI
by Daniel P. Mannix

There were also man-sized apes called tityrus with round faces, reddish color and whiskers. Pictures of them appear on vases and they were apparently orangutans, imported from Indonesia. As far as I know, the Romans never exhibited gorillas although these biggest of all apes were known to the Phoenicians, who gave them their present name which means "hairy savage."

[Graymatter]

A volcano or tsunami might have gotten them thinking about new places to live.

My theory is that it was something even more formidable: a man with an idee fixe.

As for Sundaland...'Sundawater.

[blam]

"My wild guess is that it's somehow related to the Polynesian expansion. "

This is about the time of the Dark Ages. Remember Mike Baillie (and others) believe the Dark Ages was caused by the earth being hit by a comet/asteroid swarm. The Dark Ages were worldwide.

[Verginius Rufus]

From a book published in 1977: "It is now believed that the inhabitants of Madagascar are descendants of settlers from present-day Indonesia (perhaps the island of Borneo), who arrived between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago."

The channel between Africa and Madagascar is comparable in width to the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and North Africa...the inhabitants of mainland Africa had no idea there was a major landmass beyond the horizon. The Malayo-Polynesian population got there first, and later imported people from the mainland, which is why there is African DNA but no African languages among the people of Madagascar. Something similar happened with the Cape Verde Islands.

[blam]

"The Malayo-Polynesian population got there first, and later imported people from the mainland, which is why there is African DNA but no African languages among the people of Madagascar."

Seems like the most reasonable explanation to me.

[SunkenCiv]

David Keys claims that a volcanic eruption is responsible for the "Dark Ages", and Borneo is fairly close to where he claims the eruption took place. Not that I buy that of course. :')

[SunkenCiv]

Tamil Trade
INTAMM | 1997 | Xavier S. Thani Nayagam
Posted on 09/11/2004 8:07:01 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1213591/posts

[Question_Assumptions]

Who the hell cares where they came from as long as they don't end up here.

I'm sure the American Indians felt the same way about the Europeans. And the pre-Clovis population of the Americas probably felt the same way when the American Indians showed up. And so on.

[Question_Assumptions]

One wonders why the Africans weren't able to make the short journey to Madagascar.

They didn't have a seafaring culture because they didn't live on a bunch of islands like the Indonesians. If you don't already have a seafaring culture that can navigate across open ocean, 250 miles is not a short journey, especially if you don't know Madigascar is out there.

[ReadyNow]

They had a pretty hard time getting across their creeks and rivers, according to what I've read. Just didn't dig boats.

[zimdog]

they mostly used canoes and rafts, which were better for wide and seasonally shallow rivers than boats. no trouble getting across.

[SunkenCiv]

An Ancient Link To Africa Lives On In Bay Of Bengal
The New York Times | 12-10-2002 | Nicholas Wade
Posted on 12/10/2002 1:09:21 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/804257/posts