(Those rockin' cool Polynesians... )
Posted on 05/23/2022 9:22:49 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The discovery of pottery from the ancient Lapita culture by researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) has shed new light on how Papua New Guinea (PNG) served as a launching pad for the colonization of the Pacific—one of the greatest migrations in human history.
The new study makes clear the initial expansion of the Lapita people throughout PNG was far greater than previously thought.
The study... is based on the discovery of a distinctive Lapita pottery sherd, a broken piece of pottery with sharp edges, on Brooker Island (200km east of mainland PNG) in 2017 that lead researcher Dr. Ben Shaw said was "like finding a needle in a haystack".
"Lapita cultural groups were the first people to reach the remote Pacific islands such as Vanuatu around 3,000 years ago, but in PNG where people have lived for at least 50,000 years, the timing and extent of Lapita dispersals are poorly understood," Dr. Shaw said...
Lapita people introduced pottery to PNG that had distinct markings, and they also introduced new tool technologies and animals such as pigs. Through archaeological, linguistic and genetic research, it is now well understood that the first Pacific peoples migrated from an ancestral Asian homeland.
Later Lapita dispersals through PNG and interaction with indigenous populations profoundly influenced the region as a global center of cultural and linguistic diversity...
Dr. Shaw said Lapita people colonized the Pacific islands 3,000 years ago. He said this paper explains why they colonized the islands at this time and the role indigenous populations in New Guinea had in Lapita decisions to look for new islands to live on...
The research involved many ANU researchers and international collaborators who showed how migration pathways and island-hopping strategies culminated in rapid and purposeful Pacific-wide settlement.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Jefferson had Sally Hemmings. Gaugain had his alcohol as well as the young girls. Should the great ones be entitled to their vices even at the expense of others? Patton slapped the soldier. Plenty of others out there.
Iceland was too cold?
Because they were there?
Almost everybody dreams of life on a tropical isle...
Octopus lures from the Mariana Islands found to be oldest in the world
Study suggests the ancient Chamoru people may have been the inventors
NEWS RELEASE 28-JUL-2022
UNIVERSITY OF GUAM
Peer-Reviewed Publication
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/960308
4,000-year-old shell tool site found in Taiwan is oldest in Pacific
51 graves, including 10 slate sarcophagi with coral funerary objects found in Eluanbi Park
By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2022/07/28 16:04
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4609267
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