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Findings in Vanuatu Reveal Their Origin


Findings in Vanuatu Reveal Their Origin

Recent archaeological discoveries in Vanuatu and Tonga found human skeletons of 3,000 years old. They were sent separately to the Harvard Medical School in the United States and Max Planck Institute in Germany for DNA analyses and the researchers reached the same conclusion: the genetic origin of these skeletons is not related to the inhabitants of neighboring places including Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, but instead they come from the more distant Taiwan. This region, including present day Vanuatu and Tonga, must have been the transfer station of the Austronesian migratory journey in the Pacific Ocean. Austronesians’ voyages headed for Hawaii, New Zealand, and Tahiti had re-started their journey from here. This discovery has put to rest past controversies. The theory of “Out of Taiwan” can now be reaffirmed. Both Austronesians and Melanesians inhabited almost all of the Pacific Islands. Melanesians had arrived at the Pacific around 50,000 BCE, which is much earlier than the arrival date 3,000 BCE of the Austronesians. The Melanesians stayed mostly in Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Whereas the Bismarck Archipelago, including Vanuatu and Tonga, is located nearby and traditionally regarded as territory of Polynesians. Due to their locations and the morphological traits, the people of Vanuatu, Tonga and Samoa have red hair, similar to the Melanesian. The origin of these people became a controversial issue amongst anthropologists for centuries. Now the discovery in Vanuatu and Tonga revealed that their ancestors came from Taiwan and arrived there 3,000 years ago. Even the resemblance among the Ni-Vanuatus and Tongans to Melanesians are due to later mixing of the different groups to some extent. Another remarkable archaeological finding concerning the Bismarck Archipelago is the “Lapita culture” which was the pottery-making culture in prehistory. The Lapita culture might have originated from Taiwan and disperse to Oceania some 5,000 years ago. The Lapita burial pottery is similar to the red-slipped pottery of Taiwan; from this and other evidences from linguistics, all strongly support the “Out of Taiwan” theory. Furthermore the custom of putting skelton in the burial jar which was found in the Vanuatu discovery has also been found in Taiwan and is still performed up to today. The geographical location of Bismarck Archipelago is found in the middle of the Austronesian migration route. People departed from Taiwan 5,000 years ago did not always continue on the journey non-stop. There were some noticeable pauses, out of which the pause in Vanuatu and Tonga was about 1,000 years in duration. Then they started again to spread over eastern Polynesia, for example the Hawaiians, Maoris of New Zealand and Rapa Nui of Easter Islands all come from there. The importance of the Vanuatu discovery not only ascertained the origin of Polynesians but also resolved century-long debates. It’s a milestone in Austronesian study, it also erects an unique case study on human migration. Additionally we must look back to 1985, as ANU archaeologist, Dr. Peter Bellwood had already mentioned that the Lapita culture had roots in farming cultures in East Asia. Now the DNA analysis of the Vanuatu discovery has got the same conclusion as his proposal. Finally Dr. Bellwood was pleased to say “All the evidence from different disciplines has come together, the genomics has clinched it.” After 30 years passing his theory of “Out of Taiwan” got even more support.

The theory of “Out of Taiwan” is mainly based on the evidences of comparative linguistics; there's big difference between Austronesian and Melanesian languages, and the evidences of archaeological findings such as the Lapita culture. But in the field of anthropology there exist arguments for the origin of Bismarck Islanders. Such arguments are like a missing piece of a puzzle game. After the Vanuatu discovery, the missing piece has been found and the game will be over eventually.

A skull from a 3,000 year old secondary burial at a funerary site in Vanuatu that is the source of ancient DNA samples analysed in this study. Image Credit: Australian National University

Region where Lapita pottery has been found

Quotes from media about this discovery:

Dr. Stuart Bedford said "this is a truly remarkable discovery. Debates relating to the origins of Pacific Islanders have been on-going literally for centuries and particularly those relating to Lapita peoples, those who first colonised islands from Vanuatu across to Tonga. It demonstrates the enormous potential for these sorts of studies but these data have already provided an extremely important piece of the puzzle."

Writing in the journal Nature, Dr David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, said: ‘Our study has shown that many of the first humans in remote Oceania had little, if any, Papuan ancestry, in stark contrast to the situation today.

Professor Matthew Spriggs, an archaeologist at the Australian National University who was one of the co-authors of the research, said it provides new insights into these people’s ancestry. He told MailOnline: ‘In this new paper we have basically cracked the problem of the origin of Pacific Islanders, often posed as the 'origin of the Polynesians'. ‘Some archaeologists such as myself have argued that the Lapita culture of the Western Pacific is primarily the easterly expansion of the Island SE Asian Neolithic, that originates in Taiwan perhaps 5500 years ago as pottery using farmers. ‘It then spreads through the Philippines and Eastern Indonesia shortly after 4000 years ago, and just over 3000 years ago appears in the Western Pacific as the Lapita culture. ‘This spreads from the islands off New Guinea's eastern end through Solomons, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and on to Tonga and Samoa. There is then a major pause until just over 1000 years ago in Western Polynesia before descendant groups spread to places such as Hawaii, Easter Island and finally to New Zealand about 700 years ago.’

-------MailOnline

An ultimate Southeast Asian origin of the Lapita complex is assumed by most scholars, perhaps originating from the Austronesians in Taiwan or southern China some 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. This Neolithic dispersal was driven by a rapid population growth in east and southeast Asia (Formosa), and has often been called 'the express-train to Polynesia'. Burial pottery similar to "red slip" pottery of Taiwan, as well as detailed linguistic evidence,seem to lend support to this theory.

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