5.2 Some Evidence for a First-Wave Spice Island Colony in Southern Japan
89
second-wave contact with America before 1000 BC and after AD 300. In Chapter
8 we consider correlated botanical and archaeological evidence for the introduction
of indigenous American plants to India between 1600 BC and about AD 1000 and
discuss the possibility that Spice Island mariners may have been responsible for
trading these plants across two oceans.
5.2 Some Evidence for a First-Wave Spice Island Colony
in Southern Japan
J. Stephen Athens and Jerome Ward present palaeo-environmental evidence for initial colonization of Palau in western Micronesia during the middle fifth or even
the sixth millennium BP. The earliest documented significant changes in pollen
disturbance indicators and charcoal particle concentrations from Palau palaeoenvironmental cores give dates for Babeldaob Island of around 4,200–4,300 cal. BP
and for the smaller Ngerekebesang Island of 5,364 and 5,755 cal. BP [1]. Athens
and Ward note that the dates indicating first settlement are “900 to 2300 years earlier than suggested by the earliest possible archaeological evidence” (p. 165). They
are also 2,300 years earlier than the first Lapita settlements in Near Oceania and the
probable earliest date for the establishment of the Cinnamon Route and first settlement of Madagascar. But they are more than a thousand years later than the earliest
date Lamb cited for the undersea volcanic activity that led to higher SSTs within the
WPWP and that we suggest led to the Spice Islanders’ adoption of the WPWP as a
long-distance voyaging nursery.
The suggestion that Palau may have been colonized as a rest and supply station
on a trading route to Japan is not unreasonable, but finding archaeological evidence
to support this is unlikely. There is, however, genetic evidence which supports the
possibility of an early Spice Island colony in southern Japan: thereis evidence for a
significant Indonesian genetic contribution to modern Japanese mitochondrial DNA
[2]. A long time for genetic interaction with an established Japanese population
would be required to allow for a significant Indonesian contribution of modern
Japanese maternal DNA. As Spice Island colonists in any era would have been joining an established Japanese population, their genes could have made only a small
contribution to the Japanese gene pool. But the earlier this contribution, the smaller
the Japanese population would have been, and so the higher the percentage of Spice
Island genes in the modern southern Japanese population. We suggest that the time
required would be far greater than could be explained solely by the establishment of
a second-wave colony in the Yayoi period (300 BC–AD 300).
Logically, given the importance of high SSTs for reducing the risks of hypothermia, a spice-trading route to Japan is the most likely early oceanic (as opposed to
coastal) trading route to have been first followed by Spice Island mariners and, of
the four major WPWP currents, the Kuro Shio Current is the most likely current
to have been chosen as their first major exploration and migration path. For the
route to Japan via Micronesia lies almost wholly within the WPWP, avoiding cooler
89
second-wave contact with America before 1000 BC and after AD 300. In Chapter
8 we consider correlated botanical and archaeological evidence for the introduction
of indigenous American plants to India between 1600 BC and about AD 1000 and
discuss the possibility that Spice Island mariners may have been responsible for
trading these plants across two oceans.
5.2 Some Evidence for a First-Wave Spice Island Colony
in Southern Japan
J. Stephen Athens and Jerome Ward present palaeo-environmental evidence for initial colonization of Palau in western Micronesia during the middle fifth or even
the sixth millennium BP. The earliest documented significant changes in pollen
disturbance indicators and charcoal particle concentrations from Palau palaeoenvironmental cores give dates for Babeldaob Island of around 4,200–4,300 cal. BP
and for the smaller Ngerekebesang Island of 5,364 and 5,755 cal. BP [1]. Athens
and Ward note that the dates indicating first settlement are “900 to 2300 years earlier than suggested by the earliest possible archaeological evidence” (p. 165). They
are also 2,300 years earlier than the first Lapita settlements in Near Oceania and the
probable earliest date for the establishment of the Cinnamon Route and first settlement of Madagascar. But they are more than a thousand years later than the earliest
date Lamb cited for the undersea volcanic activity that led to higher SSTs within the
WPWP and that we suggest led to the Spice Islanders’ adoption of the WPWP as a
long-distance voyaging nursery.
The suggestion that Palau may have been colonized as a rest and supply station
on a trading route to Japan is not unreasonable, but finding archaeological evidence
to support this is unlikely. There is, however, genetic evidence which supports the
possibility of an early Spice Island colony in southern Japan: thereis evidence for a
significant Indonesian genetic contribution to modern Japanese mitochondrial DNA
[2]. A long time for genetic interaction with an established Japanese population
would be required to allow for a significant Indonesian contribution of modern
Japanese maternal DNA. As Spice Island colonists in any era would have been joining an established Japanese population, their genes could have made only a small
contribution to the Japanese gene pool. But the earlier this contribution, the smaller
the Japanese population would have been, and so the higher the percentage of Spice
Island genes in the modern southern Japanese population. We suggest that the time
required would be far greater than could be explained solely by the establishment of
a second-wave colony in the Yayoi period (300 BC–AD 300).
Logically, given the importance of high SSTs for reducing the risks of hypothermia, a spice-trading route to Japan is the most likely early oceanic (as opposed to
coastal) trading route to have been first followed by Spice Island mariners and, of
the four major WPWP currents, the Kuro Shio Current is the most likely current
to have been chosen as their first major exploration and migration path. For the
route to Japan via Micronesia lies almost wholly within the WPWP, avoiding cooler