Chapter 1
Introduction
Abstract Chapter 1 offers an overview of the central argument of the book: that
Spice Island mariners, following three of the four major fast warm currents flowing
out of what oceanographers call the West Pacific Warm Pool, were able to traverse
vast ocean distances. In two periods, separated by a global cold period between 1000
BC and 400 BC, they followed these currents west to Madagascar and east Africa,
north to Japan, Hawaii and America and south to New Zealand. Exploiting powerful
WPWP currents made possible a history of exploration and settlement in two oceans
pursued over millennia by Spice Island maritime traders and their descendants. This
history and its oceanographic base are the primary focus of the book.
Keywords Genetics · Oceanography · Wallacean homeland · Cold adaptation ·
West Pacific Warm Pool · Consilience of evidence
1.1 Introduction
Oceanic Migration is a study of the last migrations involved in the peopling of the
planet: the prehistoric peopling of the Pacific. It is novel in two respects. It uses
science and mathematics (much of it drawn from outside the range usually called
upon by archaeologists and prehistorians) to significantly expand the research base
of Pacific prehistory and cast new light on this final human expansion. It focuses on
two undeveloped areas of research: exploring the fundamental roles of oceanography and of global climate change in determining the paths, sequence, timing and
range of migrations that settled islands stretching across a quarter of the globe –
from Madagascar in the west to Easter Island in the east, from Hawaii in the north
to New Zealand in the south.
Though the book belongs centrally to the field of Pacific prehistory, it can also be
seen as interdisciplinary (science meets prehistory). A belief in the enabling power
of science to initiate advances in other disciplines prompted its writing. In the last
decade genetic research has established Wallacea and, within Wallacea, Halmahera,
the largest of the Spice Islands, as the ancient Polynesian homeland. This finding
3
C.E.M. Pearce, F.M. Pearce, Oceanic Migration,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3826-5_1, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Introduction
Abstract Chapter 1 offers an overview of the central argument of the book: that
Spice Island mariners, following three of the four major fast warm currents flowing
out of what oceanographers call the West Pacific Warm Pool, were able to traverse
vast ocean distances. In two periods, separated by a global cold period between 1000
BC and 400 BC, they followed these currents west to Madagascar and east Africa,
north to Japan, Hawaii and America and south to New Zealand. Exploiting powerful
WPWP currents made possible a history of exploration and settlement in two oceans
pursued over millennia by Spice Island maritime traders and their descendants. This
history and its oceanographic base are the primary focus of the book.
Keywords Genetics · Oceanography · Wallacean homeland · Cold adaptation ·
West Pacific Warm Pool · Consilience of evidence
1.1 Introduction
Oceanic Migration is a study of the last migrations involved in the peopling of the
planet: the prehistoric peopling of the Pacific. It is novel in two respects. It uses
science and mathematics (much of it drawn from outside the range usually called
upon by archaeologists and prehistorians) to significantly expand the research base
of Pacific prehistory and cast new light on this final human expansion. It focuses on
two undeveloped areas of research: exploring the fundamental roles of oceanography and of global climate change in determining the paths, sequence, timing and
range of migrations that settled islands stretching across a quarter of the globe –
from Madagascar in the west to Easter Island in the east, from Hawaii in the north
to New Zealand in the south.
Though the book belongs centrally to the field of Pacific prehistory, it can also be
seen as interdisciplinary (science meets prehistory). A belief in the enabling power
of science to initiate advances in other disciplines prompted its writing. In the last
decade genetic research has established Wallacea and, within Wallacea, Halmahera,
the largest of the Spice Islands, as the ancient Polynesian homeland. This finding
3
C.E.M. Pearce, F.M. Pearce, Oceanic Migration,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3826-5_1, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010