4
1 Introduction
challenges the accepted paradigm of a Taiwanese origin for the Polynesian peoples. Initially we were tempted by the challenge of rewriting Polynesian prehistory
with a Spice Island base. Taking on this challenge, however, led us on a journey of
discovery scarcely imagined at the outset.
In this chapter we can only sketch the central argument of the book. Discussion
of the existing literature and complex substantiation of our claims is provided in the
20 chapters that follow. Because our approach is new and often depends on areas
of science that may be unfamiliar to some readers, we have sought in the course of
the book to provide substantiation in a systematic way, moving chapter by chapter
from one scientific or historical focus to the next. Substantiation is cumulative and
complex. It draws on insights from fields as diverse as oceanography, traditional histories, physiology, genetics, geology and vulcanology, ship hydrodynamics, global
climate history and palaeodemography.
Conceiving of Wallacea as the ancient Polynesian homeland has immediate
implications. In Wallacea lie the Spice Island archipelago and the island of Sulawesi.
This ocean area has significance geologically and for the history of evolution: within
it also lies Wallace’s Line, the deep ocean trench that separates Asia from the
Pacific, an ocean barrier ensuring the independent evolution of species in the two
regions. The pivotal position of Wallacea between these two regions made it a natural place for the domestication of plants and animals drawn from both regions, for
their maritime dispersal to Island Southeast Asia and beyond and for their ultimate
translocation east into the Pacific and as far west as Africa.
Halmahera is the largest of the Spice Islands. In contexts involving foreign
exploitation of spices, the term Spice Islands sometimes refers only to the five tiny
clove-growing islands that lie off the western coast of Halmahera. We use the term
to refer to the whole Spice Island archipelago, an archipelago of a thousand islands,
its islands from their earliest occupation unusually interdependent and their histories
interconnected.
Contemplating a 40,000-year-long indigenous maritime history for the ancestors
of the Polynesians in the Spice Islands, we realized that the first 30,000 years of
this history would have been played out during the last Ice Age. And that where
today we see the Spice Islands as lying at the edge of the 17,000 islands of Island
Southeast Asia, for most of their inhabited history the Spice Islands formed a singular archipelago poised between the two ancient continents of Sundaland and Sahul.
(It was only 7,500 years ago, after the last Ice Age flood drowned Sundaland, that
Island Southeast Asia was created from the mountainous regions and uplands of this
drowned continent.) Exploring the long indigenous maritime history of the ancient
Spice Island archipelago not only led us to realize the genetic and maritime implications of a Spice Island base for Polynesian prehistory, but also and more importantly
led us to consider the oceanographic implications of the Spice Islands as a base for
oceanic migration and for transoceanic trading in two oceans.
In particular it led us to study the oceanographic and volcanic history of what
oceanographers call the West Pacific Warm Pool. For even during the last Ice Age
the northern Spice Islands lay within or close to its borders. Understanding the
history of the West Pacific Warm Pool we found was necessary not only for an
1 Introduction
challenges the accepted paradigm of a Taiwanese origin for the Polynesian peoples. Initially we were tempted by the challenge of rewriting Polynesian prehistory
with a Spice Island base. Taking on this challenge, however, led us on a journey of
discovery scarcely imagined at the outset.
In this chapter we can only sketch the central argument of the book. Discussion
of the existing literature and complex substantiation of our claims is provided in the
20 chapters that follow. Because our approach is new and often depends on areas
of science that may be unfamiliar to some readers, we have sought in the course of
the book to provide substantiation in a systematic way, moving chapter by chapter
from one scientific or historical focus to the next. Substantiation is cumulative and
complex. It draws on insights from fields as diverse as oceanography, traditional histories, physiology, genetics, geology and vulcanology, ship hydrodynamics, global
climate history and palaeodemography.
Conceiving of Wallacea as the ancient Polynesian homeland has immediate
implications. In Wallacea lie the Spice Island archipelago and the island of Sulawesi.
This ocean area has significance geologically and for the history of evolution: within
it also lies Wallace’s Line, the deep ocean trench that separates Asia from the
Pacific, an ocean barrier ensuring the independent evolution of species in the two
regions. The pivotal position of Wallacea between these two regions made it a natural place for the domestication of plants and animals drawn from both regions, for
their maritime dispersal to Island Southeast Asia and beyond and for their ultimate
translocation east into the Pacific and as far west as Africa.
Halmahera is the largest of the Spice Islands. In contexts involving foreign
exploitation of spices, the term Spice Islands sometimes refers only to the five tiny
clove-growing islands that lie off the western coast of Halmahera. We use the term
to refer to the whole Spice Island archipelago, an archipelago of a thousand islands,
its islands from their earliest occupation unusually interdependent and their histories
interconnected.
Contemplating a 40,000-year-long indigenous maritime history for the ancestors
of the Polynesians in the Spice Islands, we realized that the first 30,000 years of
this history would have been played out during the last Ice Age. And that where
today we see the Spice Islands as lying at the edge of the 17,000 islands of Island
Southeast Asia, for most of their inhabited history the Spice Islands formed a singular archipelago poised between the two ancient continents of Sundaland and Sahul.
(It was only 7,500 years ago, after the last Ice Age flood drowned Sundaland, that
Island Southeast Asia was created from the mountainous regions and uplands of this
drowned continent.) Exploring the long indigenous maritime history of the ancient
Spice Island archipelago not only led us to realize the genetic and maritime implications of a Spice Island base for Polynesian prehistory, but also and more importantly
led us to consider the oceanographic implications of the Spice Islands as a base for
oceanic migration and for transoceanic trading in two oceans.
In particular it led us to study the oceanographic and volcanic history of what
oceanographers call the West Pacific Warm Pool. For even during the last Ice Age
the northern Spice Islands lay within or close to its borders. Understanding the
history of the West Pacific Warm Pool we found was necessary not only for an