1.4 A New Focus
7
1.4 A New Focus
Oceanic Migration charts new territory by exploring in some depth the historical,
oceanographic, genetic and maritime implications of a Spice Island origin for the
so-called Lapita peoples and for their Polynesian descendants. For those living
on Halmahera and in the northern islands of the Spice Island archipelago, sailing activities, even during the last Ice Age, would have been carried out on the
borders of or just within the West Pacific Warm Pool. Its high sea surface temperatures would have provided Spice Island mariners with significant protection against
hypothermia. Indeed the West Pacific Warm Pool might be thought of as an Ice
Age maritime refuge, its seasonally shifting boundaries determining trade paths and
seasonal trading possibilities during the Ice Age.
But of greater significance and central to this book was our realization that in
the Holocene (the warm climate period that followed the Ice Age about 11,000
years ago) the West Pacific Warm Pool could have played an even greater role in
shaping Spice Island maritime history. We realized that the oceanographic and volcanic history of the West Pacific Warm Pool, following the last Ice Age flood 7,500
years ago, may have determined the earliest trading and migration paths of the Spice
Island mariners as they moved out from their maritime Ice Age refuge. Specifically
the location of the Spice Islands on the borders of the West Pacific Warm Pool suggested the possibility that Spice Island mariners as explorers and traders may have
followed major fast warm currents flowing out from the West Pacific Warm Pool
into the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
In the last 50 years archaeological research has largely focussed on the so-called
Lapita peoples, on the Lapita cultural complex and on unravelling the complexities
of the late west–east colonization of Eastern Polynesia from Western Polynesia.
These have been obvious foci for research for archaeologists and prehistorians since
the first discovery of ceramic pots at Lapita in New Caledonia in 1952. Our focus is
very different. Exploring the implications of a Pacific prehistory with a Spice Island
base and a very considerable time depth has led to a new assessment of factors that
may have determined not only the genetic profile of Polynesians but also the earliest
sailing and exploration strategies, and associated trading and migration paths and
migration sequence.
Oceanic Migration is the first prehistory of the Pacific to be written with the
Spice Islands seen not only as an initial but also as a later major base for expansion into the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This contrasts with the long-held belief that
Taiwan, Near Oceania and then Western Polynesia were the consecutive and only
bases for expansion into the Pacific. A very different understanding of the earliest
exploration and migration paths follows from our adoption of this new focus. We
are able, for example, to tie the main Spice Island exploration, trading and migration paths to three of the four major currents flowing through and out of the West
Pacific Warm Pool, to show the economic motivation of spice trading as persistently
driving Spice Island maritime expansions following these currents and to tie the
technological developments needed to empower successive expansions to specific
changes in oceanographic conditions within the West Pacific Warm Pool.
7
1.4 A New Focus
Oceanic Migration charts new territory by exploring in some depth the historical,
oceanographic, genetic and maritime implications of a Spice Island origin for the
so-called Lapita peoples and for their Polynesian descendants. For those living
on Halmahera and in the northern islands of the Spice Island archipelago, sailing activities, even during the last Ice Age, would have been carried out on the
borders of or just within the West Pacific Warm Pool. Its high sea surface temperatures would have provided Spice Island mariners with significant protection against
hypothermia. Indeed the West Pacific Warm Pool might be thought of as an Ice
Age maritime refuge, its seasonally shifting boundaries determining trade paths and
seasonal trading possibilities during the Ice Age.
But of greater significance and central to this book was our realization that in
the Holocene (the warm climate period that followed the Ice Age about 11,000
years ago) the West Pacific Warm Pool could have played an even greater role in
shaping Spice Island maritime history. We realized that the oceanographic and volcanic history of the West Pacific Warm Pool, following the last Ice Age flood 7,500
years ago, may have determined the earliest trading and migration paths of the Spice
Island mariners as they moved out from their maritime Ice Age refuge. Specifically
the location of the Spice Islands on the borders of the West Pacific Warm Pool suggested the possibility that Spice Island mariners as explorers and traders may have
followed major fast warm currents flowing out from the West Pacific Warm Pool
into the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
In the last 50 years archaeological research has largely focussed on the so-called
Lapita peoples, on the Lapita cultural complex and on unravelling the complexities
of the late west–east colonization of Eastern Polynesia from Western Polynesia.
These have been obvious foci for research for archaeologists and prehistorians since
the first discovery of ceramic pots at Lapita in New Caledonia in 1952. Our focus is
very different. Exploring the implications of a Pacific prehistory with a Spice Island
base and a very considerable time depth has led to a new assessment of factors that
may have determined not only the genetic profile of Polynesians but also the earliest
sailing and exploration strategies, and associated trading and migration paths and
migration sequence.
Oceanic Migration is the first prehistory of the Pacific to be written with the
Spice Islands seen not only as an initial but also as a later major base for expansion into the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This contrasts with the long-held belief that
Taiwan, Near Oceania and then Western Polynesia were the consecutive and only
bases for expansion into the Pacific. A very different understanding of the earliest
exploration and migration paths follows from our adoption of this new focus. We
are able, for example, to tie the main Spice Island exploration, trading and migration paths to three of the four major currents flowing through and out of the West
Pacific Warm Pool, to show the economic motivation of spice trading as persistently
driving Spice Island maritime expansions following these currents and to tie the
technological developments needed to empower successive expansions to specific
changes in oceanographic conditions within the West Pacific Warm Pool.