21 A Consilience of Evidence
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Spice Islands to east Africa. Migrations to New Zealand as to Madagascar required
the transference of skills from the West Pacific Warm Pool into colder waters.
Demographic evidence for an early settlement of New Zealand based on field
archaeology, world climate history and Moriori genealogies gives an estimate close
to 1400 BC for the first settlement of New Zealand. Historians have linked the establishment of the Cinnamon Route to the demand in the reign of Queen Hatshepsut
of Egypt for embalming spices which grew in the Spice Islands. We have pointed
out a hiatus in sailing the route between 1000 BC and 400 BC which limits first settlement in both Madagascar and New Zealand to before or after the global cold
period. Archaeological evidence establishes that Spice Island explorers reached
America before 1000 BC and again after 400 BC. Traditional histories record both
first- and second-wave migrations to Hawaii. The transoceanic distances from the
Spice Islands to east Africa and southern California are similar, the likelihood that
the Cinnamon Route was sailed before 1000 BC, given the spice-trading impetus,
considerable.
The predictable pattern of ocean currents, determined by the Coriolis effect,
dictated early exploration, trading and migration paths. It also dictated the Spice
Islanders’ exploration range and their technique for discovering new lands. We
have shown that an exploration strategy based on knowledge of how ocean currents behave in the presence of a landmass would have led to the easy discovery
of the largest islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. That the largest and best
uninhabited islands would have been colonized first regardless of distance logically
follows, given that there were fast warm currents to carry colonists to them. It is
hardly surprising that this migration sequence accords with a leap-frogging migration strategy shown to have been the pattern worldwide for major post-glacial land
migrations. And not surprising that, as on land, smaller and inferior lands, such as
those in Eastern Polynesia, would logically have been settled much later, given that
there were no convenient currents to carry migrants to them from the Spice Islands.
In Part I we present a consilience of evidence from many sources, both scientific
and traditional, that cumulatively validate the fulfilment of the predictions inherent
in our central paradigm: that Spice Island mariners would have followed three of the
four major currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool to their limits in two
oceans. And that they would have done so in two periods separated by the global
cold period from 1000 BC to 400 BC.
Science provides us with robust evidence for the validity of what many may
regard as the most extreme of these predictions: that Spice Islanders would have
followed the Kuro Shio Current as far as America before 1000 BC. Sorenson and
Johannessen’s evidence points to a range and frequency of transpacific voyaging
that could scarcely have been envisaged before they brought together scientific evidence from two evidence domains, botany and archaeology, to establish that 40
American plants were introduced to India between 1600 BC and about AD 1000.
Genetic evidence from the study of a Polynesian commensal animal, Rattus exulans, shows that Halmahera was the ancient Polynesian homeland and so invites
study of Pacific prehistory with a Spice Island base. Appreciation of the physiological research of Houghton relating to cold adaptation, combined with awareness
375
Spice Islands to east Africa. Migrations to New Zealand as to Madagascar required
the transference of skills from the West Pacific Warm Pool into colder waters.
Demographic evidence for an early settlement of New Zealand based on field
archaeology, world climate history and Moriori genealogies gives an estimate close
to 1400 BC for the first settlement of New Zealand. Historians have linked the establishment of the Cinnamon Route to the demand in the reign of Queen Hatshepsut
of Egypt for embalming spices which grew in the Spice Islands. We have pointed
out a hiatus in sailing the route between 1000 BC and 400 BC which limits first settlement in both Madagascar and New Zealand to before or after the global cold
period. Archaeological evidence establishes that Spice Island explorers reached
America before 1000 BC and again after 400 BC. Traditional histories record both
first- and second-wave migrations to Hawaii. The transoceanic distances from the
Spice Islands to east Africa and southern California are similar, the likelihood that
the Cinnamon Route was sailed before 1000 BC, given the spice-trading impetus,
considerable.
The predictable pattern of ocean currents, determined by the Coriolis effect,
dictated early exploration, trading and migration paths. It also dictated the Spice
Islanders’ exploration range and their technique for discovering new lands. We
have shown that an exploration strategy based on knowledge of how ocean currents behave in the presence of a landmass would have led to the easy discovery
of the largest islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. That the largest and best
uninhabited islands would have been colonized first regardless of distance logically
follows, given that there were fast warm currents to carry colonists to them. It is
hardly surprising that this migration sequence accords with a leap-frogging migration strategy shown to have been the pattern worldwide for major post-glacial land
migrations. And not surprising that, as on land, smaller and inferior lands, such as
those in Eastern Polynesia, would logically have been settled much later, given that
there were no convenient currents to carry migrants to them from the Spice Islands.
In Part I we present a consilience of evidence from many sources, both scientific
and traditional, that cumulatively validate the fulfilment of the predictions inherent
in our central paradigm: that Spice Island mariners would have followed three of the
four major currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool to their limits in two
oceans. And that they would have done so in two periods separated by the global
cold period from 1000 BC to 400 BC.
Science provides us with robust evidence for the validity of what many may
regard as the most extreme of these predictions: that Spice Islanders would have
followed the Kuro Shio Current as far as America before 1000 BC. Sorenson and
Johannessen’s evidence points to a range and frequency of transpacific voyaging
that could scarcely have been envisaged before they brought together scientific evidence from two evidence domains, botany and archaeology, to establish that 40
American plants were introduced to India between 1600 BC and about AD 1000.
Genetic evidence from the study of a Polynesian commensal animal, Rattus exulans, shows that Halmahera was the ancient Polynesian homeland and so invites
study of Pacific prehistory with a Spice Island base. Appreciation of the physiological research of Houghton relating to cold adaptation, combined with awareness