46
3 The Oceanographic Context
3.5 The West Pacific Warm Pool as a Long-Distance
Voyaging Nursery
The next stage in the developing pattern of regional maritime trading and sophistication that we have been considering would have been expansion from regional
trading over moderate distances to long-distance and international trading involving far greater distances. There is archaeological evidence that by 6,000 years ago
such a progression had already occurred. We shall examine this archaeological evidence shortly. First, however, we focus on oceanographic evidence for a possible
specific impetus for this change in trading range and maritime sophistication. The
impetus belongs to a period at most only a thousand years before that suggested by
archaeological evidence for the change to long-distance regional and international
maritime trading. It appears that the trigger for a dramatic increase in maritime trading range and in the evolution of maritime technologies followed the last Ice Age
flood 7,500 years ago, for there were dramatic changes to the WPWP after this flood.
These changes appear to explain the archaeologically sudden evolution in the Spice
Islands about 6,000 years ago not only of new maritime skills and technologies but
also of new sailing and exploration strategies and boat design.
The maritime history of the Spice Islands in the last 14,000 years was shaped
by catastrophic events. Three Ice Age floods, triggered by ice melt in the warmer
conditions that followed the Ice Age, together raised sea levels by 120 m and completely changed the geography of the world in which the Spice Islanders had lived
for over 30,000 years. As we have noted, before the last Ice Age flood 7,500 years
ago, the Spice Islands lay between two ancient continents, Sundaland and Sahul
(see Fig. 3.4). Sundaland, to the west of the Spice Islands, included Malaysia, Island
Southeast Asia and Indo-China and all the lands between which now lie under the
South China Sea, the Java Sea and the Gulf of Thailand [11]. Sahul to the east
included New Guinea, mainland Australia and Tasmania. Wallace’s Line, the deep
ocean trench named after the English biologist George Wallace, separated the two
ancient continents.
Sea levels had been rising globally since the continental ice sheets first began
melting about 14,000 years ago. But 7,500 years ago the remainder of the vast
Laurentian ice sheet broke up suddenly and sent ice crashing and driving into the
Atlantic Ocean through the Gulf of St Lawrence in Canada. As huge islands of ice
melted, world sea levels rose dramatically, reaching a level 120 m above that at
the Last Glacial Maximum. Low coastal lands worldwide were submerged. Coastal
cultures were destroyed as tidal waves were triggered by the shift of weight on the
Earth’s tectonic plates following the transfer of frozen water from land to sea. Great
strips of the flat continental shelves along the coasts of China and Australia disappeared under the ocean. Sundaland was drowned. The higher land and mountain
peaks of that ancient continent formed the archipelago of 17,000 islands we now
know as Island Southeast Asia. Deluge legends worldwide record the catastrophic
loss of life that followed this last flood.
In Australia aboriginal legends tell of the flooding of Bass Strait which now separates Tasmania from the mainland; from Mesopotamia we have flood stories centred
3 The Oceanographic Context
3.5 The West Pacific Warm Pool as a Long-Distance
Voyaging Nursery
The next stage in the developing pattern of regional maritime trading and sophistication that we have been considering would have been expansion from regional
trading over moderate distances to long-distance and international trading involving far greater distances. There is archaeological evidence that by 6,000 years ago
such a progression had already occurred. We shall examine this archaeological evidence shortly. First, however, we focus on oceanographic evidence for a possible
specific impetus for this change in trading range and maritime sophistication. The
impetus belongs to a period at most only a thousand years before that suggested by
archaeological evidence for the change to long-distance regional and international
maritime trading. It appears that the trigger for a dramatic increase in maritime trading range and in the evolution of maritime technologies followed the last Ice Age
flood 7,500 years ago, for there were dramatic changes to the WPWP after this flood.
These changes appear to explain the archaeologically sudden evolution in the Spice
Islands about 6,000 years ago not only of new maritime skills and technologies but
also of new sailing and exploration strategies and boat design.
The maritime history of the Spice Islands in the last 14,000 years was shaped
by catastrophic events. Three Ice Age floods, triggered by ice melt in the warmer
conditions that followed the Ice Age, together raised sea levels by 120 m and completely changed the geography of the world in which the Spice Islanders had lived
for over 30,000 years. As we have noted, before the last Ice Age flood 7,500 years
ago, the Spice Islands lay between two ancient continents, Sundaland and Sahul
(see Fig. 3.4). Sundaland, to the west of the Spice Islands, included Malaysia, Island
Southeast Asia and Indo-China and all the lands between which now lie under the
South China Sea, the Java Sea and the Gulf of Thailand [11]. Sahul to the east
included New Guinea, mainland Australia and Tasmania. Wallace’s Line, the deep
ocean trench named after the English biologist George Wallace, separated the two
ancient continents.
Sea levels had been rising globally since the continental ice sheets first began
melting about 14,000 years ago. But 7,500 years ago the remainder of the vast
Laurentian ice sheet broke up suddenly and sent ice crashing and driving into the
Atlantic Ocean through the Gulf of St Lawrence in Canada. As huge islands of ice
melted, world sea levels rose dramatically, reaching a level 120 m above that at
the Last Glacial Maximum. Low coastal lands worldwide were submerged. Coastal
cultures were destroyed as tidal waves were triggered by the shift of weight on the
Earth’s tectonic plates following the transfer of frozen water from land to sea. Great
strips of the flat continental shelves along the coasts of China and Australia disappeared under the ocean. Sundaland was drowned. The higher land and mountain
peaks of that ancient continent formed the archipelago of 17,000 islands we now
know as Island Southeast Asia. Deluge legends worldwide record the catastrophic
loss of life that followed this last flood.
In Australia aboriginal legends tell of the flooding of Bass Strait which now separates Tasmania from the mainland; from Mesopotamia we have flood stories centred