Page 106 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

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Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand), are known col- more by our species than earlier hominids to cross estu-
lectively as “Remote Oceania” and were settled first dur- aries and lagoons, so that over many thousands of years
ing the Late Holocene. the chance movement of small breeding units over dis-
tances of up to 170 kilometers, as was required to reach
Pleistocene Migration and Australia, seems possible. At the other extreme from this
Holocene Developments proposition is the view that invention of formal water-
As sea levels were 120 meters lower in 25,000 BCE,to- craft, such as canoes and shaped rafts, and even of sailing
day’s Southeast Asian islands as far east as Bali and Bor- technology, can be attributed to Pleistocene populations.
neo, and also Taiwan and Japan, were then attached by There is evidence that not only people, but also some use-
dry land to the Asian mainland and inhabited by large ful animals, such as possums and small wallabies, were
placental mammals, including elephants, deer, pigs, and introduced to new islands as early as 35,000 BCE, and
people. Australia and New Guinea, however, formed a that obsidian tools were being taken from New Britain to
separate landmass, known as Sahul, which supported an New Ireland by 20,000 BCE.Whatever the case, it is im-
ancient biota characterized by its marsupial mammals. portant to observe that the maximum achieved passage
Between them lay the island-studded sea of the mixed- length remained at about 200 kilometers throughout the
biotic province of Wallacea. It is possible that some Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Seafaring may have
islands, notably Flores, had been reached by the Javan become more frequent with time, but it did not become
population of Homo erectus, which dates to 1.0–1.8 mil- more extensive or efficient until the Late Holocene.
lion years ago, but archaeological data suggest initial col- By 9,000–6000 BCE, rising sea levels had divided the
onization of Sulawesi,Maluku,Timor,and the Philippines Sahul landmass into New Guinea, Australia, and Tas-
in the period 50,000–35,000 BCE. By 45,000 BCE, Sahul mania, and the isolated populations followed different
had also been colonized.The migrant populations were cultural trajectories thereafter, within exclusively foraging
undoubtedly Homo sapiens, and their modern descen- societies in the latter two regions. In New Guinea, how-
dants, such as Australian aboriginals and Highland New ever, there is evidence of the early development of agri-
Guineans, retain genetic markers that link them to the culture. Research at the Kuk site, at 1,600 meters altitude
early diaspora of our species from its African homeland. in the Wahgi Valley, shows that by the Early Holocene (c.
Pleistocene maritime technology is entirely unknown. 8,000 BCE ), there was systematic exploitation of pan-
However, as Homo erectus was tied almost entirely to dry danus and banana, and by 5000 BCE, formal garden
land migration, even the modest dispersal of early Homo mounds and drainage ditches were being constructed.
sapiens across Wallacea appears significant by contrast. These were probably for cultivation of taro, sugarcane,
Natural rafts of giant-bamboo clumps and other materials and bananas, all of which seem to have been domesti-
are quite common in the region and may have been used cated in New Guinea, along with yams and breadfruit.

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