Science: Archaeology: Regional: Oceania

Polynesian archaeology page of archaeologist Donald P. Ryan, including work with Thor Heyerdahl.

AWSANZ is a collaborative project that brings together archaeologists from Australia and New Zealand, all of whom have an interest in the colonial whaling industry.

From Archaeology, Southeast Asia and Australia give archaeologists some of the best evidence for ancient sea crossings.

Asian Perspectives 41(2). An introduction to the regions archaeology.

Asian Perespectives 41(2). The origins of East Polynesian culture are traced to a regional homeland that was centered on the Society Islands but which also included neighboring archipelagoes.

Asian Perspectives 41(2). The archaeological chronology of initial human colonization in East Polynesia has relied substantially upon radiocarbon dating results from a small number of sites in the central region, notably Motu Paeao cemetery and Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia in the Society Islands, and Hane and Ha'atuatua in the Marquesas Islands.

Asian Perspectives 41(2). The late prehistoric period is crucial to the study of anthropology, as the Island Melanesia has provided the world with the "Big Man" archtype of society. It has led to an ethnographic oversimplification of Melanesia as having only Big Man societies, whereas Polynesia having chiefly societies. Chiefs in Melanesia have often been interpreted as a cultural borrowing under Polynesian influence.

Genetics 2002 and PNAS 2000 Science article provide support for the Peter Ahching Theory based on Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium Law as studied at University of Hawaii-Manoa.

This is a site to showcase the Pacific Islands archaeological research.

From MSNBC, pattern of ancient colonization was slower and more complex than thought.

Article by Peter Marsh explores the origins of the people of Polynesia. Includes a location map.