Oceanian Studies Discussion

[BalkanKiwi]

Not an actual published paper, but rather a recent Tongan news article by Dr Burley and Professor Clark highlighting what's been discovered so far.

Ancient DNA provides new understanding of Oceanic settlement - https://matangitonga.to/2021/01/29/a...nic-settlement

[BalkanKiwi]

A new Polynesian study published last month in Nature, titled "Paths and timings of the peopling of Polynesia inferred from genomic networks".

Abstract

Polynesia was settled in a series of extraordinary voyages across an ocean spanning one third of the Earth 1 , but the sequences of islands settled remain unknown and their timings disputed. Currently, several centuries separate the dates suggested by different archaeological surveys 2–4 . Here, using genome-wide data frommerely 430 modern individuals from 21 key Pacific island populations and novel ancestry-specific computational analyses, we unravel the detailed genetic history of this vast, dispersed island network. Our reconstruction of the branching Polynesian migration sequence reveals a serial founder expansion, characterized by directional loss of variants, that originated in Samoa and spread first through the Cook Islands (Rarotonga), then to the Society (Tōtaiete mā) Islands (11th century), the western Austral (Tuha’a Pae) Islands and Tuāmotu Archipelago (12th century), and finally to the widely separated, but genetically connected, megalithic statue-building cultures of the Marquesas (Te Henua ‘Enana) Islands in the north, Raivavae in the south, and Easter Island (Rapa Nui), the easternmost of the Polynesian islands, settled in approximately AD1200 via Mangareva.

[BalkanKiwi]

This is a nice bit of new research that's just come out:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-k...s-13th-century

"This study has narrowed that down and shown that early Māori settlement happened in the North Island between AD 1250 and AD 1275," Bunbury said.

She said Māori reached the South Island a decade later between 1280AD and 1295AD where the population rapidly grew during a time when they hunted the flightless moa bird.