Editing History of Madagascar (section)

=== Archaeological evidence for date of first settlement ===
[[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Dajak mannen hakken een boom om Borneo. TMnr 60045266.jpg|thumb|''Vaγimba''- "Those of the forest" in Proto–Southeast Barito, the reconstructed ancestor of the Southeast [[Barito languages]], which includes the languages spoken by the [[Dayak people|Dayak]] peoples of the [[Barito River]] in [[Borneo]] (''pictured'') ]]

The earliest unambiguous evidence of continuous human presence in Madagascar was found at Andavakoera and dates to 490 CE,<ref>'The archaeological evidence for the earliest human presence in Madagascar comes from Andavakoera near Diego Suarez and is dated to AD420 (AD250-590, 2SDs) (Dewar & Wright 1996).</ref> and there is no archaeological evidence for human occupation in the highlands until around 1200. However, there is scattered evidence for much earlier human visits.

In 2009, archaeological excavations at Christmas River (south-central Madagascar) by Pat Wright and James Hansford located a purported elephant bird [[kill site]], with bones showing human cut marks. These were dated to 8,500 BCE, but as yet there is no indication as to the identity of the hunters.<ref>{{cite news|date=September 10, 2018|title=Ancient bird bones redate human activity in Madagascar by 6,000 years|url=https://www.zsl.org/science/news/ancient-bird-bones-redate-human-activity-in-madagascar-by-6000-years|newspaper=Zoological Society of London (ZSL)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=September 12, 2018|title=Ancient bird bones redate human activity in Madagascar by 6,000 years|url=https://phys.org/news/2018-09-ancient-bird-bones-redate-human.html|website=Phys.org}}</ref> [[Archaeology|Archaeological]] finds such as cut marks on bones found in the northwest and stone tools in the northeast indicate that Madagascar was visited by foragers around 2000 BCE.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Gommery | first1 = D. | last2 = Ramanivosoa | first2 = B. | last3 = Faure | first3 = M. | last4 = Guérin | first4 = C. | last5 = Kerloc'h | first5 = P. | last6 = Sénégas | first6 = F. | last7 = Randrianantenaina | first7 = H. | title = Oldest evidence of human activities in Madagascar on subfossil hippopotamus bones from Anjohibe (Mahajanga Province) | journal = Comptes Rendus Palevol | volume = 10 | issue = 4 | year = 2011 | pages = 271–278 | doi = 10.1016/j.crpv.2011.01.006}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Dewar | first1 = R. E. | last2 = Radimilahy | first2 = C. | last3 = Wright | first3 = H. T. | last4 = Jacobs | first4 = Z. | last5 = Kelly | first5 = G. O. | last6 = Berna | first6 = F. | title = Stone tools and foraging in northern Madagascar challenge Holocene extinction models | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 110 | issue = 31 | year = 2013 | pages = 12583–12588 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1306100110 | pmid=23858456 | pmc=3732966| bibcode = 2013PNAS..11012583D | doi-access = free }}</ref>

There is potential evidence in the form of a cutmarked [[subfossil lemur]] bone from a palaeontological site, Taolambiby, in the southwest. One date was obtained, calibrated 530 to 300 BC (Godfrey & Jungers 2003). The cutmarking looks plausible, but there is a potential problem of old carbon from the limestone landscape compromising the date, and there are no associated artifacts or archaeological sites in the vicinity. Nearly contemporaneous potential evidence comes from [[cannabis]] or [[humulus]] pollen which occurs in a pollen column from the central highlands at an interpolated date of c. 2200 [[Before Present]] (BP).<ref>Burney 1987</ref> There is a hypothesis that cannabis may have reached Africa 3000 years ago.

[[Necho II]]'s Phoenician expedition c. 595 BCE circumnavigated Africa but did not see Madagascar when passing through the [[Mozambique Channel]], as it stayed within sight of the African mainland. The island was likely uninhabited.<ref name="ley196608">{{Cite magazine|last=Ley|first=Willy|date=August 1966|title=Scherazade's Island|url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v24n06_1966-08#page/n45/mode/2up|department=For Your Information|magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction|pages=45–55}}</ref>

Finally, a cutmarked pygmy hippo bone from Ambolisatra has been dated and calibrated to between 60 BC and 130 AD (2 SDs), but it is from a coastal swamp without indications of settlement in a heavily karstic region. Moreover, a similar bone from the same collection from a nearby site gave two widely divergent dates of 2020 and 3495 BC (MacPhee & Burney 1991). Transient visits to Madagascar that did not result in enduring settlement cannot be ruled out, and may have left some traces.<ref>Peter Forster, Shuichi Matsumutra, Matthieu Vizuete-Forster, Petya Belinda Blumbach & Robert Dewar (2008) "The Genetic Prehistory of Madagascar's Female Asian Lineages", In: {{cite book|last1=Matsumura|first1=Shūichi|last2=Forster|first2=Peter|last3=Renfrew|first3=Colin|author-link3=Colin Renfrew|title=Simulations, Genetics and Human Prehistory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IR3bAAAAMAAJ|year=2008|publisher=McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research|isbn=978-1-902937-45-8}}, pp71-72</ref>