Editing West Timor (section)

=== Pre-colonial period ===
[[File:Timor warrior outfit.jpg|thumb|Warriors from the region around Kupang (1875). Engraving from the [[SMS Gazelle (1859)|Gazelle expedition]] report]]
The population of Timor came to the island as part of the general settlement of the region. Anthropologists assume that the descendants of three waves of immigration live here, which also explains Timor's ethnic-cultural diversity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 July 2005 |title=Government of Timor-Leste: History |url=http://www.timor-leste.gov.tl/AboutTimorleste/history.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725193729/http://www.timor-leste.gov.tl/AboutTimorleste/history.htm |archive-date=25 July 2008}}</ref> [[Indigenous people of New Guinea|Australo]]-[[Indigenous people of New Guinea|Papuans]] are thought to have reached [[Timor]] from the north and west around 40,000 to 20,000 BC, during the last Ice Age. The [[Atoni|Atoin Meto]], who dominate West Timor, are considered the descendants of this first wave of settlers, although their language is one of the [[Austronesian languages]]. The same applies to the [[Helong language|Helong]], who originally inhabited the region around [[Kupang Regency|Kupang]] and were displaced by the Atoin Meto to the far western tip of the island.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Royal Timor |url=http://www.royaltimor.com/Helong.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110219190241/http://www.royaltimor.com/Helong.html |archive-date=19 February 2011}}</ref> Around 3000 BC, [[Melanesians]] came from the west with a second wave of immigration and brought the [[Acheulean|oval axe culture]] to Timor. The [[Bunak people|Bunak]] people in the borderland to Timor-Leste are among their descendants. The last peoples to migrate to Timor in prehistoric times were the [[Malays (ethnic group)|Malay]] peoples. There are different indications as to whether the Malays reached Timor in one or two waves. The [[proto-Malay]]s from [[South China|southern China]] and [[Northern Indochina subtropical forests|northern Indochina]], probably reached Timor in 2500 BC. They spread throughout the archipelago under pressure from the expansion of the [[East Asian people|East Asian]] peoples. Probably around 500 AD, [[Malays (ethnic group)#Deutero-Malays|Deutero-Malays]] (who emerged from [[Iron Age]] [[Austronesian peoples]] who came equipped with more advanced farming techniques and new knowledge of metals){{sfn|Murdock|1969|p=278}}{{sfn|Ooi|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QKgraWbb7yoC&pg=PA495 495]}}{{sfn|Anderbeck|2002}} became the dominant population throughout the archipelago and also reached Timor. The [[Tetum language|Tetum]] in eastern West Timor form the largest ethnic group in East Timor and are descendants of the Malay immigrants, as are the [[Kemak people|Kemak]] people living on the border.

Recent cultural contacts of West Timor's dominant population, the Atoin Meto, are due to the interest of various Asian (India and China) and European (Portugal and the Netherlands) traders in the island's formerly very rich [[sandalwood]] resources. This sandalwood trade with Southeast Asia, which took place over centuries, did not leave Timorese cultures unscathed. All buyers of Timorese sandalwood have left their mark from a cultural point of view.