Editing Pacific Ocean (section)

=== Early migrations ===
{{Main|Peopling of Southeast Asia|Austronesian peoples}}
[[File:Fijian double canoe, model, Otago Museum, 2016-01-29.jpg|thumb|Model of a [[Fiji]]an [[drua]], an example of an [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian vessel]] with a double-canoe ([[catamaran]]) hull and a [[crab claw sail]]]]
Important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Modern humans first reached the western Pacific in the [[Paleolithic]], at around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. Originating from a southern coastal human migration out of Africa, they reached [[East Asia]], [[Mainland Southeast Asia]], the Philippines, [[New Guinea]], and then Australia by making the sea crossing of at least {{convert|80|km}} between [[Sundaland]] and [[Australia (continent)|Sahul]]. It is not known with any certainty what level of maritime technology was used by these groups{{snd}}the presumption is that they used large bamboo rafts which may have been equipped with some sort of sail. The reduction in favourable winds for a crossing to Sahul after 58,000 B.P. fits with the dating of the settlement of Australia, with no later migrations in the prehistoric period. The seafaring abilities of pre-Austronesian residents of Island South-east Asia are confirmed by the settlement of [[Buka, Papua New Guinea|Buka]] by 32,000 B.P. and [[Manus Island|Manus]] by 25,000 B.P. Journeys of {{convert|180|km}} and {{convert|230|km}} are involved, respectively.<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Connor |first1=Sue |last2=Hiscock |first2=Peter |editor1-last=Cochrane |editor1-first=Ethan E |editor2-last=Hunt |editor2-first=Terry L. |title=The Oxford handbook of prehistoric Oceania |date=2018 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199925070 |chapter=The Peopling of Sahul and Near Oceania}}</ref>

The descendants of these migrations today are the [[Negritos]], [[Melanesians]], and [[Indigenous Australians]]. Their populations in [[maritime Southeast Asia]], coastal [[New Guinea]], and [[Island Melanesia]] later intermarried with the incoming [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] settlers from [[Taiwan]] and the northern [[Philippines]], but also earlier groups associated with [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic-speakers]], resulting in the modern peoples of Island Southeast Asia and Oceania.<ref name="Jett2017">{{cite book |last1=Jett |first1=Stephen C. |title=Ancient Ocean Crossings: Reconsidering the Case for Contacts with the Pre-Columbian Americas |date=2017 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0817319397 |pages=168–171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgOUDgAAQBAJ |access-date=4 June 2020 |archive-date=26 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726125617/https://books.google.com/books?id=EgOUDgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Waruno2017">{{cite book|author =Mahdi, Waruno|editor =Acri, Andrea|editor2 =Blench, Roger|editor3 =Landmann, Alexandra|title =Spirits and Ships: Cultural Transfers in Early Monsoon Asia|chapter =Pre-Austronesian Origins of Seafaring in Insular Southeast Asia|publisher =ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute|year =2017|pages =325–440|isbn =978-9814762755|chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=uJsnDwAAQBAJ|access-date =4 June 2020|archive-date =26 July 2020|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20200726134025/https://books.google.com/books?id=uJsnDwAAQBAJ|url-status =live}}</ref>

[[File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|thumb|upright=2|Map showing the [[Austronesian peoples#Migration from Taiwan|migration]] of the [[Austronesian peoples]]]]
A later seaborne migration is the [[Neolithic]] [[Austronesian expansion]] of the [[Austronesian peoples]]. Austronesians originated from the island of [[Taiwanese aborigines|Taiwan]] {{c.|3000}}–1500 BCE. They are associated with distinctive maritime sailing technologies (notably [[outrigger boat]]s, [[catamaran]]s, [[lashed-lug]] boats, and the [[crab claw sail]]){{snd}}it is likely that the progressive development of these technologies were related to the later steps of settlement into Near and Remote Oceania. Starting at around 2200 BCE, Austronesians sailed southwards to settle the [[Philippines]]. From, probably, the [[Bismarck Archipelago]] they crossed the western Pacific to reach the [[Marianas Islands]] by 1500 BCE,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Winter |first1=Olaf |last2=Clark |first2=Geoffrey |last3=Anderson |first3=Atholl |last4=Lindahl |first4=Anders |title=Austronesian sailing to the northern Marianas, a comment on Hung et al. (2011) |journal=Antiquity |date=September 2012 |volume=86 |issue=333 |pages=898–910 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00047992|s2cid=161735451 |issn=0003-598X }}</ref> as well as [[Palau]] and [[Yap]] by 1000 BCE. They were the first humans to reach [[Remote Oceania]], and the first to cross vast distances of open water. They also continued spreading southwards and settling the rest of [[Maritime Southeast Asia]], reaching [[Indonesia]] and [[Malaysia]] by 1500 BCE, and further west to [[Madagascar]] and the [[Comoros]] in the [[Indian Ocean]] by around 500 CE.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Heiske|first1=Margit|last2=Alva|first2=Omar|last3=Pereda-Loth|first3=Veronica|last4=Van Schalkwyk|first4=Matthew|last5=Radimilahy|first5=Chantal|last6=Letellier|first6=Thierry|last7=Rakotarisoa|first7=Jean-Aimé|last8=Pierron|first8=Denis|date=22 January 2021|title=Genetic evidence and historical theories of the Asian and African origins of the present Malagasy population|journal=Human Molecular Genetics|volume=30|issue=R1|pages=R72–R78|doi=10.1093/hmg/ddab018|pmid=33481023|issn=0964-6906|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Gray-et-al2009">{{cite journal | vauthors = Gray RD, Drummond AJ, Greenhill SJ | s2cid = 29838345 | title = Language phylogenies reveal expansion pulses and pauses in Pacific settlement | journal = Science | volume = 323 | issue = 5913 | pages = 479–483 | date = January 2009 | pmid = 19164742 | doi = 10.1126/science.1166858 | bibcode = 2009Sci...323..479G }}</ref><ref name="Pawley2002">{{cite book | vauthors = Pawley A |chapter=The Austronesian dispersal: languages, technologies and people |editor1-first=Peter S. |editor1-last=Bellwood |editor2-first=Colin |editor2-last=Renfrew |title=Examining the farming/language dispersal hypothesis |publisher=McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge |year=2002 |isbn=978-1902937205 |pages=251–273 }}</ref> More recently, it is suggested that Austronesians expanded already earlier, arriving in the Philippines already in 7000 BCE. Additional earlier migrations into Insular Southeast Asia, associated with Austroasiatic-speakers from Mainland Southeast Asia, are estimated to have taken place already in 15000 BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Larena |first=Maximilian |date= 22 March 2021|title=Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last 50,000 years |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=118 |issue=13 |pages=e2026132118 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2026132118 |pmid=33753512 |pmc=8020671 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11826132L |doi-access=free }}</ref>

At around 1300 to 1200 BCE, a branch of the Austronesian migrations known as the [[Lapita culture]] reached the [[Bismarck Archipelago]], the [[Solomon Islands]], [[Vanuatu]], [[Fiji]], and [[New Caledonia]]. From there, they settled [[Tonga]] and [[Samoa]] by 900 to 800 BCE. Some also back-migrated northwards in 200 BCE to settle the islands of eastern [[Micronesia]] (including the [[Caroline Islands|Carolines]], the [[Marshall Islands]], and [[Kiribati]]), mixing with earlier Austronesian migrations in the region. This remained the furthest extent of the Austronesian expansion into [[Polynesia]] until around 700 CE when there was another surge of island exploration. They reached the [[Cook Islands]], [[Tahiti]], and the [[Marquesas]] by 700 CE; [[Hawaii|Hawai{{okina}}i]] by 900 CE; [[Rapa Nui]] by 1000 CE; and finally New Zealand by 1200 CE.<ref name="Gray-et-al2009"/><ref name="Stanley2004">{{cite book|last=Stanley|first=David|title=South Pacific|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_EDGapfBX-CAC|date=2004|publisher=Avalon Travel |isbn=978-1-56691-411-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_EDGapfBX-CAC/page/n38 19]}}</ref><ref name="gibbons">{{cite web |last1=Gibbons |first1=Ann |title='Game-changing' study suggests first Polynesians voyaged all the way from East Asia |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/game-changing-study-suggests-first-polynesians-voyaged-all-way-east-asia |website=Science |access-date=23 March 2019 |archive-date=13 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413063912/https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/game-changing-study-suggests-first-polynesians-voyaged-all-way-east-asia |url-status=live }}</ref> Austronesians may have also reached as far as the [[Americas]], although evidence for this remains inconclusive.<ref>Van Tilburg, Jo Anne. 1994. ''Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology and Culture.'' Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press</ref><ref>Langdon, Robert. The Bamboo Raft as a Key to the Introduction of the Sweet Potato in Prehistoric Polynesia, ''The Journal of Pacific History'', Vol. 36, No. 1, 2001</ref>