Editing Oceania (section)

===Colonisation of Oceania===

====Australia====
{{Main|Prehistory of Australia|History of Indigenous Australians}}
[[File:Native Encampment by Skinner Prout, from Australia (1876, vol II).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A 19th-century engraving of an Aboriginal Australian encampment]]

[[Indigenous Australians]] are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands who migrated from [[Africa]] to [[Asia]] {{circa}} 70,000 years ago<ref name="scimag" /> and arrived in Australia {{circa}} 50,000 years ago.<ref name="illumina.com" /> They are believed to be among the [[Recent African origin of modern humans|earliest human migrations out of Africa]].<ref name="BBSRC" /> Although they likely migrated to Australia through Southeast Asia, they are not demonstrably related to any known Asian or Polynesian population.<ref name="ourcount" /> There is evidence of genetic and linguistic interchange between Australians in the far north and the Austronesian peoples of modern-day [[New Guinea]] and the islands, but this may be the result of recent trade and [[Interracial marriage|intermarriage]].<ref name="germs314" />

They reached [[Tasmania]] {{circa}} 40,000 years ago by migrating across a [[land bridge]] from the mainland that existed during the last [[ice age]].<ref name="prehis" /> It is believed that the first [[early human migration]] to Australia was achieved when this landmass formed part of the [[Sahul continent]], connected to the island of New Guinea via a land bridge.<ref name="perspe81" /> The [[Torres Strait Islanders]] are indigenous to the [[Torres Strait]] Islands, which are at the northernmost tip of [[Queensland]] near [[Papua New Guinea]].<ref name="uow2004" /> The earliest definite human remains found in Australia are that of [[Mungo Man]], which have been dated at {{circa}} 40,000 years old.<ref name="pmid4570638" />

It is estimated that 4% to 6% of the genome in [[Melanesians]] (e.g. Papua New Guinean and Bougainville Islander) derives from the [[Denisovan|Denisova hominin]], an ancient human species discovered in 2010, while no Eurasians or Africans displayed contributions of the Denisovan genes.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Reich|first=D.|author2=Green, R.E.|author3=Kircher, M.|author4=Krause, J.|author5=Patterson, N.|author6=Durand, E.Y.|title=Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova Cave in Siberia|journal=Nature|year=2010|volume=468|issue=7327|pages=1053–1060|doi=10.1038/nature09710|pmid=21179161|display-authors=etal|bibcode=2010Natur.468.1053R|pmc=4306417|url=http://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/10230/25596/1/Marques_nat_gen.pdf|hdl=10230/25596|archive-date=17 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200517024908/https://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/handle/10230/25596/Marques_nat_gen.pdf;jsessionid=35CCDAE27CDE1B5CACE38275BC976DFA?sequence=1|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Melanesia====
{{Main|History of New Guinea}}
The original inhabitants of the group of islands now named Melanesia were likely the ancestors of the present-day [[Papuan languages|Papuan]]-speaking people. Migrating from Southeast Asia, they appear to have occupied these islands as far east as the main islands in the [[Solomon Islands (archipelago)|Solomon Islands archipelago]], including [[Makira]] and possibly the smaller islands farther to the east.<ref name="struct2072" />

Particularly along the north coast of New Guinea and in the islands north and east of New Guinea, the [[Austronesian people]], who had migrated into the area somewhat more than 3,000 years ago, came into contact with these pre-existing populations of Papuan-speaking peoples. In the late 20th century, some scholars theorized a long period of interaction, which resulted in many complex changes in genetics, languages, and culture among the peoples.<ref name="malenes" />

====Micronesia====
{{See also|History of the Federated States of Micronesia}}
[[File:HH1883 pg125 Hafen von Jap.jpg|thumb|Stone money transport to [[Yap Island]] in Micronesia (1880)]]
[[File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|thumb|Chronological dispersal of [[Austronesian people]] across the Pacific (per Bellwood in Chambers, 2008)]]
Micronesia began to be settled several millennia ago, although there are competing theories about the origin and arrival of the first settlers. There are numerous difficulties with conducting archaeological excavations in the islands, due to their size, settlement patterns and storm damage. As a result, much evidence is based on linguistic analysis.<ref name="lapita" />

The earliest archaeological traces of civilization have been found on the island of [[Saipan]], dated to 1500 BCE or slightly before. The ancestors of the [[Micronesians]] settled there over 4,000 years ago. A decentralized chieftain-based system eventually evolved into a more centralized economic and religious culture centred on [[Yap]] and [[Pohnpei]].<ref name="USDOS" /> The prehistories of many Micronesian islands such as Yap are not known very well.<ref name="books.google" />

The first people of the Northern Mariana Islands navigated to the islands and discovered it at some period between 4000 BCE to 2000 BCE from [[Southeast Asia]]. They became known as the [[Chamorro people|Chamorros]]. Their [[Chamorro language|language]] was named after them. The ancient Chamorro left a number of megalithic ruins, including [[Latte stone]]. The Refaluwasch or [[Carolinian people]] came to the Marianas in the 1800s from the [[Caroline Islands]]. Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the [[2nd millennium BC]]E, with inter-island navigation made possible using [[Marshall Islands stick chart|traditional stick charts]].<ref name="races165" />

====Polynesia====
{{Main|History of Hawaii|History of New Zealand}}
{{Further|Polynesian navigation}}
[[File:AhuTongariki.jpg|thumb|left|[[Moai]] at Ahu Tongariki on [[Easter Island|Rapa Nui (Easter Island)]]]]

The Polynesian people are considered to be by linguistic, archaeological and human genetic ancestry a subset of the sea-migrating [[Austronesian people]] and tracing [[Polynesian languages]] places their [[Prehistory|prehistoric]] origins in the [[Malay Archipelago]], and ultimately, in [[Geography of Taiwan|Taiwan]]. Between {{circa}} 3000 and 1000 BCE, speakers of [[Austronesian languages]] began spreading from Taiwan into [[Island Southeast Asia]],<ref name="matrilineality2003" /><ref name="Kayser, M. 2006" /><ref name="polyori8225" /> as tribes whose [[Taiwanese aborigines|natives]] were thought to have arrived through South China {{circa}} 8,000 years ago to the edges of western Micronesia and on into Melanesia.

In the archaeological record there are well-defined traces of this expansion which allow the path it took to be followed and dated with some certainty. It is thought that by roughly 1400 BCE,<ref name="wings" /> "[[Lapita culture|Lapita]] Peoples", so-named after their pottery tradition, appeared in the [[Bismarck Archipelago]] of north-west Melanesia.<ref name="Leach & Green 1989"/><ref name="burley128" />

Easter Islanders claimed that a chief [[Hotu Matuꞌa]]<ref name="vikings228" /> discovered the island in one or two large canoes with his wife and extended family.<ref name="hawaii" /> They are believed to have been [[Polynesians|Polynesian]]. Around 1200, [[Tahitians|Tahitian]] explorers discovered and began settling the area. This date range is based on [[Glottochronology|glottochronological]] calculations and on three [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon dates]] from charcoal that appears to have been produced during forest clearance activities.<ref name="failor89" /> Moreover, a recent study which included radiocarbon dates from what is thought to be very early material suggests that the island was discovered and settled as recently as 1200.<ref name="scimag23874" />