Caucasians who had arrived there centuries earlier by way
of Siberia. Here, as with the Aryans exploring as far as and
moving into India, the Mongoloid peoples’ integration with
the local populace accounted for substantial cultural devel-
opments. Mongoloid horsemen from northeastern Asia made
exploratory and invasive forays throughout Asia and as far as
the Roman Empire aft er the dissolution of the Han Dynasty;
some of these warriors made their way to Japan, further re-
orienting society there.
Occasional Chinese ventures into Japan provided much of
the evidence of the extent to which prehistoric civilization had
developed there. One traveler noted in 238 c.e. that the small
states that had come into existence on the Japanese islands
were ruled by sorceresses, with much of the internal political
structures arranged in matriarchal fashion. Another Chinese
explorer noted the Japanese people’s naturalistic habits, as they
reportedly subsisted largely on raw vegetables and forwent
footwear. Th us, exploration in this direction served primarily
to increase knowledge of regional cultural diff erences.
Southern exploration, led largely by Ma Yuan (14 b.c.e.–
49 c.e.), “Tamer of the Waves,” went only as far as the dense
forests and barbaric peoples there would allow; the demons
and ghosts said to inhabit those regions especially inhibited
would-be conquerors. Although the South China Sea was
reached, making possible travel by ship to the Gulf of Siam,
the Java Sea, and the Bay of Bengal, the coastal waters were
especially treacherous, and the Chinese ventured along these
maritime routes far less frequently than did foreign vessels.
Nevertheless, the ports established there likewise allowed for
increased trade, with Persian and Sinhalese merchant ships
depositing gems, drugs, and hardwoods and departing with
porcelain, musk, and slaves. Th ose Chinese who did set out
returned with coconuts and ambergris from Nicobar and
with saff ron, sandalwood, and ivory from India. Th us, in
many ways, Han exploration led more to the enrichment of
the empire than to its actual territorial expansion; as the dy-
nasty grew satisfi ed with its economic situation and as further
excursions, over unfriendly seas and land alike, threatened
more substantial costs, outward exploration came to a halt.
With regard to the islands of Southeast Asia and the
Pacifi c, exploration by Chinese peoples beginning as early
as 3000 b.c.e. led to the region’s initial inhabitation. Aft er
traveling by sea to the northern reaches of the Philippines,
peoples migrated southwest to Borneo and Sulawesi around
2500 b.c.e. and then farther southwest to Sumatra and east to
Irian Jaya around 2000 b.c.e. Sometime around 1500 b.c.e.
more capable seafarers ventured out to central Pacifi c islands
from the Philippines and other eastern points on Indonesia
and Papua New Guinea.
EUROPE
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
For thousands of years European tribes and nations were ex-
ploring new lands to fi nd places to live. People continued to do
this even aft er the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 c.e.
One way such explorations happened was recorded by Greek
historians from the oral history of the Celts. According to the
Greek written history, in the late 300s b.c.e. a Celtic tribe lived
along the southern Danube River. Times were very hard for
them, and crops were failing. Th eir children were dying, prob-
ably from malnutrition as well as disease. Th eir leaders failed
to do anything worthwhile to improve the lives of the people;
even the warriors, the elite of the society, looked for leadership
instead of providing it. A woman named Onomaris declared
that she would accept the thankless task of leadership.
First, she decided that the tribe had to move to better land,
dividing the tribe’s food, animals, tools, and weapons among
the families according to how much each family would need
for a long journey. Onomaris and her people did not know
where they were going, but this would have seemed normal
to the Celts who heard and retold the story, because the peo-
ples of Europe oft en left their homes and moved as a group to
fi nd new lands. In the case of Onomaris and her people, they
encountered rivers and swamps, and they sometimes had
to fi ght hostile people. Eventually, they encountered an un-
claimed place where they could farm the land, and they set-
tled there, fi nding peace and good times. Exactly where they
went is unclear; migrations from Onomaris’s region tended
to head eastward at that time, but north and south were also
possibilities. Any tribe that moved as Onomaris’s did would
have to be prepared to fi ght people in their way and to carry
what they needed.
Another reason for exploration was commerce. Among
the earliest explorers in Europe who are known to modern
historians were the Mycenaeans, who prospered in the Ae-
gean region during the 1000s b.c.e. until their civilization
collapsed in about 1200 b.c.e. In search of minerals, they
explored the Balkans, central Europe, and northern Eu-
rope, fi nding metal ores and amber, which they traded with
decorative goods such as glass beads they had brought from
Egypt. Th eir presence as traders and their trading posts in
Europe probably made Europeans curious about the origin of
the Mycenaeans’ wealth.
Among those who wanted to know were probably the
Nordic peoples of southern Scandinavia. Th ese people spoke
a Germanic language and were loosely organized into tribal
groups. Th ey left a great deal of rock art, both carvings and
paintings, of their boats, which resemble the later Viking
ships with long bodies and oarsmen in rows on each side of
the vessel. Th e prows do not seem to have the carved dragon
heads typical of the Vikings longships, but they rise in the
same graceful curve as Viking prows. Following the collapse
of the Mycenaeans, little of their written literature was pre-
served, but some of the culture’s artwork survived. A mural
on the island of Th íra, in the Cyclades islands in the south-
ern Aegean, hints at what Scandinavian explorers may have
achieved. Painted in the 1500s b.c.e., it depicts the island’s
port, with tall houses, docks, and boats propelled by sails and
oars. Among these boats is one that looks like a Nordic boat.exploration: Europe 441