MIGRATION AND COLONIZATION OF THE
ANCIENT PACIFIC
Turning from the Asian continent to the Pacifi c Ocean, the
occupation of the islands of Hawaii is perhaps the most strik-
ing example of the extraordinary achievements of the Poly-
nesian peoples, who are responsible for the colonization of a
large number of isolated islands in the central Pacifi c. Over a
period of approximately 2,500 years (from ca. 1500 b.c.e. to
ca. 1000 c.e.) voyagers from Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa migrated
to and colonized islands across an ocean area of millions of
square miles. By the 16th century, when European navigators
began to explore the Pacifi c, virtually all the habitable islands
were already settled.
Th ese maritime migrations were made in outrigger and
double-hulled canoes built with stone, bone, and coral tools.
By alternately paddling or sailing (using sails woven from
coconut or pandanus leaves) Polynesian migrants regularly
completed voyages of more than 2,000 miles across the Pa-
cifi c. Navigation was done by skilled mariners using observa-
tions based on ocean currents, winds, and the setting points
of stars. Navigators also employed a system of dead reckon-
ing, memorizing the distance and direction being traveled
until the destination was reached.
When European explorers fi rst arrived in the islands of
Polynesia, it was immediately obvious that the Polynesian
inhabitants must have shared a common ancestry. Island
residents were similar in appearance, and their language,
technologies, domesticated species, and cultures varied very
little across thousands of miles of ocean area. It is now be-
lieved that all Polynesian peoples came from common an-Among the peoples of ancient Oceania were the Polynesians, who colonized a large number of isolated islands in the central Pacifi c aft er 1500 b.c.e.
706 migration and population movements: Asia and the Pacific