THE PACIFIC ISLANDS: ANCIENT EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT: January 2013

Mystery of the Pacific Ocean

The Europeans' "discovery" of the Pacific Island began in the 16th century as they groped their way eastward from around the Cape of Good Hope, or westward from around Cape Horn.

But what they found were island cultures that had existed for a long time, complete with royal hierarchies and elaborate ceremonies: complex societies with long histories.

Captain Cook was one of the first to wonder: just how did they get there? And when?

The story of the first settlers of the Pacific Islands has gradually emerged, thanks to the efforts of many archaeologists, agronomists, oceanographers and even linguists. And of many present day Polynesian people who are delving into their past and recording information for the future generations of island people.

In this blog I will record what has been learned about these early explorers whom we now know began an extraordinary journey from Southern China, back in the Stone Age.

It's a story that has to be told.

Monday, January 28, 2013

WHY DID SOME CULTURES DEVELOP FASTER THAN OTHERS?

Ever stop to think why some peoples advanced faster and further than others?

For example, why did the Australian aborigines remain at their Stone Age stage, and the American Indians, and the Eskimos, while other people such as the Europeans, Chinese and perhaps the Austronesian people developed technologies to solve their problems and undertake major explorations? Why did that happen?

This is a question that I puzzled over and led me to write about the Austronesian peoples and their Pacific Ocean explorations of the late Stone Age.

Many of the answers came from a book recommended by my son in London:
"Guns, Germs and Steel', by Jared Diamond, Vintage, 2005, ISBN 9780099302780.

Jared Diamond traces the reasons behind differing rates of progress among the major population groups of our world, and I was especially interested in Chapter 17 'Speedboat to Polynesia' as it related to what I had been thinking about:

"HOW DID PEOPLE FIND THEIR WAY RIGHT ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN?'

This book started me delving into the history of the Stone Age explorers who first discovered the islands of the vast, hitherto unpopulated Pacific Ocean.

The result of my modest research is my book nearing completion" "TOWARDS RAHITI".

There is much more information over in the INFORMATION PAGES that will interest you if you have ever wondered, as I did, about the peopling of the Pacific Ocean.

Friday, January 11, 2013

FORTHCOMING BOOK

For some time now I have been working on a story about what it was like to be part of the great, slow migration of the Austronesian people as as they pushed out into the unexplored, and empty Pacific Ocean.

They were the first humans to get there.

Based on my research of this subject, I have written a story about a Stone Age family who had to take part in an adventurous voyage of discovery. It's fiction, but the events could have happened. The story is set in 1600 BC and shows what had to be done to undertake such a voyage into the unknown, and the dangers of what perhaps must have happened to some of the explorers. The story will give one an idea of what it must have been like on such an adventure.

The book is titled: 'TOWARDS RAHITI' , and I will later announce when the book is published.

"TOWARDS RAHITI"

In May 2013 I launched my novella "Towards Rahiti" and eventually sold all copies I had printed.

Based upon my research into the Austronesian navigators and their culture, the book told the story of a family taking part in one of the most adventurous human migrations ever undertaken by Stone Age People.

You will know what it would have been like to take part in such an adventure.

Most comments I have had indicate that readers wanted to know more about the lives of the Stone Age people involved, so I am going to expand the book next year, and add the voyage north to Hawaii, some 2000 years after the time of my story.

Watch this space!