Oceania Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Polynesia==== {{Main|History of Hawaii|History of New Zealand}} {{further|Discovery and settlement of Hawaii|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 Matuκa]]<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" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page