The first martime network in Pleistocene Wallacea

Our species embarked on the world’s first great maritime journey from Sunda (greater Southeast Asia) to Sahul (greater Australia) at least 50,000 years ago. In the process they settled Wallacea, the archipelago of thousands of islands lying between these two continental landmasses. By ca.45,000 years ago they had occupied the larger islands, from Sulawesi in the north-west to Flores and Timor in the south and south-east. This maritime migration must have involved competent seafaring technology and flexible economies as the new settlers were able to cross strong ocean currents and prevail on depauperate island environments. After initial settlement, it appears that these island societies were stable, as there is no evidence for major cultural changes or inter-island transfers for the following 30,000 years. At the end of the last glacial phase this changed dramatically.

Obsidian from a single, as yet unidentified off-island source, appears in the archaeological assemblages of Timor, Alor, and Kisar islands from ca.16,000 years ago, marking the onset of the world’s earliest maritime network. Coincident with this, new highly standardised items of personal decoration and fishhooks appear in the assemblages, indicating that the movement of obsidian was accompanied by a sharing of style and economic and technological knowledge. Social networks provide resilience for populations on depauperate islands, and marriage partners, inter-island reciprocity and information sharing may have been as, or more important, than the resources moved across this network.  New genetic and linguist research provides support for this, indicating a period of extensive demographic movement across Wallacea. However, many questions remain, particularly the location of the unidentified obsidian source, the lynch pin in this network.