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HEADLINE: The Two Stages of Pacific Settlement: Early Migrations and the Lapita Culture AUTHOR NAME: Nicholas Thomas SUMMARY: Human settlement of the Pacific occurred in two stages. Early migrations crossed Wallacea 50,000-60,000 years ago, settling New G

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Books, Arts, News, Society & Culture

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

HEADLINE: The Two Stages of Pacific Settlement: Early Migrations and the Lapita Culture
AUTHOR NAME: Nicholas Thomas
SUMMARY: Human settlement of the Pacific occurred in two stages. Early migrations crossed Wallacea 50,000-60,000 years ago, settling New Guinea and Australia. Much later, around 5,000-6,000 years ago, agriculturalists speaking Austronesian languages left Taiwan. This culture, known for distinctive Lapita pottery, migrated swiftly, establishing complex societies and settling western Polynesia (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa).
1899 SAMOA

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0:00.0

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0:29.9

This is CBS. I on the world. I'm John Batchew. Professor Nicholas Thomas, professor of historical anthropology at Cambridge University, also the director of archaeology and anthropology

0:35.9

museum at Cambridge. His new book is Voyages.

0:39.4

And we plunge into the 19th century and are amazed that a chieftain, significant that he's a leadership position in the Cook Islands, this is Polynesia, is able to direct a European sailing master without use of

0:58.9

European tools. Now we go back to the beginning, beginning, at least until the retreat of the

1:04.4

last ice. This is about 11,000 years ago, and we're not in Polynesia, that's well to the east. We're not in Melanesia.

1:14.8

We're in Formosa, Taiwan now. And the line, the north-south line called Wallasia.

1:22.1

Walasia, forgive my pronunciation professor, what is it that we understand about the voyagers from the mainland into and crossing Wallasia into Melanesia?

1:36.4

There are two stages to this incredible chapter in human history, and it is worth underscoring just how incredible this story is.

1:49.3

Because otherwise, since the beginnings of human history,

1:54.4

since the beginnings of our species,

1:57.2

people have been continent-based.

2:00.2

So they, of course, anatomically modern humans evolve in Africa.

2:06.9

They settle Europe, Asia and the Americas via a land bridge.

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