Oceania 1000 BCE

What is happening in Oceania in 1000BCE

Australia

In Australia, the new stone tool kit continues to spread, and leads to other changes: the existence of large base camps and cemeteries indicate larger, more stable tribal territories as groups coalesce or exterminate each other in seeking to secure food sources in the dryer conditions.

The Lapita culture

Groups of Austronesians continue to migrate eastwards, reaching Fiji by 1300 BCE and Tonga and Samoa by 1000 BCE. They carry with them their cultural package known to modern scholars as the “Lapita culture”, marked in the archaeological record by pottery with distinctive decorations based on tattoo designs. This culture probably originated in southern China, and it is based on a mixed economy of horticulture and maritime subsistence. The people had pigs, dogs and fowl.

Next map, Oceania in 500 BCE

Dig Deeper

Hunter-gatherers

The coming of farming

The origins of farming in East Asia