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Population expansion in the western Pacific (Austronesia): a wave of advance model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Joaquim Fort
Joaquim Fort*
Affiliation:
Departament de Física, Universitat de Girona, Campus de Montilivi, 17071 Girona, Catalonia, Spain
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Abstract

The author reconsiders the ‘wave of advance model’ used to describe (and partly explain) the rate at which people adopted farming. It is usually applied to large open areas, where one population group can easily see or meet another – but the populations considered here live on islands. Joaquim Fort finds that the 5000 km extent of the South Pacific was settled in the Neolithic period at a rate of at least 8 km per year.

Keywords

NeolithicPacific Oceandemicpopulation
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 297 , September 2003 , pp. 520 - 530
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

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