A New Hypothesis of Austronesian Origin and

Dispersal：Archaeological Evidence from Taiwan

Cheng-hwa TsangInstitute of History & Philology

Academia SinicaTaipei, Taiwan

Austronesian language family is one of the largest language families in the world. It covers a wide geographic area, from Madagascar to Easter Island, and from Taiwan and Hawai'i to New Zealand. This language family comprises more than 1,200

languages spoken by about 300 million of people

Since they share many common linguistic, cultural and genetic characteristics, it has been proposed that the Austronesian peoples presumably originated from a common source area.

Problem:From where did the Austronesian-speaking people originate and how did they disperse?

MANY HYPOTHESES !!

Hypotheses of the Austronesian Dispersal before 1970s

1) the Dutch linguist H. A. Kern (1899) – the coastal area.2) the Austrian Prehistorian von Heine-Geldrern (1932) –

migration waves theory-Asian mainland through Indo- China Peninsula to Island Southeast Asia.

3) the Filipino archaeologist H. Otley Beyer (1948) – Asian Mainland.

4) the Norwegian writer, explorer and ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl (1947)– Kon Tiki – South America-PolynesianHe believed that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.

www.aktivioslo.no/partnere/kon-tiki

5) Chinese ethnologist Ling Shun-sheng (1955) – China south of the Yangtze River.

6) Chinese archaeologist Kwang-chih Chang (1959) – South China

7) Janpanese Archaeologist Kano Tadao (1943) – South China and the east coast of the Indo-China Peninsula

8) Isidore Dyen (1971) – lexicostatistics - New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago 。

9) Richard Shutler Jr. and Jeffrey C. Marck (1975) – horticulturist - Taiwan

Current hypotheses about the Austronesian dispersals:

1) Express Train or Out of China-Taiwan Hypotheses:

After Diamond 1988

After: Gray, R. D., & Jordan F.M. (2000) .

Robert Blust (1985)

Peter Bellwood (1980)

2) Out of Southeast Asia Hypothesis

Welhelm G. Solheim II ( 1975)– Nusantao Hypothesis – Bismarck and Southern Mindanao

William Meacham (1988) – Sunda Land and Nanhai Land - Taiwan、Sumatra and Timor

3) Slow Boat Hypothesis

Stephen J. Oppenheimer (2001) – Y Chromosome DNA - Polynesian markers – between Wallace and New Guinea

4 Proponents of Two Polarized hypotheses: Out of China-Taiwan vs. Out of Southeast Asia

Photographed by Tsang Cheng-hwa on Dec. 11,

2006 at Uppsala, Sweden .

Shortcomings of the Current Hypotheses:

Most of the Archaeological researches on the Austonesian origin and dispersal problem have been restricted to the impressionistic comparison of the similarities among the individual artifacts (mainly pottery and stone tools), rather than to reveal the evidence from the holistic and structured comparison of the archaeological material from different sites.

.

Katherine Szabo and Sue O’Connor criticize the present state of the research on the problem of Austronesian origin and dispersal. Three major shortcomings:1. the ambiguity of similarity.2. the consistent relationships among the cultural

assemblages are not yet established. 3. Lack careful consideration of the relationship

between language and material culture.

The Multi-route Hypothesis

The prehistoric cultures distributed along the coastlines of Pearl River Delta, Hainan, the Tonkin gulf exhibited considerable uniformity in the adaptation strategies of extensively exploiting the marine resources during the period of around 6000 to 5000 BP. Probably due to these extensive marine exploitation activities, the cross- ocean interactions may have occurred. Following the ocean currents or seasonal monsoons, the people may have been able to sail to Taiwan, Philippines, Sarawak and other southern islands through any navigable routes from the northerncoast of the South China Sea.

Current Evidence

Evidence 1. The New Discoveries of the Tapenkeng Culture in Taiwan: Nanguanli and Nanguanli East.

The pottery unearthed from Nan-kuan-li are mainly jars and bowls tempered with sand, dark or reddish brown in colour with cord-marked, painted and incised decorations. A few plates with perforated low ring feet were also found. Stone tools are mainly polished adzes, arrowheads and net sinkers. It is noted that polished adzes include both quadrangular and shouldered types. One broken stone bark-cloth beater was also found. Instead of stone knives, a large number of reaping knives, which were made of pearl shells, were recovered. A few bone and antler artefacts were uncovered, including points, chisels and ornaments of beads and pendants. A large quantity of shells and fish bones from these two sites indicate that the TPK people explored and take advantage of the marine resources very intensively. But more importantly, the discovery of carbonized rice in Nan-kuan-li and millet in Nan-kuan-li East, along with a large number of shell reaping knives and stone adzes, provide us with a concrete evidence of rice and millet farming during the TPK period.

Evidence 2. Comparing the newly discovered TPK Culture material with the Neolithic material from the coasts of southeast and south China, it is noted that the Neolithic cultures of 6000-5000 BP distributed along coastlines extending from the Pearl River Delta to the northern coast of the South China Sea exhibit considerable uniformity in their tool kits as well as settlement and subsistence patterns.

svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/stories/Landsat/pearl_river.html

Dates:6000-4000 BP: cord-marked pottery4000-3000 BP: Geometric impressed pottery

鄧聰、區家發 1991

鄧聰、區家發 1991

鄧聰、區家發 1991

文物1990：11

The Guangxi and Hainan coast

Evidence 3. The Neolithic sites with corded wares and earlier dates on the SEA islands have been found only along the southern coasts of the South China Sea.

Gua Sireh

Balabok Rock ShelterBukit Tengkorak

Duyong cave

1). Migration or cultural contact?

2) Autronesian origin: China-Taiwan or Island Southeast Asia?

A new proposition: The Multi-route Hypothesis

Oppenheimer 2001, modified

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