DNA study looks far into Pacific past

Researchers have stepped back thousands of years to make major finds about the culture regarded as ancient ancestors of Polynesians today.

Two just-published papers form the most comprehensive study ever done into the origins of people in Vanuatu, seen as a geographic gateway from Asia to the Remote Pacific.

Australian National University (ANU)-led research drew on a combination of DNA analyses of ancient skeletons and modern samples, with archaeological evidence, to put together a complete timeline of migration to the island nation.

It shows Vanuatu’s first people were of the Lapita culture and arrived 3000 years ago from Southeast Asia, followed by Papuan arrivals from the island of New Britain, part of the nation of Papua New Guinea.

Dr Stuart Bedford of ANU said it was the first time researchers had been able to look at a full sequence of DNA samples from Vanuatu.

“We’ve been able to track a complete genetic timeline at regular intervals, starting with the first inhabitants right through to modern times,” Bedford said. “The people of Vanuatu today, like many peoples of the Pacific, can claim a dual heritage.”

Bedford said the strength of the Lapita culture was evident in the continuity of the language. “[They] spoke a form of Austronesian.

“That language persisted and over 120 descendant languages continue to be spoken today, making Vanuatu the most linguistically diverse place on Earth per capita.

“This is a unique case, where a population’s genetic ancestry was replaced but its languages continued.”

Retracing the settling of the Pacific has long been a complex challenge for scientists, but DNA technology has helped fill in some crucial gaps.

It’s now assumed voyagers settled Near Oceania sometime between 50,000BC and 25,000BC, before Austronesians left Taiwan around 2000BC and spread through the islands of Southeast Asia.

They eventually gave birth to the distinct Lapita people, from which arose Polynesian cultures.