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Oceania is a key region for studying human dispersals, adaptations and interactions with other hominin populations. Although archaeological evidence now reveals occupation of the region by approximately 65–45 000 years ago, its human fossil record, which has the best potential to provide direct insights into ecological adaptations and population relationships, has remained much more elusive. Here, we apply radiocarbon dating and stable isotope approaches to the earliest human remains so far excavated on the islands of Near and Remote Oceania to explore the chronology and diets of the first preserved human individuals to step across these Pacific frontiers. We demonstrate that the oldest human (or indeed hominin) fossil outside of the mainland New Guinea-Aru area dates to approximately 11 800 years ago. Furthermore, although these early sea-faring populations have been associated with a specialized coastal adaptation, we show that Late Pleistocene–Holocene humans living on islands in the Bismarck Archipelago and in Vanuatu display a persistent reliance on interior tropical forest resources. We argue that local tropical habitats, rather than purely coasts or, later, arriving domesticates, should be emphasized in discussions of human diets and cultural practices from the onset of our species' arrival in this part of the world. 1. Introduction 2. Background (a) Human colonization of near and remote Oceania (b) Stable isotope analysis and past human adaptations in the tropics 3. Methods (a) Radiocarbon dating (b) Stable isotope analysis (c) Phytolith analysis of dental calculus 4. Results (a) Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling (b) Stable isotope analysis (c) Phytolith analysis of dental calculus 5. Discussion and conclusion

Culture, by its very nature, is always at risk of change – whether through transformation, destruction or redefinition. So how might culture be said to be particularly at risk in the context of ‘na...

The archipelago of Vanuatu has been at the crossroads of human population movements in the Pacific for the past three millennia. To help address several open questions regarding the history of these movements, we generated genome-wide data for 11 ancient individuals from the island of Efate dating from its earliest settlement to the recent past, including five associated with the Chief Roi Mata?s Domain World Heritage Area, and analyzed them in conjunction with 34 published ancient individuals from Vanuatu and elsewhere in Oceania, as well as present-day populations. Our results outline three distinct periods of population transformations. First, the four earliest individuals, from the Lapita-period site of Teouma, are concordant with eight previously described Lapita-associated individuals from Vanuatu and Tonga in having almost all of their ancestry from a ?First Remote Oceanian? source related to East and Southeast Asians. Second, both the Papuan ancestry predominating in Vanuatu for the past 2,500 years and the smaller component of Papuan ancestry found in Polynesians can be modeled as deriving from a single source most likely originating in New Britain, suggesting that the movement of people carrying this ancestry to Remote Oceania closely followed that of the First Remote Oceanians in time and space. Third, the Chief Roi Mata?s Domain individuals descend from a mixture of Vanuatu- and Polynesian-derived ancestry and are related to Polynesian-influenced communities today in central, but not southern, Vanuatu, demonstrating Polynesian genetic input in multiple groups with independent histories. Introduction Results - Sample and Data Preparation - PCA - Explicit Admixture Modeling - Dates of Admixture - Sources of Papuan and FRO Ancestry - Polynesian Genetic Legacy - Admixture Graph Analysis Discussion STAR★Methods - Key Resources Table - Resource Availability -- Lead Contact -- Materials Availability -- Data and Code Availability - Experimental Model and Subject Details -- Teouma -- Mangaas -- Eretok -- Taplins -- Banana Bay - Method Details -- Ancient DNA laboratory procedures -- Bioinformatic processing -- Uniparental haplogroups and authentication -- Radiocarbon Dates - Quantification and Statistical Analysis -- Dataset construction -- PCA -- Formal modeling of admixture -- Dates of admixture -- f4 regression analysis -- Admixture graph fitting

This research is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP160103578) and Valentin’s travel to Vanuatu by CNRS UMR 7041.

SummaryAncient DNA analysis of three individuals dated to ~3000 years before present (BP) from Vanuatu and one ~2600 BP individual from Tonga has revealed that the first inhabitants of Remote Oceania (“First Remote Oceanians”) were almost entirely of East Asian ancestry, and thus their ancestors passed New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands with minimal admixture with the Papuan groups they encountered [1]. However, all present-day populations in Near and Remote Oceania harbor 25-100% Papuan ancestry, implying that there must have been at least one later stream of migration eastward from Near Oceania. We generated genome-wide data for 14 ancient individuals from Efate and Epi Islands in Vanuatu ranging from 3,000-150 BP, along with 185 present-day Vanuatu individuals from 18 islands. We show that people of almost entirely Papuan ancestry had arrived in Vanuatu by 2400 BP, an event that coincided with the end of the Lapita cultural period, changes in skeletal morphology, and the cessation of long-distance trade between Near and Remote Oceania [2]. First Remote Oceanian ancestry subsequently increased via admixture but remains at 10-20% in most islands. Through a fine-grained comparison of ancestry profiles in Vanuatu and Polynesia with diverse groups in Near Oceania, we find that Papuan ancestry in Vanuatu is consistent with deriving from the Bismarck Archipelago instead of the geographically closer Solomon Islands. Papuan ancestry in Polynesia also shows connections to the ancestry profiles present in the Bismarck Archipelago but is more similar to Tolai from New Britain and Tutuba from Vanuatu than to the ancient Vanuatu individuals and the great majority of present-day Vanuatu populations. This suggests a third eastward stream of migration from Near to Remote Oceania bringing a different type of Papuan ancestry.

Recent genomic analyses show that the earliest peoples reaching Remote Oceania—associated with Austronesian-speaking Lapita culture—were almost completely East Asian, without detectable Papuan ancestry. However, Papuan-related genetic ancestry is found across present-day Pacific populations, indicating that peoples from Near Oceania have played a significant, but largely unknown, ancestral role. Here, new genome-wide data from 19 ancient South Pacific individuals provide direct evidence of a so-far undescribed Papuan expansion into Remote Oceania starting ~2,500 yr bp, far earlier than previously estimated and supporting a model from historical linguistics. New genome-wide data from 27 contemporary ni-Vanuatu demonstrate a subsequent and almost complete replacement of Lapita-Austronesian by Near Oceanian ancestry. Despite this massive demographic change, incoming Papuan languages did not replace Austronesian languages. Population replacement with language continuity is extremely rare—if not unprecedented—in human history. Our analyses show that rather than one large-scale event, the process was incremental and complex, with repeated migrations and sex-biased admixture with peoples from the Bismarck Archipelago. Genome-wide data from ancient and modern individuals in Remote Oceania indicate population replacement but language continuity over the past 2,500 years. Papuan migrations led to almost complete genetic replacement of in situ East Asian-derived populations, but not replacement of Austronesian languages.

This chapter outlines an ongoing research program which investigates the evolving engagements between ni-Vanuatu and Europeans in the Port Sandwich region (in southern Malakula, Vanuatu) during the period from 1774 to 1915. The research has drawn on a multiplicity of sources—including oral traditions, historic documents, and archaeological surveys and excavations—in an attempt to provide new insights into the process of colonization from both an indigenous and European perspective. For instance, James Cook visited the ‘ideal’ harbour in 1774. Following his positive report of the location, almost all foreign vessels visiting northern Vanuatu over the next 100 years would use Port Sandwich as a base. It became an early focus for sustained European settlement. Although Vanuatu (or the New Hebrides, as it was then known) became a formalized colony in 1906, land purchases in Port Sandwich began as early as the 1870s. Moreover, a French military camp was established earlier, in 1886, and Catholic missionaries arrived two years later. Increasing tensions developed and conflict inevitably erupted. Indigenous resistance continued for decades, and, by 1913, as evidence suggests there was massive depopulation.

Resume Les restes humains dates entre 2400 et 1800 BP (Mangaasi ancien), decouverts dans le village de Mangaliliu (Nord Efate, Vanuatu central) sont ceux d'une jeune femme adulte, de sante dentaire mediocre. Le crâne, a la limite de la dolichocrânie, est haut. La face, dotee d'un prognathisme alveolaire marque, se singularise par une hypoplasie bilaterale des zygomatiques et un defaut de la synarthrose zygomatico-zygomatique gauche. Le squelette postcrânien est plutot gracile et la stature avoisine 165,5 cm. Elle presente des similitudes avec ses contemporains des archipels de Tonga, Fidji et Nouvelle-Caledonie et, en particulier, avec la femme de Kone (Nouvelle-Caledonie). Pour citer cet article : F. Valentin et al., C. R. Palevol 4 (2005).