The Austronesians were crazy and extraordinary. Starting about ~5,000 years ago they set off from the environs of Taiwan, and began to push outward. For ~30,000 years the people of Melanesia had defined the eastern edge of human habitation, but the Polynesian branch of the Austronesians blasted past that, going alway the way to Hawaii … Continue reading The Austronesian explosion was crazier than we thought