Pioneers of the Island of Melanesia

A Joint project between British, Dutch, German and Swedish teams
including Chris Gosden (Oxford)

The aim of this three-year (2002–2005) project was to investigate the deep prehistory of Island Melanesia, from the time of first settlement some 40.000 years ago until the arrival of speakers of Austronesian languages less than 4.000 years ago.

The project combines the insights of linguistics, genetics, archaeology, and biological anthropology, all fields in which the understanding of the prehistory in this part of the world has developed significantly in the last few years.