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Klappentext The exploration and colonisation of the Pacific is one of the most remarkable episodes of human prehistory. Early sea-going explorers had no prior knowledge of Pacific geography, no documents to record their route, no metal, no instruments for measuring time and none for navigation. This book, now in paperback, represents a major advance in knowledge of the settlement of the Pacific. Geoffrey Irwin uses an innovative model to establish a detailed theory of prehistoric navigation. Zusammenfassung The colonisation of the Pacific is a remarkable episode of human prehistory. Early explorers had no knowledge of Pacific geography! no instruments for measuring time and none for exploration. This book is a reassessment of the settlement of the Pacific. It suggests that exploration was rapid and purposeful and that navigation methods progressively improved. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. An introduction to the Pacific and the theory of its settlement; 2. Pleistocene voyaging and the settlement of Greater Australia and its Near Oceanic neighbours; 3. Issues in Lapita studies and the background to Oceanic colonisation; 4. Against, across and down the wind: a case for the systematic exploration of the remote Pacific; 5. The colonisation of Eastern Melanesia, West Polynesia and Central East Polynesia; 6. The colonisation of Hawaii, New Zealand and their neighbours; 7. Issues in the colonisation of Micronesia; 8. Voyaging by computer: experiments in the exploration of the remote Pacific Ocean; 9. Voyaging after colonisation and the study of culture change; 10. The rediscovery of Pacific exploration; Bibliography; Index.
