In new research, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Australian National University and the University of Guam analyzed ancient DNA from two humans who lived on Guam 2,200 years ago and found that their ancestry is linked to the Philippines. Moreover, they are closely related to ancient humans from Vanuatu and Tonga, suggesting that the early Mariana Islanders may have been involved in the colonization of Polynesia.
Tahitian warrior dugouts from ‘
Le Costume Ancien et Moderne’ by Giulio Ferrario, Milan, between 1816 and 1827.
Humans reached the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific by 3,500 years ago, contemporaneous with or even earlier than the initial peopling of Polynesia.
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IMAGE: Excavation work area outside the Ritidian Beach Cave site in northern Guam, Mariana Islands. view more
Credit: Hsiao-chun Hung
To reach the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific, humans crossed more than 2,000 kilometres of open ocean, and around 2,000 years earlier than any other sea travel over an equally long distance. They settled in the Marianas around 3,500 years ago, slightly earlier than the initial settlement of Polynesia. We know more about the settlement of Polynesia than we do about the settlement of the Mariana Islands , says first author Irina Pugach, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The researchers wanted to find out where people came from to get to the Marianas and how the ancestors of the present Mariana Islanders, the Chamorro, might be related to Polynesians.
Ancient DNA suggests people from Philippines may have settled Mariana Islands
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Archaeologist Mike T. Carson is shown examining the remains of early settlers on the island of Guam in the Western Pacific.
Photo by Hsiao-chun Hung
Dec. 22 (UPI) New research suggests people from the Philippines may have first settled the Mariana Islands. According to the study, published online this week in the journal PNAS, early inhabitants of the Mariana Islands and Polynesia shared common ancestors.
Numerous studies have investigated the origins of the first Polynesian settlers, but little attention has been given to the peopling of the Mariana Islands, situated more than 1,600 miles east of the Philippines.