Understanding the Early Phases of Neolithic Dispersal in the Western Pacific

The project investigates the transition of mainland Asian cultures to a world of islands from 6000-3500 years ago by an archaeological and palaeoenvironmental study of near-Asian islands including the Philippines and Taiwan. This transition is the formative process that saw island colonisation extend out into the Pacific and Indian Oceans in subsequent millennia, and the project aims to build on earlier archaeological work by taking a colonisation approach that assesses resource richness and other environmental forces on the populations. Outcomes include a new and more detailed account of neolithic expansion including accounts of settlement pattern, subsistence development and environmental relationships.