Skulls in ancient cemetery on Vanuatu suggest Polynesians as first settlers
Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 10:32
in Paleontology & Archaeology
(Phys.org)—A small team of researchers from France and Australia has found evidence in a very old cemetery (first discovered back in 2004) on one of the islands of Vanuatu that suggests that early Asians and Polynesians were the first human settlers, not Melanesians as many have suggested. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes how the question of the origin of the people of the Pacific Islands has confounded visitors from the west since perhaps the 16th century and why they believe their study finally provides the answers.