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Language continuity despite population replacement in Remote Oceania
- Cosimo Posth ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0002-8206-39071 na1,
- Kathrin Nägele1 na1,
- Heidi Colleran ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0002-2126-81162,
- Frédérique Valentin3,
- Stuart Bedford2,4,
- Kaitip W. Kami2,5,
- Richard Shing5,
- Hallie Buckley6,
- Rebecca Kinaston1,6,
- Mary Walworth2,
- Geoffrey R. Clark7,
- Christian Reepmeyer8,
- James Flexner9,
- Tamara Maric10,
- Johannes Moser11,
- Julia Gresky ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0003-3493-275712,
- Lawrence Kiko13,
- Kathryn J. Robson14,
- Kathryn Auckland15,
- Stephen J. Oppenheimer ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0002-4838-755316,
- Adrian V. S. Hill ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0003-0900-962915,
- Alexander J. Mentzer ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0002-4502-220915,
- Jana Zech17,
- Fiona Petchey ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0002-3308-998318,
- Patrick Roberts17,
- Choongwon Jeong1,
- Russell D. Gray2,
- Johannes Krause ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0001-9144-39201 &
- …
- Adam Powell ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0002-2846-37901,2
Nature Ecology & Evolutionvolume 2, pages731–740 (2018)Cite this article
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224Citations
274Altmetric
Abstract
Recent genomic analyses show that the earliest peoples reaching Remote Oceania—associated with Austronesian-speaking Lapita culture—were almost completely East Asian, without detectable Papuan ancestry. However, Papuan-related genetic ancestry is found across present-day Pacific populations, indicating that peoples from Near Oceania have played a significant, but largely unknown, ancestral role. Here, new genome-wide data from 19 ancient South Pacific individuals provide direct evidence of a so-far undescribed Papuan expansion into Remote Oceania starting ~2,500 yr bp, far earlier than previously estimated and supporting a model from historical linguistics. New genome-wide data from 27 contemporary ni-Vanuatu demonstrate a subsequent and almost complete replacement of Lapita-Austronesian by Near Oceanian ancestry. Despite this massive demographic change, incoming Papuan languages did not replace Austronesian languages. Population replacement with language continuity is extremely rare—if not unprecedented—in human history. Our analyses show that rather than one large-scale event, the process was incremental and complex, with repeated migrations and sex-biased admixture with peoples from the Bismarck Archipelago.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the communities in Malakula and Efate in Vanuatu who participated in this study, and particularly all sample donors. We are grateful to M. Stoneking, I. Pugach and C.-C. Wang for comments, and to G. Brandt, R. Bianco and technicians at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History for laboratory support. This research was supported by the Max Planck Society. Archaeological investigations on Malakula, Vanuatu were funded by the Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund, the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand (Fast-Start 9011/3602128; 04-U00–007), a National Geographic Scientific Research grant (7738–04) and an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant (DP0880789). Investigations on Tanna, Vanuatu were supported by an Australian Research Council Discover Project grant (DP160103578). F.V. is funded by CNRS-UMR 7041, H.B. is funded by the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand (Standard Grant UOO0917) and a University of Otago Research Grant, and A.P. is funded by European Research Council Starting Grant ‘Waves’ (ERC758967).
Author information
These authors contributed equally: Cosimo Posth, Kathrin Nägele.
Authors and Affiliations
Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
Cosimo Posth, Kathrin Nägele, Rebecca Kinaston, Choongwon Jeong, Johannes Krause & Adam Powell
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
Heidi Colleran, Stuart Bedford, Kaitip W. Kami, Mary Walworth, Russell D. Gray & Adam Powell
Maison de l’Archéologie et de l’Ethnologie, CNRS, UMR 7041, Nanterre, France
Frédérique Valentin
School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Stuart Bedford
Vanuatu Cultural Centre, Port-Vila, Vanuatu
Kaitip W. Kami & Richard Shing
Department of Anatomy, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Hallie Buckley & Rebecca Kinaston
Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Geoffrey R. Clark
College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Christian Reepmeyer
Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
James Flexner
Service de la Culture et du Patrimoine, Punaauia, Tahiti, French Polynesia
Tamara Maric
Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures, German Archaeological Institute, Bonn, Germany
Johannes Moser
Department of Natural Sciences, German Archaeological Institute, Berlin, Germany
Julia Gresky
Solomon Islands National Museum, Honiara, Solomon Islands
Lawrence Kiko
MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
Kathryn J. Robson
Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Kathryn Auckland, Adrian V. S. Hill & Alexander J. Mentzer
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Stephen J. Oppenheimer
Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
Jana Zech & Patrick Roberts
Waikato Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, The University of Waikato , Hamilton, New Zealand
Fiona Petchey
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Contributions
F.V., S.B., R.S., H.B., R.K., G.R.C., C.R., J.F., T.M., J.M., J.G. and L.K. contributed archaeological material. H.C., K.W.K. and A.P. contributed the 27 present-day Vanuatu samples. J.Z., F.P. and P.R. contributed isotopic data and radiocarbon date calibrations. M.W. and R.D.G. contributed linguistic interpretation. F.V., S.B., J.M., F.P. and P.R. contributed text in theSupplementary Information. K.J.R., K.A., S.J.O., A.V.S.H. and A.J.M. contributed geographical labels for the ref.32 samples. C.P. and K.N. performed ancient DNA laboratory work. C.P., K.N., C.J. and A.P. performed population genetic analyses. C.P., K.N., H.C. and A.P. wrote the paper with input from F.V., S.B., H.B., M.W., F.P., P.R., C.J., R.D.G. and J.K. C.P. and A.P. created the figures. The study was conceived and coordinated by C.P., K.N., H.C., R.D.G., J.K. and A.P.
Corresponding authors
Correspondence toCosimo Posth,Heidi Colleran,Johannes Krause orAdam Powell.
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Posth, C., Nägele, K., Colleran, H.et al. Language continuity despite population replacement in Remote Oceania.Nat Ecol Evol2, 731–740 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0498-2
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