Prehistoric Maritime Cultures and Seafaring in East Asia

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxix

   PDF

2. Neolithic and Metal Age Maritime Cultures of South China and Southeast Asia

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. A Synthetic Analysis of the Neolithic Origins of Eastern and Southeastern Asia’s Maritime Silk Road

      • Chunming Wu

      Pages 3-40

   3. A Maritime Route Brought First Farmers to Mainland Southeast Asia

      • Charles F. W. Higham

      Pages 41-52

   4. The Origins, Expansion and Decline of Early Hunter-Gatherers Along the South China Coast

      • Hsiao-chun Hung, Chi Zhang

      Pages 53-79

   5. Pollen Evidence for Human-Induced Landscape Change Reveals the History of Agricultural Development in Southeastern China

      • Ting Ma, Zhuo Zheng

      Pages 81-88

   6. Subsistence Patterns Associated with Shell Middens from the Pre-Qin Period in the Coastal Region of China

      • Luo Zhao

      Pages 89-101

   7. A Preliminary Analysis of the Development of Neolithic Culture in Coastal Region of Guangdong

      • Yan Li

      Pages 103-126

   8. Early Maritime Subsistence and Adaptive Ocean Cultures Along the Beibu Gulf Coast

      • Zhen Li

      Pages 127-139

   9. The Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age on the Northeastern Coast of Vietnam

      • Kim Dung Nguyen

      Pages 141-157

   10. Why Rice Farmers Don’t Sail: Coastal Subsistence Traditions and Maritime Trends in Early China

       • Ling Qin, Dorian Q. Fuller

       Pages 159-191

3. Prehistoric Seafaring and Exchange: From Coastal Waters to the Open Sea

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 193-193

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   2. Social Reciprocity Facilitated Overseas Exchange in Early Austronesian Cultures

      • Barry Vladimir Rolett

      Pages 195-205

   3. Perspectives on Early Holocene Maritime Ethnic Groups of the Taiwan Strait Based on the “Liangdao Man” Skeletons

      • Chun-Yu Chen

      Pages 207-215

   4. Coast to Coast: The Spread of Cereal Cultivation in the Taiwan Strait Region Before 3500 BP

      • Tuukka Kaikkonen

      Pages 217-233

   5. A Study of Geometric Stamped Pattern Pottery and Early Maritime Cultural Interactions Between Mainland China and Taiwan

      • Lin Fu

      Pages 235-249

   6. Tapa Beaters from 5000 to 4200 BP in Taiwan

      • Su-Chiu Kuo

      Pages 251-268

   7. Double-Shouldered Barkcloth Beaters and Prehistoric Seafaring in South China and Southeast Asia

      • Maya Hayashi Tang, Kim Dung Nguyen, Mana Hayashi Tang, Chung Tang

      Pages 269-291

   8. Prehistoric Migration and Cultural Change in the Philippine Archipelago

      • Eusebio Z. Dizon

      Pages 293-314

   9. Prehistoric Ryūkyūan Seafaring: A Cultural and Environmental Perspective

      • Naoko Kinoshita

      Pages 315-332

This book focuses on prehistoric East Asian maritime cultures that pre-dated the Maritime Silk Road, the "Four Seas" and "Four Oceans" navigation system recorded in historical documents of ancient China. Origins of the Maritime Silk Road can be traced to prosperous Neolithic and Metal Age maritime-oriented cultures dispersed along the coastlines of prehistoric China and Southeast Asia.


The topics explored here include Neolithisation and the development of prehistoric maritime cultures during the Neolithic and early Metal Age; the expansion and interaction of these cultures along coastlines and across straits; the "two-layer" hypothesis for explaining genetic and cultural diversity in south China and Southeast Asia; prehistoric seafaring and early sea routes; the paleogeography and vegetation history of coastal regions; Neolithic maritime livelihoods based on hunting/fishing/foraging adaptations; rice and millet cultivation and their dispersal along the coast and across the open sea; and interaction between farmers and maritime-oriented hunter/fisher/foragers. In addition, a series of case studies enhances understanding of the development of prehistoric navigation and the origin of the Maritime Silk Road in the Asia-Pacific region.

• Neolithic Seascape
• Prehistoric Seafaring
• Maritime Culture
• Prehistoric Maritime Silk Road
• Asia-Pacific Navigation

“The book provides a good collection of archaeological information on numerous sites in East Asia, particularly along the coasts of China, Taiwan, and the Southeast Asian mainland that, until recently, have not been available to international readers. … the book’s main thesis that early maritime activities in the region were undoubtedly present and vibrant for thousands of years, paving the way for the so-called Maritime Silk Road is well conveyed.” (Ligaya S. P. Lacsina, Journal of Maritime Archaeology, Vol. 17 (2), 2022)

• The Center for Maritime Archaeology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

  Chunming Wu

• Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, USA

  Barry Vladimir Rolett

​Chunming Wu ( B.A. and M.A. in Archaeology and PH.D. in Chinese History from Xiamen University)  is currently a researcher at Xiamen University’s Center for Maritime Archaeology. Dr. Wu’s interests are in the field of maritime archaeology, and the prehistoric culture and early aboriginal ethno- history of southeast China and Southeast Asia. He was awarded a visiting scholarship by the American Council of Learned Society & Luce Foundation at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and Harvard Yenching Institute, Harvard University.
He has published 6 monographs: Archaeological Research of the History and Cultures of Prehistoric Aboriginals in Southeast China (1999), Archaeological Research of Capital of Min-Yue Kingdom of Han Dynasty(1998), The Shipwreck Archaeology in Seas Surrounding China (2003), Maritime Archaeology (2007), The Maritime Cultural Interaction between Indigenous Yue and Austronesian (2012), The Archaeological and Historical Research on the Maritime Cultural Heritage (2016), and more than 150 academic papers.



Barry Vladimir Rolett (Pomona College, B.A.; Yale University, M.Phil. and Ph.D.) is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has conducted archaeological research in Polynesia and on the coast of southeast China. Polynesian origins can be traced to southeast China, explaining why his research drew him there.
Dr. Rolett's work in China is collaborative and interdisciplinary, investigating Neolithic cultures, maritime adaptation, the spread of rice agriculture and the ultimate origins of the Polynesians. As part of this work, he helped initiate the first Sino-American collaboration for archaeological research in Fujian.


In the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, Dr. Rolett has led more than twenty expeditions and collaborated with the local community to establish the Te Ana Peua archaeology museum, which exhibits and curates the artifacts discovered during their projects.  

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