Fen Edge Archaeology Group - Monthly talk

‘Archaeology and Genetics in Oceania: the History of Humans and Their Crops in the Pacific’ by Andrew Clarke (Early Career Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge) Thursday 19 January 2017 at 7.30 pm (Doors open 7.15 pm) The Tony Cooper Suite, Cottenham Village College (Note: The Tony Cooper Suite is in the sixth form block behind the main school) The islands of Oceania (or the Pacific Ocean) are fascinating places to study human history. The Pacific Ocean covers one third of the Earth’s surface and, although dominated by water, contains some 25,000 islands. The majority of these islands were either inhabited in prehistory (the pre-European era) or show evidence of prehistoric human contact. Oceania is the location of some of the oldest human migration events (e.g., New Guinea) and some of the most recent (e.g., New Zealand). This lecture will describe how archaeology and genetics are being combined to understand how humans have moved across the Pacific, the tempo and mode of crop selection, and how agriculture has spread across a vast island world. Some areas of current research and unresolved questions in the human history of the Pacific will also be discussed. The speaker previously announced had to cancel so we are grateful to Andrew for stepping-in.