Near Oceania and Remote Oceania

Near Oceania and Remote Oceania are two ways people use to describe parts of Oceania based on rocks, plants, animals, and where ancient humans lived. This idea was first suggested by Pawley & Green in 1973 and was explained more by Green in 1991.

Near Oceania includes the Bismarck Archipelago, the island of New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands archipelago, with Australia sometimes added. These places have more different kinds of plants and animals because the islands and atolls are closer together. Remote Oceania is spread out more across the Pacific Ocean and includes the rest of Melanesia like the Santa Cruz Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia, as well as the islands of Polynesia and Micronesia.

Etymology

The terms Near Oceania and Remote Oceania were suggested by scientists Roger Curtis Green and Andrew Pawley in 1973. Near Oceania includes places like the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, but not the Santa Cruz Islands. These new terms help us understand the area better than the old names Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, which were created by a French explorer in the 1800s. Even though some scientists prefer the new terms, the old names are still used today.

Prehistory

Near Oceania

When a scientist named Alfred Russel Wallace visited Nusantara, he noticed big differences in plants and animals between the Australia-New Guinea area and Southeast Asia. He thought these differences came from old lands that are now underwater, connecting islands to continents.

During cold times called the Pleistocene, the sea level was much lower, linking places like the Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and small islands to the Australian mainland. These connected lands were called "Sahul". To the north and east of New Guinea, islands such as the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomons were never connected to Sahul because deep waters separated them.

People first arrived in this area between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. Even when sea levels were lowest, people had to travel over water to reach these islands.

Remote Oceania

The islands of Remote Oceania were settled around the 12th century BC by sea travelers from the Austronesian Lapita culture. These travelers came from areas now known as Taiwan and the northern Philippines. Later, people with ancestry from Papua also moved to these islands around the 1st millennium BC.