This book

• offers a state-of-the-art and fully detailed chronological narrative of how Pacific Oceania came to be inhabited over a long time scale, posing fundamental questions both for Pacific Oceania and for global archaeology.
• asks how and why did this vast sea of islands come to be inhabited over the last several millennia, transcending significant change in ecology, demography, and society? What were the roles of overseas contacts in the development of social networks, economic trade, and population dynamics? What can any or all of the thousands of islands offer as ideal model systems for comprehending globally significant issues of human-environment relations and coping with changing circumstances of natural and cultural history? What do the island archaeology records reveal about coastal setting as part of the larger human experience? How does Pacific Oceanic archaeology relate with a larger Asia-Pacific context or with the scope of world archaeology?
• addresses these questions and more, providing an updated synthesis of this important region.
• will be helpful for scholars of Asia-Pacific archaeology and anthropology and will support students investigating the archaeology of Pacific Oceania.