Oceania in the ancient world (3500 BC – 800 BC). The first cities, the first writing, the first kings who called themselves gods. These articles cover Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus and the Bronze Age world that connected them.
At Kuk Swamp in Papua New Guinea's Wahgi Valley, people grew bananas on mounds by 6950 to 6440 cal BP and dug drainage ditches by about 4000 cal BP.
· 2000 BCPottery, rice husks and two skeletons from Ritidian Beach Cave date the first crossing to the Marianas to about 1500 BC and point to the Philippines.
· 1500 BCIn August 1985 Patrick Kirch's team found a waterlogged Lapita stilt-village at Talepakemalai on Eloaua Island, Mussau, with pottery and obsidian intact.
· 1300 BCFound in January 2004 after quarrying for a prawn farm, Teouma on Efate held 68 Lapita graves, a skull in Pot 2 and DNA that rewrote Pacific ancestry.
· 1000 BCLapita voyagers from the Bismarck Archipelago were the first people on Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, about 1400 to 1000 BC. DNA points to East Asia.
· 1000 BCDredging for the 'Upolu–Savai'i car ferry exposed Samoa's only known Lapita pottery. Fiona Petchey dated it to 930–800 BC; 'Upolu has sunk since.
· 930 BC
