From about 3000 BC, farmers on the island of Taiwan who spoke the ancestral Austronesian language began to move south in boats with outriggers, bringing rice, millet, pigs, dogs and pottery. They reached the Philippines by 2200 BC, spread across Indonesia, and about 1500 BC had reached the Bismarck Archipelago, from where the Lapita people sailed on to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, and later to the far corners of Polynesia, as well as to Madagascar by about 700 AD. The Austronesian languages, from Malagasy to Hawaiian and Maori, are the most widespread language family of the pre-modern world, spanning half the globe.
Before and after
- c. 3,101 BCENarmer unifies Egypt
- from c. 3,100 BCE to 2,686 BCEEarly Dynastic Period of Egypt
- from 31st century BCE to 14th century BCEConstruction of Stonehenge
- from 31st century BCE to 20th century BCECorded Ware culture
- c. 3,000s BCEThe Austronesian expansion begins from Taiwan
- c. 3,000s BCEYamnaya herders spread across Europe and Asia
- c. 3,000 BCECuneiform
- from c. 3,000 BCE to 1,800 BCEIndus Valley Civilization
- from c. 3,000 BCE to 2,240 BCEEbla
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- from c. 1,200 BCE to 800 BCEUrnfield culture
- 11th century BCEThe Bantu expansion begins
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires.