| Abstract: |
Since 1952, when Gifford and I found Lapita pottery at Site 13, New Caledonia, I have been interested in the origin of Lapita pottery and its Austronesian makers. In 1975, Shutler and Marck suggested Taiwan as the Austronesian Homeland. In this paper I continue to pursue that goal. A review of the literature suggests that there is a substratum of Red Ware pottery all the way from Taiwan to the southern Philippines, and on to eastern Indonesia. It is also found in the Mariana Islands of Micronesia, and east to western Polynesia through Melanesia. While the dating is still insecure, there is still a strong possibility that the Red-slipped and Lime impressed pottery of the Marianas and Northern Luzon, as well as that in eastern Indonesia, Near and Remote Oceania, is related to that of the Balobok Rockshelter in the southern Philippines. If the 4500 BP date of the Red-slipped and Lime-impressed pottery at Balobok Rockshelter is confirmed by further excavations, then the southern Philippines and not Taiwan, is a strong candidate for the Austronesian Homeland.
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