Barry V. Rolett

Biography

      Barry Rolett is a specialist in the archaeology of Polynesia and southeast China. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1989 and joined the University of Hawaii faculty during the same year. Dr. Rolett served as Visiting Associate Professor of Archaeology at Harvard University for two years (1998/99 and 2000/01). He has conducted archaeological fieldwork in the southwest United States, France, Belize (Central America), French Polynesia, Taiwan, and Fujian (China).

Abstract

Neolithic Migrations in Southeast China: A Tribute to Ben Rouse

      Neolithic peoples set out from mainland southeast China to settle Taiwan around 5000 BP. Crossing the Taiwan Strait marked the beginning of a long series of migrations that eventually led across the Pacific. This is the history of the Austronesians, whose descendants include the modern peoples of Island Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

      The Neolithic crossing from mainland China to Taiwan offers an excellent example of migration, the subject of Ben Rouse's Migrations in Prehistory: Inferring Population Movement from Cultural Remains (1986, Yale University Press). My current research involves archaeological and environmental science fieldwork in coastal southeast China. Drawing upon Rouse's work, this paper evaluates hypotheses to explain early seafaring in the Taiwan Strait and the causes for the Neolithic migration to Taiwan.