Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific

The extraordinary sixty-thousand-year history of how the Pacific islands were settled. ‘Takes readers on a narrative odyssey’ Wall Street Journal, Books of the Year

‘Highlights a dizzying burst of new research’ The Economist

‘A refreshing addition to the canon of literature that contemplates Oceanic navigation’ Noelle Kahanu

‘I would not be surprised if, after reading this masterpiece, many readers are compelled to take up voyaging themselves’ Science Magazine

Thousands of islands, inhabited by a multitude of different peoples, are scattered across the vastness of the Pacific. The first European explorers to visit Oceania, from the sixteenth century on, were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving so many miles from the nearest continents. Who were these people and where did they come from?

In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between Asia and the Americas. Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from linguistics, archaeology, and the re-enactment of voyages, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migrations, the sea-going technologies that enabled them, and the societies that they left in their wake.