Migration and Interaction between Madagascar and Eastern Africa, 500 BCE–1000 CE: An Archaeological Perspective

Ekblom, Anneli; Lane, Paul; Radimilahy, Chantal; Rakotoarisoa, Jean-Aimé; Sinclair, Paul; Virah‐Sawmy, Malika

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-33822-4_9

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Other archaeological sites in the north, such as Lakaton'I Anja, Irodo, and Iharana, demonstrate trade connections with East Africa (6,32,33,34). However, in arid southern Madagascar there are trade centers that are contemporary with but much smaller than Mahilaka (such as the archaeological sites of Andranosoa, Mahirane, and Andaro), and these also indicate permanent occupation and trade connections with East Africa (11,35,36).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2). Although historical, linguistic, ethnographic, archeological, and genetic studies confirm the dual African and Asian influences (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11), no consensus exists regarding how, where, and when the two worlds met and merged. The lack of written history and the limited archeological evidence make it difficult to differentiate (i) founding myths and oral history, (ii) scientific hypothesis (iii), and pure speculation sometimes spread with political agenda.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…For instance, whether the Malagasy are of mainly African or Asian ancestry is still vigorously debated. Along with African and Austronesian connections (11), contributions from Arabic, Indian, Papuan, and/or Jewish populations have been suggested for a long time (12), as have the existence and heritage of the legendary first settlers of Madagascar, namely huntergatherers called variously "Vazimba," "Kimosy," or "Gola" (13).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Genomic landscape of human diversity across Madagascar

Pierron

Heiske

Razafindrazaka

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Although situated ∼400 km from the east coast of Africa, Madagascar exhibits cultural, linguistic, and genetic traits from both Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa. The settlement history remains contentious; we therefore used a grid-based approach to sample at high resolution the genomic diversity (including maternal lineages, paternal lineages, and genome-wide data) across 257 villages and 2,704 Malagasy individuals. We find a common Bantu and Austronesian descent for all Malagasy individuals with a limited paternal contribution from Europe and the Middle East. Admixture and demographic growth happened recently, suggesting a rapid settlement of Madagascar during the last millennium. However, the distribution of African and Asian ancestry across the island reveals that the admixture was sex biased and happened heterogeneously across Madagascar, suggesting independent colonization of Madagascar from Africa and Asia rather than settlement by an already admixed population. In addition, there are geographic influences on the present genomic diversity, independent of the admixture, showing that a few centuries is sufficient to produce detectable genetic structure in human populations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Genomic landscape of human diversity across Madagascar

Pierron

Heiske

Razafindrazaka

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Early fleeting colonization followed considerably later by lasting habitation, or early and continuing settlement that was low-density and cryptic until late florescence, are the implicit settlement models. Yet concerns exist about the provenance, age and modification of megafaunal bones [ 29 – 31 ], agencies of environmental change [ 28 , 32 ] and interpretation of OSL results [ 2 , 24 ]. In addition, inferring colonization up to 5000 y B.P.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New evidence of megafaunal bone damage indicates late colonization of Madagascar

et al. 2018

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The estimated period in which human colonization of Madagascar began has expanded recently to 5000–1000 y B.P., six times its range in 1990, prompting revised thinking about early migration sources, routes, maritime capability and environmental changes. Cited evidence of colonization age includes anthropogenic palaeoecological data 2500–2000 y B.P., megafaunal butchery marks 4200–1900 y B.P. and OSL dating to 4400 y B.P. of the Lakaton’i Anja occupation site. Using large samples of newly-excavated bone from sites in which megafaunal butchery was earlier dated >2000 y B.P. we find no butchery marks until ~1200 y B.P., with associated sedimentary and palynological data of initial human impact about the same time. Close analysis of the Lakaton’i Anja chronology suggests the site dates <1500 y B.P. Diverse evidence from bone damage, palaeoecology, genomic and linguistic history, archaeology, introduced biota and seafaring capability indicate initial human colonization of Madagascar 1350–1100 y B.P.

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“…With few reservations, archaeologists have accepted this alignment of archaeological and environmental habitation chronologies around a mid Holocene date (e.g. Douglass & Zinke 2015: 272–73; Radimilahy & Crossland 2015: 500; Crowther et al 2016: 6635; Ekblom et al 2016: 201–10; Douglass 2017: 338). That age has also been adopted by some palaeoecologists (e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%