AAn agricultural worker digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation on the Pacific island of Efate in Vanuatu stumbled upon an extraordinary archaeological discovery: a cemetery containing the oldest human skeletons ever found in the Pacific Islands. Numbering dozens of individuals, the graves belonged to a mysterious, seafaring culture known as the Lapita. Emerging from island Southeast Asia around 3,000 years ago, the Lapita accomplished an astonishing feat of human exploration: venturing beyond the sight of land into the remote, uncharted Pacific.
BBefore the Lapita, human voyagers had island-hopped across the western Pacific, where adjacent landmasses were usually visible on the horizon. But beyond the Solomon Islands lay an immense, unbroken expanse of ocean. Within just a few centuries, the Lapita had crossed thousands of kilometres of open water, colonizing Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. How these Bronze Age sailors navigated across open sea without magnetic compasses or navigational instruments remains one of maritime history's great enigmas.
CUnfortunately, the canoes that have been discovered offer relatively few clues about their seafaring technology. No intact Lapita voyaging canoe has ever survived the millennia, leaving archaeologists to reconstruct their vessels from oral traditions, rock carvings, and later Polynesian designs. We know they possessed double-hulled outrigger canoes capable of transporting families, pigs, dogs, and staple crops, but their precise rigging and construction details remain conjectural.
DEven more remarkable was their navigational acumen. The Lapita sailed beyond the point where land was visible, reading subtle environmental indicators. They were master navigators who could detect signs of distant land by observing the flight paths of migrating birds, changes in swell patterns reflected off unseen atolls, and the distinct greenish tint that shallow reefs cast onto cloud formations.
ECrucially, prevailing trade winds provided a vital navigational aid for the Lapita. By sailing directly upwind into the prevailing easterlies, the Lapita ensured that if they failed to discover land, they could simply turn around and ride the reliable following winds swiftly back home to safety. This fail-safe strategy made daring voyages of discovery far less reckless than they appear.
FYet, having reached Tonga and Samoa, the Lapita abruptly halted their eastward expansion. For nearly a millennium, the descendants of the Lapita explored no further. Then, around 1,000 AD, their Polynesian successors embarked on an even more audacious second wave of exploration, settling Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand.
Complete the summary using the list of words, A–J, below.
List of Words:
A 3,000-year-old burial ground of the Lapita was found on an abandoned on the island of Efate.
The site was an accidental made by a local farm worker.
The graves contained ancient that shed light on early ocean travelers.
Within a few , the Lapita colonized remote island groups.
They navigated without instruments like magnetic .
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
32. What does the writer state regarding Lapita canoes?
33. What made Lapita voyages fundamentally different from earlier Pacific journeys?
34. In Paragraph D, the writer highlights the Lapita's ability to:
35. How did prevailing trade winds assist Lapita exploration?
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer? Write YES, NO, or NOT GIVEN.
36. The Efate cemetery provided unprecedented physical evidence of early Pacific voyagers.
37. Lapita seafaring required remarkable courage and advanced observational skill.
38. Warfare with indigenous islanders was the primary reason the Lapita ceased eastward travel.
39. Lapita voyagers developed sophisticated astronomical calculation devices.
40. The Lapita deliberately brought invasive species to disrupt existing island ecosystems.