1500 BC - AD 1

Dates for the first settlement of Micronesia remain tentative, although linguistic evidence suggests that there were at least two distinct points of departure for settlers. Western Micronesia – the Mariana Islands – was probably first reached from the Philippines; and eastern Micronesia was settled from eastern Melanesia – probably from somewhere around Vanuatu. The earliest radiocarbon dates place humans on the Marianas around 2000 BC.

Evidence for the arrival of these peoples is the wide distribution of a distinctively patterned earthenware pottery known today as Lapita pottery. The people who produced Lapita ceramics were skilled sailors and navigators. They arrived in Fiji from Melanesia in about 1500 BC carrying seeds, tubers, domesticated pigs, dogs and chickens, and continued on to settle Tonga around 1200 BC, and Samoa and Futuna in about 1000 BC.

Linguistic studies and archaeology suggest that Samoa was the starting point for the settlement of most of the rest of eastern Polynesia. The next reliable date for human settlement is far to the east on the Marquesas Islands in AD 300. Little is known about the lifestyles of these early settlers, but it can be assumed that gods and ancestors played a crucial role in their belief systems and day-to-day life, as they appear to have done throughout the history of the northern and eastern Pacific.