East Melanesia (28,577 – 7,822 BCE): Upper Paleolithic II — Deglaciation, Forest Intensification, and Inter-Island Voyaging

East Melanesia includes Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia, and the Solomon Islands (excluding Bougainville, which belongs to West Melanesia).

• Anchors: the Vanuatu chain (Efate, Espiritu Santo, Malekula, Tanna), the Fiji group (Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, Lau islands), New Caledonia (Grande Terre, Loyalty Islands), and the central/eastern Solomons (Guadalcanal, Malaita, Makira, Santa Cruz).

• Rising seas fragmented lowland plains into the modern archipelagos.

• Coral reef accretion surged during warming periods.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

• Bølling–Allerød warming boosted rainfall and reef productivity.

• Younger Dryas reversed briefly; Early Holocene warming stabilized environments.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Expanded broad-spectrum diets: shellfish, reef fish, nuts, tuberous roots.

• Seasonal settlements near estuaries and reef passes; evidence of increased sedentism.

• Bird and reptile hunting added to diets.

Technology & Material Culture

• Improved flake and adze production; ground stone emerges.

• Shell ornaments; early canoe forms likely used for inter-island hops (Solomons to Vanuatu).

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Expanding seafaring capacity enabled colonization of Remote Oceania outliers (Santa Cruz, Reef Islands).

• Seasonal voyaging tied New Caledonia–Vanuatu–Fiji shelves into a circuit.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Shell jewelry, ochre in burials, carved motifs on bone/stone objects.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Increasing reliance on reefs and nut forests provided resilience to deglacial sea-level changes.

Transition

By 7,822 BCE, East Melanesia hosted semi-sedentary forager–horticultural precursors, bridging Pleistocene mobility and Holocene intensification.