“There have been remarkable strides in our understanding of the relevant Neolithic archaeological record since I commenced my research 50 years ago into the genesis of the Austronesian-speaking populations. There have also been major advances in comparative and computational linguistics, and in human genetics, the latter with its increasing focus on whole genomic autosomal comparisons and, where available, ancient DNA. One result is that the fundamental roles of southern China, Taiwan and the Philippines as major source regions for early Austronesian migration prior to 4000 years ago have been strengthened, while many opposing theories of origin much further to the south or east have failed to find support.

However, the “reality” of Austronesian dispersal was obviously very complex, and many fine details will never be known to us. Extreme theories, that focus on the one hand only on population replacement of indigenous hunter-gatherer groups by incoming Austronesian speakers, or on the other hand only on cultural diffusion and language shift into unmoving indigenous populations, can no longer be entertained. The situation clearly involved an expanding population that spoke early forms of Austronesian and Malayo-Polynesian languages, with a Taiwan and southern Chinese ultimate source. This was a population that admixed eventually with indigenous populations already present, except in the uninhabited Oceanic islands beyond the Solomons where Austronesians were the first humans to arrive.

We can now understand the Austronesian settlement of the Indo-Pacific region as a gradual process spread across 4000 years of time, focused in Taiwan and onwards between 5000 and 1000 years ago, but also as a process characterised by occasional rapid bursts of migration, especially those that occurred around 3000 (Lapita) and 1000 (eastern Polynesia) years ago. The early migrants were food producers with canoe-construction skills. Their migrations were driven initially by factors that might for ever remain obscure in the absence of any written documentation, but three major ones can be suggested, these being the comparative scarcity of fertile lowland agricultural soils during the high sea level conditions of the mid-Holocene, rapid population growth amongst populations with domesticated rice and millets, and founder rank enhancement in societies that observed genealogical order amongst ancestors. As migrations spread further into Island Southeast Asia and western Oceania, advances in canoe-building and navigational skill added further impetus.The task before us is to understand the many regional variations in what was to become one of the most dramatic population migrations in human history.”

自我从事南岛语族起源研究五十余年以来，相关新石器时代考古发现及研究已经取得了引人瞩目的进展，比较语言学、计算语言学和人类基因研究等领域也有了长足进步，其中后者的整体基因组常染色体比较研究及古DNA分析获得了持续性关注。重要成果之一是华南、台湾和菲律宾作为距今4000年以前早期南岛语族主要发源地的观点得到了加强，而其它起源理论，例如起源地更偏南或东的假说则缺乏证据。不过，南岛语族传播的“真相”显然是非常复杂的，许多细节根本无从得知。一些极端理论，无论是单方面强调人群更替，认为入侵的南岛语族取代了采集-狩猎的原住民，或是走向另一个极端，只强调发生在原住民群体中的文化传播和语言变换，均难以为继。实际情况显然与说南岛语早期类型和马来-波利尼西亚语的人口扩张有关，而这些人的来源归根结蒂仍在台湾和华南地区。这些人群最终与当地已经存在的土著人群融合在一起，除开那些人迹未至的大洋岛屿，而所罗门群岛则例外，它是南岛语族最先到达的地方，。

现在我们的理解是，过去4000年之间，印度太平洋地区的南岛语族聚落遗址是逐步扩张发展的，以距今5000到1000年之间的台湾等地为代表；但是同时也伴有偶发的移民热潮等特点，例如距今3000年的拉皮塔和距今1000年的东波利尼西亚。早期移民会生产食物并建造独木舟，由于缺乏文献记载，他们迁徙的原因， 可能永远不得而知，但是有三点可能性，一是随着中全新世海平面升高，富饶的低地农业土壤资源相对匮乏；其次是随着水稻和小米的驯化，人口的迅速膨胀；第三是在存在系谱秩序的祖先社会中，社会奠基者阶层的强化。独木舟制作技术和航海技能在南岛语族向东南亚岛屿地区和大洋洲西部地区移民的过程中居功至伟。当前我们所面临的任务是充分理解人类史上最大规模的移民中所存在的区域差异。

“Peter Bellwood received his PhD in archaeology from Cambridge University (King’s College) in 1980, but had previously emigrated as a Lecturer in Prehistory to Auckland University, New Zealand, in 1967 to undertake research on Polynesian migrations. He moved as a Lecturer to the Australian National University in Canberra in 1973 to research the archaeology of Southeast Asia and to write books on Southeast Asian and Pacific prehistory, as well as on the origins of agricultural societies and human migrations around the world.

During his ANU career, Peter Bellwood has carried out archaeological excavations with colleagues and graduate students in many regions of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Prior to 1973 he also excavated in New Zealand, French Polynesia, and the Cook Islands. He has written several books: Man’s Conquest of the Pacific (1978); The Polynesians (1978 and 1987); Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago (1985, 1997 and 2007); First Farmers: the Origins of Agricultural Societies (2005); First Migrants: Ancient Migration in Global Perspective (2013); and First Islanders: the Prehistory of Island Southeast Asia (2017).

His edited books include The Austronesians (with J. Fox and D. Tryon, 1995), Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis (with C. Renfrew, 2002), Southeast Asia: from Prehistory to History (with Ian Glover, 2004), and The Global Prehistory of Human Migration (sole editor 2014).

Peter Bellwood is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He retired as an Emeritus Professor in 2013.”

彼得•贝尔伍德于1980年从剑桥大学国王学院获得考古学博士学位，在此之前他已移居新西兰，任奥克兰大学史前考古讲师，1967年他开始研究波利尼西亚移民问题，1973年他前往堪培拉，在澳大利亚国立大学研究东南亚考古，并撰写关于东南亚和太平洋地区史前时代、农业社会起源和世界范围内人类迁徙的专著。

1973年之前贝尔伍德在新西兰、法属波利尼西亚和库克群岛进行过发掘。在澳洲国立大学任教期间，他与同事和研究生一起在印度尼西亚、马来西亚、菲律宾和越南开展考古发掘。他撰写了多部著作，包括《人类征服太平洋》（1978）；《波利尼西亚》（1978，1987），《印度-马来群岛的史前时代》（1985，1997，2007）；《最早的农民：农业社会的起源》（2005）；《最早的移民：全球视野下的古代移民》（2013）；《最早的岛屿居民：东南亚岛屿的史前时代》（2017）。他主编的书籍包括：《南岛语族》（与J. Fox 和 D. Tryon共同主编, 1995），《农业/语言扩散假说检讨》（与C. Renfrew合编, 2002），《东南亚：从史前到历史时期》（与Ian Glover合编, 2004），《全球人类迁移史》（主编，2014）。

贝尔伍德是澳大利亚人文科学院院士、英国科学院通讯院士。他于2013年以荣誉退休教授身份退休 。