Page 50 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

The End of the Ice Age and the Ancestors of Near Melanesia
The end of the ice age which occurred at the end of Pleistocene and the beginning of
Holocene around 11,800 years ago was at the heart of changes with complex impacts
(Barker et al., 2002, Harrison, 1957).
Climate change, which is influenced by the periodical change of Earth’s position in
relation to the Sun caused a change in the total energy from the Sun and its distribution
on the Earth (De Lumley, 1976). In the glacial period, freezing temperatures, locked huge
quantities of water as ice in the polar regions and the mountains, decreasing content of
the sea water, which led to a drop in the level of the sea. In interglacial periods, there are
warmer temperatures and polar and glacial ice melts leading to a rise in the sea level.
One of the most fundamental impacts of the sea level increase was changes to the
Indonesian archipelago’s paleogeography. During the glacial periods, the land areas
merged into three large regions: Sunda Land, Wallacea and Sahul Land. With the rise in
temperatures, much of these were inundated by the rising sea, leaving the high ground
as islands. Sunda Land became the islands of Kalimantan, Sumatra and Java. Sahul Land
divided into Australia, Papua, Aru, and other islands.
In addition to geographical changes driven by climate change tectonic events led to
uplift and sinking of parts of the earth’s surface contributing to the present shape of the
archipelago (Hays et al., 1976, Sémah et al., l990). The increase of sea level height was
not the same throughout the world, because it was influenced by climate condition, its
proximity to the cross-line of the Sun and other factors. However, in a study of the Huon
Peninsula, PNG, it has been suggested that a sea level of around 120 meters beneath the
present sea level would be typical of the entire Indonesian-Oceania region (Chappell and
Shackleton, 1986).
The rise of the sea level also led to changes in ecosystems. Coastal areas and low lying
land which were indundated by rising seas caused a displacement of the coast line landward
so that the ecosystems formerly found in the hills changed into beach ecosystems.
Furthermore, the forming of the islands also extended the length of the coastline,
which tended to enrich environmental resources. These changes to climate and the natural
environment brought about changes to the inhabitants and their culture. The drastic sea
level increase forced the Neolithic peoples and also animals to migrate inland and these
migrations continued to all corners of the archipelago (Sartono, 1991).
Far from being a disaster that limited populations, the sea level rise led to increases
in populations and stimulated significant cultural development (Simanjuntak, 2015). This

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