Bronze and Iron AgesExploration Lapita voyagers enter the Pacific c. 1,500 BCEMajor Seafarers with outrigger canoes begin settling remote Pacific islands, ancestors of the Polynesians. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → Habitual fire and cooking → Homo sapiens appears → First seagoing watercraft → Sailing boats → Austronesian expansion from Taiwan → Lapita voyagers enter the Pacific Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesDocumentbritannica.comLapita culture (Britannica) ↗Editor's pickBookPatrick Vinton KirchThe Lapita Peoples ↗Editor's pickBookChristina ThompsonSea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeLapita people Pacific voyaging ↗Editor's pick