ABSTRACT
Little is known about the first colonization of Madagascar, very little indeed in relation to the number of hypothetical histories and accounts of this event which have been offered over the past century or more (for recent reviews see Domenichini 1981: Verin 1979; 1981; Southall 1975). Attempts to reconstruct Madagascar's past have long been hampered by the gaps in our knowledge of the prehistory of coastal East Africa and insular Southeast Asia, as well as by a paucity ofdata from Madagascar itself. As a result, scholars continue to differ widely on substantive points; for example, recent estimates of the date of arrival of the first settlers have ranged from 1000 BC to AD 1000 (Domenichini-Ramiaramanana 1988). On the other hand, there have recently been significant new finds and an evolving understanding of the prehistory ofthe entire IndoPacific basin and in addition we have begun to learn more about the nature of early occupation in many of Madagascar's regions. These new data allow us to refine our arguments a bit, to narrow down the possibilities and to put some human beings into the scene.
