Palau’s ancestry story starts before anyone settled its islands.

A new study analyzes DNA from 21 ancient people at four sites, dating to roughly 2,900–500 years BP. Their ancestry is broadly ~60% East Asian-related and ~40% Papuan-related, similar to present-day Palauans. These are genetic model estimates using reference populations, not literal percentages from modern countries.

The oldest genome places major mixing around 3,880–3,429 BP—earlier than Palau’s first settlement around 3,200–3,000 BP. The founders’ ancestors had already mixed before their voyage. BP means years before 1950; both archaeological dates and genetic estimates have uncertainty.

The Papuan component is closer to mainland New Guinea references than to New Britain or the Solomon Islands. That does not prove that New Guinea Highlanders themselves sailed directly to Palau.

A clue comes from 2,100-year-old people on Morotai in eastern Indonesia. They share Palau’s distinctive combination of ancestry, though their proportions differ: about 70% East Asian-related and 30% Papuan-related. Northern Wallacea is a plausible source region, but these younger Morotai samples are not the literal founders, and the exact departure point remains unknown.

Papuan ancestry entered primarily through male ancestors, although maternal lineages show that women contributed too.

Palau then retained a broadly similar ancestry mix for nearly 3,000 years—the longest such continuity yet documented by ancient DNA in Remote Oceania, according to the authors. This is continuity, not complete isolation: later samples show slightly more East Asian ancestry, consistent with additional arrivals.

The result links ancient islanders with Palauans today while showing that the Pacific was peopled through more than one migration history.

📚 Source: Liu et al. (2026), Cell
Papuan admixture predated the settlement of Palau

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