Peoples & MigrationThe 5th century BCE

Peoples & Migration in the 5th century BCE

Every event in the Terralore archive tagged peoples and migration — settlement, movement and displacement, narrowed to the 5th century BCE — 5 of them, drawn from 5 nations, all of it in 500 BCE. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.

Events
5
Nations
5
Earliest
500 BCE
Latest
500 BCE
Africa
3
Oceania
2

Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.

  1. 1st millennium BCE — Africa:

    Namibia

    Khoekhoe and Damara herders

    Khoekhoe pastoralists, including the Nama, and the Damara established themselves across central and southern Namibia, herding cattle and sheep and speaking Khoekhoe click languages.

    Era: First peoples: the San, Khoekhoe, Damara and the engravings of Twyfelfontein

    Sources: Namibia (country, history and government) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Namibia · Wikipedia

  2. 1st millennium BCE onward — Oceania:

    New Caledonia

    Emergence of the Kanak

    Successive waves of Melanesian migrants intermarried with the Lapita settlers, giving rise to the Kanak, the Melanesian people indigenous to New Caledonia, with a clan-based society organised around chiefs, yam cultivation and ancestral land.

    Era: The Lapita and the Kanak

    Sources: New Caledonia — History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, New Caledonia · Encyclopaedia Britannica

  3. c. 500 BCE — Oceania:

    Papua New Guinea

    Austronesian speakers reach the coasts

    A major migration of Austronesian-speaking peoples settles the coastal regions, layering a seafaring, trading world over the far older interior one.

    Era: Deep past: settlement and the world's first farmers

    Sources: Papua New Guinea country profile · BBC News

  4. late 1st millennium BCE — Africa:

    Tanzania

    Bantu farmers reach the coast

    Iron-using Bantu-speaking farmers settle the Tanzanian coast and interior, part of the wider Bantu expansion that reshaped eastern and southern Africa.

    Era: Bantu Settlers and the Swahili Coast

    Sources: History of Tanzania · Wikipedia, Swahili language · Wikipedia

  5. c. 1st millennium BCE — Africa:

    Uganda

    Bantu farmers settle the lakes region

    Iron-using Bantu-speaking agriculturalists spread into the interlacustrine region north and west of Lake Victoria, establishing the banana-farming societies that underlie the later kingdoms.

    Era: Peoples and the Great Lakes Kingdoms

    Sources: History of Uganda · Wikipedia, Uganda: Bunyoro and Buganda · Encyclopaedia Britannica