| Abstract: |
Can one profitably combine historical linguistics with archaeology? For many areas of the world a positive answer has still to be demonstrated, while for others a good case may be made. Certainly in the Remote Oceania part of the Pacific claims for such a positive outcome seem fully warranted as the result of the growing sophistication of endeavours over the last three decades. This review considers those strategies, focusing especially on a growing use of dialect chain along with family tree models, and a close examination of the articulation of proto-lexicons with archaeological and ethnological data. Their development is seen as an indication of the way forward in this enterprise in the Pacific region.
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