28th International Cosmos Prize awarded to Dr. Peter Bellwoodn

The Expo '90 Foundation announced on July 13 that Dr. Peter Bellwood (Professor Emeritus, Australian National University) is the recipient of the 28th International Cosmos Prize. The winners are awarded a certificate, a medal, and an extra prize of 40 million yen.

Dr. Bellwood has conducted interdisciplinary research in archaeology and linguistics to explore the origins and spread of agriculture, which is closely involved in human migration, from a global perspective. Specifically, he has compared the origin and dispersion processes of agriculture between continents. He archaeologically elucidated how the Lapita culture (BC 1500-1000) that emerged in the Melanesian islands, moved eastward, and adapted to the diverse environments of the islands resulting in the formation of Polynesian culture. In addition, he clarified the trajectory of the movement of people speaking the Austronesian languages (Taiwan to Southeast Asian islands, and the Pacific islands) by cooperating with researchers in the fields of archaeology, anthropology, and linguistics and carrying out interdisciplinary research. These results demonstrate that human migration was closely related to the movement and expansion of early food producers in the Austronesian language family along with the development of marine technology.

He then succeeded in comparing global agricultural sources and dispersion in the prehistoric era through interdisciplinary research. He showed that the relationship between food producers and the expansion of language families can be reexamined and applied to Austronesian languages. Furthermore, he advocates that both are closely related, and calls this phenomenon the "early farming dispersion hypothesis."

He has also conducted research on mankind's adaptation process to offshore islands. He clarified how the humans of today differentiated from homo erectus, who arrived in Java about 1.3 million years ago, into homo floresiensis, and finally homo sapiens. In addition, his research includes the movement of homo sapiens before farming began, 50,000 years ago, and the movement of Austronesian languages from southern China.

Dr. Bellwood resides in Leicester, England, where he received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the University of Cambridge. He has published many books and continues to write even now. His books, Man's Conquest of the Pacific: The Prehistory of Southeast Asia and Oceania and First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies, have been translated into Japanese. This award resumes the theme from the International Garden and Greenery Exposition held in 1990, that is "The Harmonious Coexistence between Nature and Mankind." The award commemorates research activities and achievements aimed at clarifying the nature of change, diversity, interdependence, and integrity in the interactions of all life forms on Earth from a global perspective.