The Papuan languages of Yapen Island: History and typology
Knowledge of world
history is unevenly distributed: we know a great deal about some plac
es, yet almost nothing about others. Until recently, many parts of th
e world had no written language, meaning there are no written his
torical sources either. In some regions, this circumstance coincides
with a climate that causes natural materials to decay rapidly, which
means there are few clues for archaeological research. We therefore
know little about the ancient history of such places.
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DESCRIPTION: The Papuan languages of Yapen Island: History and typolog y Knowledge of world history is unevenly distributed: we know a great deal about some places, yet almost nothing about others. Until recen tly, many parts of the world had no written language, meaning there� �are no written historical sources either. In some regions, this ci rcumstance coincides with a climate that causes natural materials to decay rapidly, which means there are few clues for archaeological r esearch. We therefore know little about the ancient history of such p laces.