The first recorded settlers of the Marquesas were Polynesians. Based on a variety of archæological evidence, researchers at one time believed they arrived from 100-600AD.[citation needed] Ethnological and linguistic evidence suggests that they likely arrived from the western region of Tonga and Samoa.[citation needed]
But, a 2010 study using revised, high-precision radiocarbon dating based on more reliable samples has established that the period of eastern Polynesian colonization took place much later, in a shorter time frame of two waves: the "earliest in the Society Islands A.D. ∼1025–1120, four centuries later than previously assumed; then after 70–265 y, dispersal continued in one major pulse to all remaining islands A.D. ∼1190–1290."[1] This rapid colonization is believed to account for the "remarkable uniformity of East Polynesia culture, biology and language."[1] The new information will require major reworking of scholarship about the development of linguistics and culture in the islands.