INTRODUCTION
Humans are well-known for their vast imagination and curiosity. It is where most of inventions, concepts, laws, theories, etc. that men have today came from. These concepts and theories are not just focused on sciences, it also deals with period before written accounts, the Prehistory or the Origins. The explanation of origins has always been considered as a subject of great interest. In Southeast Asia in particular, theories attempting to explain the observed similarities in certain aspects of different cultures have been the focus of discussions for decades. Although majority of scholars on the subject would agree that the origins of these similarities can be traced back to the Neolithic age, perspectives on how these came about vary.
There are two major theories defining the Neolithic Age Austronesian movements of people in the Pacific and the subsequent cultural similarities among different groups in the region: Peter Bellwood’s The Austronesian Diffusion Theory, and Island Origins Theory or commonly referred as Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network (NMTCN) by Wilhelm Solheim.

SOLHEIM’S NUSANTAO MARITIME TRADING AND COMMUNICATION NETWORK (NMTCN)
Wilhelm Solheim’s theory utilizes the archaeological data instead of the historical linguistic evidence used by Bellwood. Solheim proposed a complex network of regional cultural trade network in the Asia Pacific region during the Neolithic Age from 8000 to 500 BCE undertaken by both Austronesian and non-Austronesian speakers.
As indicated by the terminology, central to this theory is the concept of the Nusantao. The term derives from the Austronesian root words nusa for "south" and tau/tao for "man" or "people", thus giving it the overall meaning "people of the south islands". Since, the term ‘Austronesian’ first applies to the linguistic domain, he chose to call the ancestors of the