Prehistory

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Linguistic and archeological evidence indicates that Austronesian speakers first reached Sumatra from Taiwan and the Philippines through Borneo and/or Java about 2,500 years ago, and the Batak probably evolved from these settlers^[2]. While the archaeology of southern Sumatra testifies the existence of neolithic settlers it seems that the northern part of Sumatra was settled by agriculturalists at a considerably later stage.

The Batak possess their own script known as the Surat Batak^[3]. It is likely that the Batak people received their writing system from southern Sumatra.