Early sailing ships were used for river and coastal waters in Ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean. Blue water sea-going sailing ships were first independently invented by the Austronesian peoples with the fore-and-aft crab-claw sail as well as the culturally unique catamaran and outrigger boat technologies. These enabled the rapid Austronesian expansion into the islands of the Indo-Pacific since 3000 BCE from an origin in Taiwan, as well as facilitated the first maritime trading network in the Indo-Pacific from at least 1500 BCE. Later developments in Asia produced the junk and dhow—vessels that incorporated innovations absent in European ships of the time.