Date: Thursday July 5th
Convener: Stuart Bedford
Australian National University

 
Vanuatu comprises some 82 inhabited islands spread over 1100 km from north to south and is situated in the ‘middle’ of the SW Pacific. It is likely to have acted as a crucial crossroads or at least a series of “stepping stones” between other archipelagos during initial Lapita settlement of Remote Oceania and through the millennia that followed. Recent research throughout the islands is beginning to confirm this scenario at least for the Lapita period. This Session highlights this research which has implications for the understanding of the fundamental nature of both the pioneering and descendant societies of Vanuatu and the wider region. It will have particular focus on the Teouma Lapita site located on south Efate, where at this earliest of Pacific cemeteries a total of 49 inhumations have now been excavated. It is a rare opportunity for profiling a founding Lapita population and is providing insights into aspects such as mortuary practices and health. A number of papers will focus on this aspect.
Banks Islands volcanic glass was long ago recognised as a stone resource utilised by Lapita colonisers and later settlers. Found as far west as the Reefs-Santa Cruz Islands and to the east as far as Fiji this resource has up until recently never really been the focus of detailed research. Such research is now being undertaken by Christian Reepmeyer at the ANU as a focus of his doctoral research which will be outlined here.   
The often extraordinarily well-preserved nature of many of the recently discovered Lapita sites in Vanuatu are dramatically highlighting the influence of taphonomic process on archaeological sites across the tropical Pacific. The sites are contributing much new information which has wider implications for our understanding the Lapita phenomenon generally. 

 

Papers 

8:30am

"Lapita in Vanuatu: Current research and its wider implications."

Stuart Bedford

Australian National University

 

Although archaeological research into Lapita began in 1950s, Vanuatu has until very recently contributed little to the wider debate. It was once thought to be an archipelago where Lapita was either non-existent or at best marginal.  Recent discoveries, however, have completely reversed this perception and much of the Lapita-focused research currently being undertaken in the country has transformed our understanding of Lapita and associated research issues in the wider region. This brief summary paper outlines some of these recent research results from Vanuatu which are contributing to debates on Lapita colonisation strategies, settlement pattern, site visibility and location, taphonomy, chronology, ceramics, ritual behaviour, subsistence and field methodology.

 

9:00am

"Lapita Exchange in Vanuatu"

Christian Reepmeyer

Australian National University

 

Modelling exchange in prehistory is a major focus of archaeological research. Because of its value for explaining the relationship of the distribution of material culture and interdependent social structures, application of a large range of different models has been undertaken. Questions of maximisation of resources and the economisation of technology are hypotheses which are often looked at.

Current research on the northern Islands of Vanuatu will investigate the possibility of whether the distribution of Banks Islands' volcanic glasses follows rules of resource economisation or if other factors, such as social values, play an important part in the exchange of this commodity.

The 2006 fieldwork period in Vanuatu focused on the systematic sampling of the sources of the Banks Islands group. In addition a surface survey of about 200 sq km resulted not only in the recognition of two source areas on the Islands of Gaua and Vanua Lava but as well in approximately 30 archaeological sites, all of which were sampled. The surface survey also confirmed these two source areas as the only sources of volcanic glasses in Vanuatu.

It seems that a shifting of contact spheres from a southern direction in Lapita times to a more northern bearing in later times took place. The definition of the northern Islands of Vanuatu and the south-eastern Islands of the Solomons as a regional communication sphere is possible therefore.

Examination of the collected source material using SEM-EDX and LA-ICP-MS in the Research School of Earth Sciences at the ANU, showed a highly diverse composition between the two Banks Islands sources but a high intrasource homogeneity, especially at the Gaua source.

Multivariate statistical procedures were applied to evaluate these data with earlier data from the Reef Santa Cruz Islands as well as Tikopia and Fiji. Surprisingly the earlier data showed significant differences to the data collected from the Banks Islands. This result as well as possible explanations will be discussed.

 

9:30am

"The Teouma Lapita site and cemetery, South Efate, Vanuatu: a short summary of three field seasons (2004-2006)."

Stuart Bedford, Matthew Spriggs and Ralph Regenvanu.  Australian National University and Vanuatu Cultural Centre

 

This paper provides a short introductory summary of results of three field seasons at the Teouma Lapita site and sets the context for a number of following papers which relate specifically to the skeletal remains recovered from a total of 49 inhumations. The site provides new information on a range of substantive issues associated with Lapita, including chronology and settlement pattern, social practice and pottery form and use. The complete pots and large sherds from the site are set to provide one of the most detailed profile of any Lapita collection to date. The skeletal remains provide us with a very real opportunity of investigating the origins and establishing a profile of the Lapita people who first ventured out into Remote Oceania.

 

10:00am

"Lapita mortuary practices at Teouma site (Efate, Vanuatu)"

Frédérique Valentin (1) and Hallie Buckley (2)

(1) CNRS UMR 7041 Paris 1, Paris 10, Nanterre, France

(2) University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

 

Mortuary practices are a component of the Lapita cultural complex that has yet to be explored in any detail. It is to date been mainly documented through isolated human remains found in occupational contexts such as Mussau, a few graves in New Britain and New Caledonia, and through some more recent isolated burials possibly derivating from Lapita cultural complex. Dating to c. 3000 BP, the Teouma cemetery, on Efate Island (Central Vanuatu), is the earliest yet found in the Pacific islands. Comprising of at least 50 mortuary features, Teouma provides with new insights into the funerary practices of a Lapita community.

The paper presents results on body treatment, orientation, position, mode of deposition, and re-intervention on the skeleton observed at the Teouma site after three field seasons. Primary as well as secondary adult inhumations constitute the majority of the mortuary features identified at the site. The interment of bodies was immediate or delayed, suggesting a significant pre-sepulchral phase. The interments, placed in various orientations, display a wide diversity of limb position with a high frequency of flexed positions, and two main types of resting attitude: mainly on the back but with one third on the face, suggesting a low level of significance of these parameters. Some evidence suggests that body position is likely to be correlated with the subsequent phase of the mortuary procedure consisting of bone removal. Removal of the skulls and bones from the upper part of the skeleton affect all the adult burials. Secondary deposits of bones are formed by cranial, infra-cranial or both kinds of bones in pots or surrounded by boulders or without preserved container. Combinations of mortuary, biological and biogeochemical parameters show specific treatment of particular deceased. Globally, evidence recorded at Teouma indicates a complex, dynamic and multi-phased funerary procedure that is stretched in the time, suggesting the possibility of an associated permanent settlement nearby. Comparisons with Lapita mortuary features from other sites suggest similarities across early sites as opposed to later sites that may reflect changes in funerary practices over time or geographical or social group variation.

 

10:30am

Morning Tea 

 

11:00am

"The people of Teouma: Update on research findings concerning health and disease"

H. R. Buckley, N.G. Tayles, Rachel Fuller

Anatomy Dept., University of Otago 

The Lapita-associated cemetery site of Teouma, Efate Island, Vanuatu, has provided researchers with a unique opportunity to begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding aspects of health and disease of these elusive people. There have been excavations of the cemetery site in 2004, 2005 and 2006. To date, a total of 49 inhumations, probably consisting of more than 60 individuals have been excavated. This presentation will outline the findings on health and disease from the human skeletal remains excavated in the first two field seasons. The findings on health and disease on the first two field seasons remains indicate some chronic stress during childhood affecting growth, poor dental health, and heavy work loads in both sexes. Field observations of health and disease from the recent excavation in 2006 are also discussed.

 

11:30am

"Macroscopic analyses of burnt human bone from the Lapita site of Teouma, Vanuatu"

Rachel Fuller, University of Otago  (with Hallie Buckley, Frédérique Valentin, Matthew Spriggs & Stuart Bedford)

In 2005, excavations of the early (3100 BP) Lapita site at Teouma, Vanuatu exposed a burial consisting of burnt human bone representing one adult female from within a scoop feature.  It is a rare example of burnt human bone excavated from a Lapita site.

Organic components of bone transform when they are exposed to heat. The temperature and the duration bone is exposed to heat produces characteristic changes in bone colour and structure. The element representation of the bone fragments indicate that a whole body had been consumed by heat. The weight of the burnt human fragments falls within the parameters of weights from ancient cremations. Macroscopic analyses of the fragmentary burnt human bone from Teouma indicates the corpse had been fleshed at the time it was subjected to heat and was deposited into the scoop feature at a later time. Bioarchaeological evidence and ethnohistory suggests that  mortuary practice was responsible for the deposition of the burnt human remains into the scoop feature at Teouma  rather than the result of cannibalism.

 

12:00 noon

"An update on the aDNA of Teouma remains"
Lisa Matisoo-Smith, Melanie Pierson and Judith Robins Dept of Anthropology and Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology & Evolution, University of Auckland

 

At the last Lapita conference held in Tonga in 2005, we presented the first preliminary results of the ancient DNA analyses of the Lapita burials. Here we will discuss the current status of the study of both the human remains and some of the faunal remains from the Teouma site. Clearly, as might be predicted for a 3000 year old open site in the Pacific, DNA preservation is poor, but some results do appear to be promising for further aDNA analyses.