Date: Friday July 6th

This session contains papers describing recent research and new sites from around the Pacific.  

 

11:00am 

Observations of a Lapita site on Emira.

G. R. Summerhayes, L.Matisoo-Smith, J. Specht and H. Mandui.

 

In April 2007, we travelled to Emira to record and if possible to excavate a Lapita site on Emira Island, New Ireland Province. The site was brought to our attention by a local teacher. We wish to describe what we found on Emira and where the assemblage fits into a regional pattern.

 

11:30am

Mapping prehistoric social fields on the Sepik Coast of Papua New Guinea using LA-ICP-MS

Mark Golitko, John Edward Terrell, Laure Dussubieux, Hector Neff, and John Dudgeon

 

This paper reports on the results of chemical characterization of obsidian and ceramic samples from sites along the Sepik coast of Papua New Guinea using Laser-Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry.  These samples span the past 2000 years of prehistory and history in the region, beginning with the earliest Lapita derived ceramic styles.  Sourcing of obsidian indicates continuous but changing connections with the Bismarck Archipelago and Admiralty Islands, while chemical analysis of pottery indicates that chemical sourcing studies may ultimately allow a very fine-grained reconstruction of economic and social relationships between different areas of the Sepik coast during the past, allowing for an improved understanding of the connections and processes that have made the Sepik coast one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse areas in the world today. 

 

12:00am

Understanding the place properly: insights into Lapita lifeways from palaeogeographical reconstruction.

Patrick D. Nunn, University of the South Pacific

 

To understand how the earliest people to inhabit Pacific Island environments interacted with and perceived these, it is necessary to reconstruct them accurately.  In Lapita times, the sea level in most of the tropical Pacific was around 1.5 metres higher than today, which meant that island coasts were often quite different from today.  Thus the remains of the Lapita occupations that we find today must be assessed against a realistic environmental backdrop.  Examples are given from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga.

A related issue is that during Lapita times, the extent and distribution of coral reefs around tropical Pacific Islands was quite different from today.  Most coral reefs are “catch-up” reefs that had not reached their present levels (modern Lowest Astronomical Tide level) at the time of Lapita colonization of islands in the western Pacific.  The few reefs that existed were mostly along windward coasts receiving long-fetch waves.  Only later did reefs in other areas catch up with sea level.  Reconstructing former reef distribution may be a key to identifying early settlement sites and understanding their distribution.

 

12:30pm

Lunch 

 

2:00pm

"New findings from East Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo)"

 Jean-Michel Chazine, Maison Asie-Pacifique/CNRS-Marseille

Since the last  Lapita conference in Tonga (2005), more recent complementary discoveries (decorated funerary jars, burials and/or ochre coated bones for instance) have added clues converging towards some "lapita-like" influence or even presence in East Borneo.  A new single human skull largely coated with ochre has been excavated from a long test-trench dug in Liang Jon rock shelter, while a second potsherd bearing characteristic dentate tool marks was found in stratigraphy, some 30 cm depth. As complementary clues two tridacna gigas flakes which have been knapped and nevertheless fit together, have been excavated in the vicinity.  These findings present such strange formal similarities with some of the "Lapita cultural complex" that questions and hypothesis concerning its extension area and process may be suggested.

 

2:30pm

The greater Maravari area: A case study for understanding settlement patterns on Vella Lavella Island.

Adrian Taylor (University of Otago) 

Settlement patterns on Vella Lavella Island (Western Province of the Solomon Islands) during the proto historic period, and through into the colonial period were very dynamic due to both internal and external influences. This paper summarises the research results of a six month field season based in Maravari Village on the island of Vella Lavella (2006). Research data obtained through archaeological excavation, archaeological survey, and the collection oral history will be presented as the means for understanding the distinct changes that took place in the settlement pattern of the inhabitants of the greater Maravari area during the above mentioned periods.