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Lapita sites of the Bismarck Archipelago

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

C. Gosden ,
J. Allen ,
W. Ambrose ,
D. Anson ,
J. Golson ,
R. Green ,
P. Kirch ,
I. Lilley ,
J. Specht  and
M. Spriggs
C. Gosden
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, La Trobe University, Bundoora VA 3083, Australia
J. Allen
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, La Trobe University, Bundoora VA 3083, Australia
W. Ambrose
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
D. Anson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology & Ethnology, Otago Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand
J. Golson
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
R. Green
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, Private Bag, Auckland, New Zealand
P. Kirch
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720, USA
I. Lilley
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, University of Western Australia, Nedlands WA, Australia
J. Specht
Affiliation:
Australian Museum, College Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
M. Spriggs
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
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Extract

The Lapita question

The prehistory of the western Pacific has, for the last 30 years, been dominated by the problem of the origins of the present Polynesian and Melanesian cultures (Terrell 1988). In 1961 Golson drew attention to the distribution of highly decorated Lapita pottery, now known to date from between 3500 BP and 2000 BP, which crossed the present-day division between Melanesia and Polynesia. Furthermore, sites with Lapita pottery represented the first evidence of occupation on Tonga and Samoa, the most westerly Polynesian islands from which it was thought that the rest of Polynesia was colonized. Lapita pottery came to be associated with a movement of people from Melanesia to Polynesia and was seen to represent the founding group ancestral to later Polynesian groups.

Type
Special section
Information
Antiquity , Volume 63 , Issue 240 , September 1989 , pp. 561 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1989

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