New dates for the Makekur (FOH) Lapita pottery site, Arawe Islands, New Britain, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Estimates for the start of Lapita pottery in the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, have ranged from 3550-3450 cal. BP to 3300-3200 cal. BP. These estimates in turn overlap date ranges of 3480-3150 cal. BP and of 3360-3040 cal. BP for the W-K2 volcanic eruption in northern New Britain and reoccupation of the area by people with Lapita pottery (Petrie and Torrence 2008, 95.4 per cent probability). Here we review issues surrounding existing 14 C dates for the start of Lapita pottery throughout the archipelago and present six new dates for the Makekur Lapita site in the Arawe Islands. Based on a non-Bayesian assessment of the dates, we estimate a possible start of Lapita pottery around 3250-3150 cal. BP, at the late end of the ranges for the Witori eruption and reoccupation of the Willaumez Peninsula and close to initial dates for the Lapita expansion into Remote Oceania. Refinement of this estimate for the introduction of pottery to the Bismarck Archipelago through application of Bayesian statistics requires resolution of issues relating to existing dates and pottery analyses, and incorporation of results from current and planned redating programs of Lapita pottery sites within the archipelago. 9. New dates for the Makekur (FOH) Lapita pottery site, Arawe Islands, New Britain, Papua New Guinea 171 terra australis 52 which occurs here only in the palaeosol formed on the W-K2 tephra (Specht et al. 1991:284, 287). These results led Torrence (2016:7) to suggest that the W-K2 event and the start of Lapita pottery were essentially 'synchronous', though they potentially open a wide window between the appearance of pottery in the archipelago and the dispersal into Remote Oceania. A problem with these attempts to define a starting date for Lapita pottery has been a reluctance to apply rigorous 'chronometric hygiene' (Spriggs 1989) to the various date sets. One exception to this was the reassessment of dates for Lapita pottery in the Bismarck Archipelago that excluded all marine shell samples on the grounds that there were too few locality-specific ΔR values to enable meaningful calibrations (Specht 2007: Table 1), though the 26 plant samples used were only lightly vetted. Here we apply more rigorous culling protocols for both marine and terrestrial samples than have been used in previous studies, taking advantage of locality-specific ΔR values for parts of the archipelago (Petchey and Ulm 2012). The study incorporates six new AMS dates on plant materials from the Makekur Lapita site in New Britain (Gosden and Webb 1994). Combining these new dates with the existing ones throughout the Archipelago, this chapter concludes that the starting date for Lapita pottery in the Bismarck archipelago could be younger than existing estimates and close to the initial dates for the settlement of Remote Oceania. Materials and methods Radiocarbon dates used in this chapter have been calibrated in OxCal 4.2.4 (Bronk Ramsey 2009) using the IntCal13 and Marine13 curves (Reimer et al. 2013). Within the main text, age ranges are rounded to t...

Talepakemalai: Lapita and Its Transformations in the Mussau Islands of Near Oceania By Patrick VintonKirch. UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press Monumenta Archaeologica 47. 2021. ISBN: 9781950446179. Pp. 558. US $120.

“…Most of the dates provide accurate and acceptable approximations of site occupation and compare well with reassessments of dates across the Bismarcks. Very similar pottery has been found at various sites as reported by others and a recent summary of the earliest dates suggests Lapita in the region appears no earlier than 3250 BP (Specht & Gosden, 2019). One of the conclusions here, however, seems anomalous; the earliest date for EHB on Emananus Island is suggested as sometime between 3750 and 3450 BP.…”

Tattooing tools and the Lapita cultural complex

“…Importantly, the tools preserve charcoal residues likely to have been used as a pigment to enhance the designs, and may reflect a significant change in ritual practice from scarring the skin with sharp tools to colouring it. Although inseparable in time from those on Mussau, the Makekur examples do not preserve evidence for pigment (Table and see Specht ). The practices surrounding this specialised tattooing tool were expanded further by the populations who colonised the Reef/Santa Cruz sites, where ochre was added to the range of colours applied.…”

“…: 215), SE‐RF‐2 on the Reef Islands in the Solomon Islands (Sheppard , , ; Sheppard et al. ), Talepakemalai (ECA‐B) in the Mussau Islands, in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea (Kirch ) and Makekur (FOH) on Adwe in the Arawe Islands, West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea (Gosden ; Gosden & Webb ; Halsey ; Specht ; Summerhayes ) had not been analysed previously (Figure ). Unfortunately, we were unable to access the retouched flakes with points previously reported from the Lapita (WKO13A) and Vatcha (KVO003) sites in New Caledonia (Sand & Sheppard ).…”

Smallest Late Pleistocene inhabited island in Australasia reveals the impact of post-glacial sea-level rise on human behaviour from 17,000 years ago

“…6c) was technologically consistent with the earliest pottery traditions in the Pacific region associated with the Lapita Cultural Complex, dating from 3250 to 3150 cal. BP (Specht and Gosden, 2019;Summerhayes et al, 2010b). Distinctively decorated Lapita pottery (dentate stamped) is recognisable in the Bismarck Archipelago and elsewhere in New Guinea through to 2500-2350 cal.…”