The Teouma Lapita site and the early human settlement of the Pacific Islands

Bedford, Stuart; Spriggs, Matthew; Regenvanu, Ralph

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00094448

Cited by 111 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…(29) and comparisons with prehistoric and modern populations from the Asia-Pacific region. Large-scale excavations at the Teouma site have revealed a Lapita cemetery with 68 burial features where adults were preferentially treated by inhumation (30). However, inhumation was temporary; bones, including skulls and mandibles, were removed from burials postdecomposition and redeposited at the site but in a much smaller number than the incomplete inhumations recovered to date (31).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Early Lapita skeletons from Vanuatu show Polynesian craniofacial shape: Implications for Remote Oceanic settlement and Lapita origins

Valentin

Détroit

Spriggs

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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With a cultural and linguistic origin in Island Southeast Asia the Lapita expansion is thought to have led ultimately to the Polynesian settlement of the east Polynesian region after a time of mixing/integration in north Melanesia and a nearly 2,000-y pause in West Polynesia. One of the major achievements of recent Lapita research in Vanuatu has been the discovery of the oldest cemetery found so far in the Pacific at Teouma on the south coast of Efate Island, opening up new prospects for the biological definition of the early settlers of the archipelago and of Remote Oceania in general. Using craniometric evidence from the skeletons in conjunction with archaeological data, we discuss here four debated issues: the Lapita–Asian connection, the degree of admixture, the Lapita–Polynesian connection, and the question of secondary population movement into Remote Oceania.

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Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Early Lapita skeletons from Vanuatu show Polynesian craniofacial shape: Implications for Remote Oceanic settlement and Lapita origins

Valentin

Détroit

Spriggs

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Early sites on Efate and other central Vanuatu islands, Malakula, Ambae, parts of Santo, and on some of the Banks islands have all been located -sometimes with great difficulty because of depth of burial -beneath such volcanic deposits. The disadvantage of difficulty of site location is compensated for by the often exceptional preservation conditions that result from the sites being emplaced well below the 'plough zone' of traditional agriculture (see Bedford et al 1998Bedford et al , 2006Bedford andSpriggs 2000, 2008;Spriggs and Bedford 2001;Bedford 2006).…”

Section: Propositon 2: Difficulty Of Finding Early Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Haberle¹,

Stevenson²,

Prebble³

2010

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terra australis 32Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for South-East Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. Copyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2009. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Among saltbush greyer than seaweed we boardwalk the yeasting waves of the old golden-perch pond. List of volumes in Terra AustralisRabbit dung dots a lake bottom dry since their coming -only once, last century, after seven inches of rain a farmer had to rescue his sheep by boat.The roo bounces down-slope, a brown branch crackling.The professor's eye, noting the local runoff and what the westerlies do, observes seas that rush in and out of a continent's middle, salt lakes spreading and emptying, hills pimpling up and down with cartoon-like speed, or gullying themselves into extinction, rainforests and deserts zipping back and forth like Tom and Jerry. A human mouse plague swiftly swarms, perhaps soon gone.Impermanent planet. Impermanent surface. All under air and water. The lunette is a wave, a dumper of sand, a collapsing tower in the mad rabbit years when its top blew off and old bones winked through, with a vault's worth of fine stone cores.Once so simply mislaid in sand, now so obligingly sluiced out to the un-subincised world that smiles at stone knives. terra australis 32Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes v You might as well offer your table knife to a carpenter.Cane grass and the Dreamtime's stone fight the eroding rivulets together. In today's rare downpour each lost core, or blunted scraper crowns some tiny eroding hillock, plops its anchor in the dissolving silts.The bettong whose skin took off the stone tool's edge has vanished -sacrifice to future fertility.Through the softening soil Homo sapiens's skeleton bumps up like a carp's back.Waits for the wind to shave it off in pieces.A D-section and a ti...

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“…The site is located about 800 m inland on the edge of an uplifted beach/reef about 8 masl on the NE side of Teouma Bay ( Fig. 3) (Bedford et al 2006). This cemetery/mass burial site was uncovered by quarrying in 2003 and was first reported in detail by Bedford et al (2006).…”

Section: Teouma Vanuatumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3) (Bedford et al 2006). This cemetery/mass burial site was uncovered by quarrying in 2003 and was first reported in detail by Bedford et al (2006). Burials were in shallow graves dug into the tephra in gaps in the uplifted beach/reef along a NE-SW trending zone, 10-15 m wide, adjacent and parallel to the former beach ).…”

Section: Teouma Vanuatumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Burials were in shallow graves dug into the tephra in gaps in the uplifted beach/reef along a NE-SW trending zone, 10-15 m wide, adjacent and parallel to the former beach ). A total of 68 burial features were identified representing up to 91 individuals of which about 80% were adults (both sexes) and the remainder, infants (newborn/pre-term) (Bedford et al 2006Kinaston et al 2009;Valentin et al 2011).…”

Section: Teouma Vanuatumentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prehistoric Coastal Mass Burials: Did Death Come in Waves?

Cain

Goff

McFadgen

2018

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Recent large tsunamis in the twenty-first century have provided graphic reminders of the catastrophic impacts such natural hazards can have upon coastal communities. Death tolls in the thousands give rise to the rapid adoption of coastal mass burials for the interment of the dead. While recognised as a necessary practice in the aftermath of such contemporary tragedies, the paucity of coastal mass burial sites related to earlier tsunamis reported in the archaeological record is unusual. We establish a suite of criteria for identifying the geological and archaeological evidence of inundation by past tsunamis and review case studies from two well-documented prehistoric coastal mass burial sites in the Southern Hemisphere (Solomon Islands and Vanuatu). To varying degrees, both sites possess numerous characteristics that suggest direct correlation with previously reported catastrophic palaeotsunamis. In the Northern Hemisphere, we investigate palaeotsunami inundation as an alternative hypothesis for mass burial sites in Orkney and Shetland, a relatively tectonically inactive region where such an association is unlikely to have ever been considered. The nature, chronology and location of these mass burial sites fit well with the proposed archaeological evidence for palaeotsunami inundation, and they also appear to be contemporaneous with the as-yet poorly documented Garth tsunami (~5500 years BP). We suggest that a potentially key diagnostic criterion for determining a palaeotsunami linkage is the use of diatom testing on skeletal remains to establish whether death was caused by drowning in saltwater, a test which has never been applied in this context. J Archaeol Method Theory

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The Teouma Lapita site and the early human settlement of the Pacific Islands

Cited by 111 publications

References 30 publications

Early Lapita skeletons from Vanuatu show Polynesian craniofacial shape: Implications for Remote Oceanic settlement and Lapita origins

Early Lapita skeletons from Vanuatu show Polynesian craniofacial shape: Implications for Remote Oceanic settlement and Lapita origins

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Prehistoric Coastal Mass Burials: Did Death Come in Waves?

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