Everything about Lapita totally explained
Lapita is the common name of an ancient
Pacific Ocean archaeological culture which is believed by some to be the common ancestor of several cultures in
Polynesia,
Micronesia, and some areas of
Melanesia. The
type site in
New Caledonia was discovered in
1952. The word
Lapita itself isn't a place name. A word in a local New Caledonian language,
xaapeta, meaning 'dig a hole', was misheard as, and became,
lapita.
Dating
Classic Lapita pottery was produced between
1350 and
750 BC in the
Bismarck Archipelago. A late variety might have been produced there up to
250 BC. Local styles of Lapita pottery are found in
Vanuatu and
New Caledonia. Pottery persisted in Fiji, whereas it disappeared completely in other areas of
Melanesia and in
Siassi.
In Western Polynesia, Lapita pottery is found from
800 BC onwards in the
Fiji-
Samoa-
Tonga area. From Tonga and Samoa, Polynesian culture spread to Eastern Polynesia areas including the
Marquesas and the
Society Islands, and then later to
Hawaii,
Easter Island, and
New Zealand. However, pottery making didn't persist in most of Polynesia, mainly due to the lack of suitable clay on small islands.
Material culture
The low-fired earthenware pottery, often tempered with shell or sand, is typically decorated with a dentate (toothed) stamp, and it has been theorised that these decorations may have been transferred to or from less hardy mediums like tapa (bark cloth), mats or tattoos. Undecorated "plainware" pottery is an important part of the Lapita cultural complex, which also includes ground stone
adzes and shell
artefacts, and flaked stone tools of obsidian, chert and other available rock.
Economy
Domesticates consisted of
pigs,
dogs and
chickens.
Horticulture was based on root and tree
crops, most importantly taro and yam, coconuts, bananas and breadfruit varieties. This was supplemented by
fishing and
mollusc gathering.
Long distance trade of
obsidian, adzes and favourable adze source rock and shells was practiced.
Burial customs
Excavation of a large cemetery on
Efate Island in Vanuatu discovered in 2003, found 36 bodies in 25 graves, as well as burial jars. All skeletons were headless with the heads removed after burial and replaced with rings made from cone shell. The heads were reburied. One burial of an elderly man had three skulls lined up on his chest. One burial jar featured four birds looking into the jar. Carbon dating of the shells placed this cemetery at about 1000 B.C.
Settlements
In the west, villages were located on small offshore islands or the beaches of larger islands. This may have been to avoid areas already settled in coastal New Guinea, or malaria-carrying mosquitoes for which Lapita people had no immune defence. Some houses were built on stilts over larger lagoons. In
New Britain, settlements are found inland as well, near the obsidian sources. In the eastern archipelago, all settlements are located on land, sometimes some distance inland.
Distribution
Lapita pottery is known from the Bismarck archipelago to Samoa and Tonga. The domesticates spread into further Oceania as well. Humans, their domesticates, and species that were introduced involuntarily (perhaps as the
Polynesian Rat was) led to extinctions of
endemic species on many islands, especially of
flightless birds.
Language
The 'Lapita people' are supposed to have spoken
proto-Oceanic, a precursor of the Oceanic branch of
Austronesian. It is, however, difficult to link non-literate
material culture to languages, and it can't be verified by independent sources.
Origin
An ultimate
Southeast Asian origin of the Lapita complex is assumed by most scholars, perhaps originating from the
Austronesians in Taiwan or southern China some 5,000-6,000 years ago. This Neolithic dispersal was driven by a rapid population growth in east and southeast
Asia (
Formosa), and has often been called 'the express-train to Polynesia'. Burial pottery similar to "red slip" pottery of Taiwan, as well as detailed linguistic evidence seems to lend support to this theory..
Direct links between Lapita and mainland Southeast Asia are still missing, due to a lack of data in
Indonesia and
Malaysia.
Other scholars like J. Allen located the origin of the Lapita complex in the Bismarck Archipelago that was first colonised 30,000-35,000 BC. Others see obsidian trade as the motor of the spread of Lapita-elements in the western distribution area.
Lapita/Polynesian conundrum
Many scientists believe Lapita pottery in Melanesia to be proof that Polynesians passed through this area on their way into the central Pacific, despite only circumstantial evidence connecting Lapita with Polynesia.
The following information from three reputable scientists brings into question whether there's any connection at all.
When looking at the Lapita skeletons of Teouma, geneticist Lisa Matisoo-Smith said; "We were able to look to see whether the individuals possessed a particular mutation that we see at a very high frequency in Polynesians. It is a 9 based pair mutation of Mitichondrial DNA (9bp mtDNA deletion) and we found that the Teouma material - the first samples that we analysed didn't have that mutation, so they didn't look like 98% of the people we see living in Polynesia today".
Furthermore, Anita Smith,(An Archaeology of West Polynesian Prehistory, 2002) - when comparing Lapita with plainware ceramics in Polynesia: -
“There don't appear to be new or different kinds of evidence associated with plainware ceramics (& lapita), only the disappearance of a minor component of material culture and faunal assemblages is apparent. There is continuity in most aspects of the archaeological record that appears to mimic post Lapita sequences of Fiji and island Melanesia (Mangaasi and Naviti pottery).”
Therefore plainware appears to be a simplification of the Lapita cultural complex caused by isolation. Plainware pottery is found on many Polynesian islands and was thought to be a significant player in the transformation of Lapita society into a Polynesian cultural complex. Unfortunately no classical Polynesian artifacts have been found within this plainware assemblage. Archaeological evidence indicates that plainware pottery ceases abruptly in Samoa around 0BC, being replaced by classic Polynesian cultural complex. This clearly indicates a change in the control of the islands, from the waning Lapita settlers to a culture that used gourds, two-piece fishhooks, trolling lures, harpoon heads, tanged adzes, stone pounders and tattooing needles - none of which are found amongst Lapita artifacts.(See Anita Smith, An Archaeology of West Polynesian Prehistory, 2002).
A quote from Anita Smith (An Archaeology of West Polynesian Prehistory, 2002).
“Although ceramics have been used as the primary material culture correlate for cultural change in West Polynesia, they're perhaps least suited to identifying Ancestral Polynesians in the archaeological record. Ceramics were not manufactured by Polynesian societies at any time in East Polynesian prehistory. Therefore trying to connect Lapita and plainware pottery with Polynesians is illogical.”
Matthew Spriggs (The Lapita Cultural Complex, 1985) stated; "The possibility of cultural continuity between Lapita Potters and Melanesians hasn't been given the consideration it deserves. In most sites there was an overlap of styles with no stratigraphic separation discernible. Continuity is found in pottery temper, importation of obsidian and in non ceramic artifacts".
As we can see from the above information, Lapita culture appears to have more to do with the genesis of Melanesian society than with Polynesian society. Therefore we must look elsewhere for the origins of Polynesian society.
Further Information
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