View source for Lapita culture

{{Short description|Neolithic archaeological culture in the Pacific}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
[[File:Carte lapita.png|thumb|275px|Known distribution of the Lapita culture]]
[[File:National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka - Reconstructed Lapita female.jpg|thumb|upright|Reconstruction of the face of [[Mana (skeleton)|a Lapita woman]] exhibited in the [[National Museum of Ethnology (Japan)|National Museum of Ethnology]] of Japan]]

The '''Lapita culture''' is the name given to a [[Neolithic]] [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] people and their distinct [[material culture]], who settled [[Island Melanesia]] via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sand|first=Christophe|date=2001|title=Evolutions in the Lapita Cultural Complex: A View from the Southern Lapita Province|journal=Archaeology in Oceania|volume=36|issue=2|pages=65–76|doi=10.1002/j.1834-4453.2001.tb00479.x|jstor=40387802|issn=0728-4896}}</ref><ref name="kirch">{{cite book|last=Kirch|first=Patrick Vinton |year=1997|title=The Lapita Peoples: Ancestors of the Oceanic World|location=Oxford|publisher= Blackwell}}</ref> The Lapita people are believed to have originated from the northern [[Philippines]], either directly, via the [[Mariana Islands]], or both.<ref name="Blust1999"/> They were notable for their distinctive geometric designs on dentate-stamped pottery, which closely resemble the pottery recovered from the Nagsabaran archaeological site in [[northern Luzon]]. The Lapita intermarried with the [[Indigenous people of New Guinea|Papuan populations]] to various degrees, and are the direct ancestors of the Austronesian peoples of [[Polynesia]], eastern [[Micronesia]], and [[Island Melanesia]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name="Pietrusewsky">{{cite book |last1=Pietrusewsky |first1=Michael |editor1-last=Simanjuntak |editor1-first=T. |editor2-last=Pojoh |editor2-first=I.H.E. |editor3-last=Hisyam |editor3-first=M. |title=Austronesian Disapora and the Ethnogenesis of People in Indonesian Archipelago. Proceedings of the International Symposium |date=2006 |publisher=LIPI Press |location=Jakarta |pages=320–347 |chapter=Initial Settlement of remote Oceania: the evidence from physical anthropology}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The term "Lapita" was coined by archaeologists during a 1952 excavation in [[New Caledonia]] after mishearing a word in the local [[Haveke language]], ''xapeta'a'', which means "to dig a hole" or "the place where one digs".<ref name=barb/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/dec/14/lapita-oceanic-ancestors-paris-review |title=Lapita: Oceanic Ancestors – review |last1=Mortaigne |first1=Véronique |date=28 December 2010 |work=Guardian UK |publisher=Originally appeared in Le Monde |access-date=29 December 2010}}</ref> The Lapita archaeological culture is named after the [[type site]] where it was first uncovered in the Foué peninsula on [[Grande Terre (New Caledonia)|Grande Terre]], the main island of New Caledonia.{{r|kirch|p=1-3}} The excavation was carried out in 1952 by American archaeologists [[Edward Winslow Gifford|Edward W. Gifford]] and Richard Shutler Jr. at Site 13.<ref name=barb>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, Volume 1 |last=West |first=Barbara A. |year=2008 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn= 978-0-8160-7109-8 |page=460 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&q=Lapita+name}}</ref> The settlement and pottery [[sherd]]s were later dated to 800 BCE and proved significant in research on the early peopling of the [[Pacific Islands]]. More than 200 Lapita sites have since been uncovered,<ref name=chris>{{cite book |title=Oceanic explorations: Lapita and western Pacific settlement |last=Sand |first=Christophe|author2=Sean P. Connaughton |year=2007 |publisher=ANU E Press|location=Australia |isbn= 978-0-9751229-0-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oceanicexplorati00bedf/page/n12 3]–29 |url=https://archive.org/details/oceanicexplorati00bedf|url-access=limited }}</ref> ranging more than 4,000&nbsp;km from coastal and island Melanesia to [[Fiji]] and [[Tonga]] with its most eastern limit in [[Samoa]].

The term ''Lapita'' is now used to refer to the collection of theories regarding the origin and features of the ancestors of the people that speak the Oceanic languages. It also refers to the [[material culture]] found in excavations, especially pottery, related to these ancestral communities.{{r|kirch|p=21}}

==Artifact dating==
"Classic" Lapita pottery was produced between 1,600 and 1,200 BCE on the [[Bismarck Archipelago]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book |author-last=Spriggs |author-first=Matthew |author-link=Matthew Spriggs |chapter=The Lapita Culture and Austronesian Prehistory in Oceania |date=2006 |title=The Austronesians |pages=119–142 |editor-last=Bellwood |editor-first=Peter |series=Historical and Comparative Perspectives |publisher=ANU Press |jstor=j.ctt2jbjx1.9 |isbn=978-0-7315-2132-6 |editor2-last=Fox |editor2-first=James J. |editor3-last=Tryon |editor3-first=Darrell}}</ref> Artifacts exhibiting Lapita designs and techniques from a period later than 1,200 BCE have been found in the [[Solomon Islands]],<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Reading Lapita in near Oceania: intertidal and shallow-water pottery scatters, Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia, Solomon Islands |date=2003 |publisher=ResearchSpace@Auckland |language=en |hdl=2292/997}}</ref> [[Vanuatu]] and [[New Caledonia]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Citation |last=Lilley |first=Ian |title=Lapita: The Australian connection |date=11 December 2019 |work=Debating Lapita: Distribution, Chronology, Society and Subsistence |publisher=ANU Press |doi=10.22459/ta52.2019.05 |isbn=978-1-76046-330-4 |doi-access=free|hdl=1885/202329 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Lapita pottery styles from around 1,000 BCE have been found in [[Fiji]] and Western Polynesia.<ref name=":0" />

In Western Polynesia, Lapita pottery became less decorative<ref name=":1">{{cite book |author-first1=Stuart |author-last1=Bedford |author-first2=Matthew |author-last2=Spriggs |author-link2=Matthew Spriggs |author-first3=David V. |author-last3=Burley |author-first4=Christophe |author-last4=Sand |author-first5=Peter |author-last5=Sheppard |author-first6=Glenn R. |author-last6=Summerhayes |title=Debating Lapita |chapter=Distribution, chronology, society and subsistence |date=2019 |editor-first1=Stuart |editor-last1=Bedford  |editor-first2=Matthew |editor-last2=Spriggs |editor-link2=Matthew Spriggs |pages=5–34 |location=Australia |publisher=ANU Press |jstor=j.ctvtxw3gm.7|isbn=978-1-76046-330-4 }}</ref> and progressively simpler over time. It seems to have stopped being produced altogether in Samoa by about 2,800 years ago, and in Tonga by about 2,000 years ago.<ref name=":0" />

==Material culture==
[[File:PortVilaLapita.jpg|thumb|Lapita pottery from [[Vanuatu]], [[National Museum of Vanuatu]]]]
[[File:"Prehistoric_pottery_from_the_island_of_Taumako".jpg|thumb|Prehistoric pottery vessels, including some with Lapita designs, from the island of [[Taumako]]]]
Pottery whose detailed decorative designs suggest Lapita influence was made from a variety of materials, depending on what was available, and their crafters used a variety of techniques, depending on the tools they had.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Chiu |first1=Scarlett |title=The Socio-Economic Functions of Lapita Ceramic Production and Exchange: A Case Study from Site WKO013A, Koné, New Caledonia |year=2003 |id={{ProQuest|305336522}} }}</ref> But, typically, the pottery consisted of low-fired earthenware, [[Temper (pottery)|tempered]] with shells or sand, and decorated using a toothed ("dentate") stamp.<ref name=":1" /> It has been theorized<ref>{{cite book | last = Kirch | first = Patrick Vinton | title = A Shark Going Inland is my Chief | publisher = University of California Press | date = 2012| location =Berkeley, CA| pages = 21–37 | isbn = 978-0-520-27330-6}}</ref> that these decorations may have been transferred from less hardy material, such as bark cloth ("tapa") or mats, or from tattoos, onto the pottery – or transferred from the pottery onto those materials. Other important parts of the Lapita repertoire were: undecorated ("plain-ware") pottery, including beakers, cooking pots, and bowls; shell [[artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]]; ground-stone [[adze]]s; and flaked-stone tools made of [[obsidian]], chert, or other available kinds of rock.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Lapita Culture |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=26 February 2016 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lapita-culture |access-date=1 November 2016 }}</ref><ref name=":1" />

==Economy==
{{See also|Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia|Paddy field}}
The Lapita kept pigs, dogs, and chickens. Horticulture was based on [[root crop]]s and tree crops, most importantly [[taro]], [[Yam (vegetable)|yam]], [[coconut]]s, bananas, and varieties of [[breadfruit]]. These foods were likely supplemented by fishing and [[mollusc gathering]].
Long-distance trade was practiced; items traded included [[obsidian]],<ref name="Specht2018">{{Cite book |last=Specht |first=Jim |editor-last1=Cochrane |editor-first1=Ethan E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZRODwAAQBAJ |title=The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania |chapter=Research issues in the circum-New Guinea islands |editor-last2=Hunt |editor-first2=Terry L. |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=100 |isbn=978-0-19-992507-0 |language=en}}</ref> [[adzes]], adze source-rock, and shells.<ref name=":1" />

==Burial customs==
In 2003, at the [[Teouma]] archeological excavation site on [[Efate Island]] in [[Vanuatu]], a large cemetery was discovered, including 25 graves containing [[jar burial|burial jars]] and a total of 36 human skeletons. All the skeletons were headless: At some point after the bodies had originally been buried, the skulls had been removed and replaced with rings made from cone shells, and the heads had been reburied. One grave contained the skeleton of an elderly man with three skulls sitting on his chest. Another grave contained a burial jar depicting four birds looking into the jar. [[Radiocarbon dating|Carbon dating]] of the shells placed this cemetery as having been in use around 1000 BCE.<ref name="Science">{{cite journal |title=Graves of the Pacific's First Seafarers Revealed |author-first=Richard |author-last=Stone |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |date=21 April 2006 |volume=312 |number=5772 |page=360 |doi=10.1126/science.312.5772.360a |pmid=16627714 |s2cid=43533664 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

In 2002, a complete human skeleton was discovered on [[Moturiki]] in [[Fiji]]. The [[Mana (skeleton)|Mana skeleton]], as it was later named, was of a Lapita woman that lived in the year 800 BCE or earlier. She was buried more than 1.5 metres below the ground surface and she was covered by undisturbed layers of [[sand]] and [[silt]] [[sediment]] in which Lapita pottery was found. A large shell had been placed beneath her neck and another one between her knees, with more smaller shells also present inside the grave.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last= |last2= |first2= |last3= |first3= |date=11 August 2005 |title=Mana - the true face of Lapita unveiled |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0508/S00117/mana-the-true-face-of-lapita-unveiled.htm |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Scoop News}}</ref>

==Settlements==
Lapita culture villages on islands in the area of [[Remote Oceania]] tended not to be located inland, but instead on the beach, or on small offshore islets. These locations may have been chosen because inland areas – for example in New Guinea – were already settled by other peoples. Or they may have been chosen in order to avoid areas inhabited by mosquitoes carrying malaria, against which Lapita people likely had no immune defense. Some of their houses were built on stilts over large lagoons. In [[New Britain]], however, there were inland settlements; they were located near obsidian sources. And on the islands at the eastern end of the archipelago, all settlements were located inland rather than on the beaches – sometimes fairly far inland.

==Distribution==
[[File:F 2 076 227 Vailele excavation 1957 Jack Golson and I'iga Pisa family visiting site photographer unknown.jpg|thumb|right|220px|[[Jack Golson]] excavation site in [[Vailele]] with a visit from a Samoan family, 1957]]

The ''Lapita complex'' encompasses a very large geographic region from Mussau to [[Samoa]].{{r|kirch|p =19}} Lapita pottery has been found in [[Near Oceania]] as well as [[Remote Oceania]], as far west as the [[Bismarck Archipelago]], as far east as Samoa, and as far south as New Caledonia.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0"/> Excavation at a site in the village of [[Mulifanua]] in Samoa uncovered two adzes that strongly indicate Lapita influence. Carbon dating of material found with the adzes suggests there was a Lapita settlement at this site in roughly 1000 BCE.<ref name="test">{{cite journal |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_98_1989/Volume_98,_No._3/New_information_for_the_Ferry_Berth_site,_Mulifanua,_Western_Samoa,_by_H._M._Leach,_p_319-330/p1?page=0&action=searchresult&target= |title=New Information for the Ferry Berth Site, Mulifanua, Western Samoa |author-first1=Roger C. |author-last1=Green |author-first2=Helen M. |author-last2=Leach |journal=Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=98 |date=1989 |number=3 |access-date=1 November 2009 |archive-date=10 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510004830/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_98_1989/Volume_98%2C_No._3/New_information_for_the_Ferry_Berth_site%2C_Mulifanua%2C_Western_Samoa%2C_by_H._M._Leach%2C_p_319-330/p1?page=0&action=searchresult&target= }}</ref> Radio carbon dating of sites in New Caledonia suggest there were Lapita settlements there as early as 1,110 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shutler |first=Richard |date=1978 |title=Radiocarbon Dating and Oceanic Prehistory |journal=Archaeology & Physical Anthropology in Oceania |volume=13 |issue=2/3 |pages=215–228 |jstor=40386322 |issn=0003-8121}}</ref> The dates and locations of more northerly Lapita-influenced settlements are still largely up for debate.<ref name=":1" />

The ''Lapita complex'' has been divided into three geographical subregions or provincesː the Far Western Lapita, the Western Lapita, and the Eastern Lapita.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Glenn R.|last= Summerhayes|title=Far Western, Western and Eastern Lapita: A re-evaluation|journal=Asian Perspectives |volume= 39|issue=39/1–2|year=2000|pages=109–138|doi= 10.1353/asi.2000.0013|url=http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/17136/1/AP-v39n1-2-109-138.pdf|hdl= 10125/17136|s2cid= 162396781|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Within the Far Western Lapita is the New Britain or Bismarck archipelago, including the area discovered by Otto Meyer in 1909. The Western Lapita includes the artifacts found within the Solomon Islands to New Caledonia. The Eastern Lapita is attributed to the Fiji, Tonga and Samoa region.{{r|kirch|p =19}} Discoveries of unique patterns within the Eastern Lapita region suggest a subdivision of Early and Late Eastern Lapita variations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Green|first=R C|date=1975|title=Lapita pottery and a lower sea level in Western Samoa|url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/03dcdcbd-aa9a-4f2b-b55d-7301440dab02/content|journal=Pacific Science|volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=309–315|jstor=|issn=}}</ref>

==Language==
{{Main|Austronesian languages}}

Linguists and other researchers theorize that the people of the Lapita cultural complex spoke [[Proto-Oceanic language|Proto-Oceanic]], which is a branch of the [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] language family widely distributed in Southeast Asia today.<ref name=":2">Sheppard, P. (2019). Early Lapita colonisation of Remote Oceania: An update on the leapfrog hypothesis. In Bedford S. & Spriggs M. (Eds.), ''Debating Lapita: Distribution, Chronology, Society and Subsistence'' (pp. 135–154). Australia: ANU Press.{{doi|10.2307/j.ctvtxw3gm.13}}</ref><ref>Kirch, P. (2010). Peopling of the Pacific: A Holistic Anthropological Perspective. ''Annual Review of Anthropology,'' ''39'', 131–148. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from {{JSTOR|25735104}}</ref> However, the particular language or languages spoken by the Lapita is unknown. The languages spoken in the region today derive from a number of different ancient languages, and [[archaeological culture|material culture]] uncovered by archaeology does not generally provide clues to the language spoken by the makers of the artifacts.<ref name=":2" /> Furthermore, certain Lapita groups are likely to have differences in speech and appearance from their relatives in different archipelagos or islands.{{r|kirch|p =18}}

[[Matthew Spriggs]] sees the Lapita as the source of Oceanic Austronesian languages and of cultural and religious concepts in much of the Pacific.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spriggs|first=Matthew|author-link=Matthew Spriggs|editor-last1=Ling|editor-first1=Johan|editor-last2=Chacon|editor-first2=Richard J.|editor-last3=Kristiansen|editor-first3=Kristian|editor-link3=Kristian Kristiansen (archaeologist)|date=5 September 2022|chapter=Lapita long-distance interactions in the Western Pacific: From prestige goods to prestige practices|title=Trade before Civilization: Long Distance Exchange and the Rise of Social Complexity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJh-EAAAQBAJ|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=214|isbn=978-1-316-51468-9|access-date=8 May 2024|quote=What also spread with Lapita was the ancestral form (Proto-Oceanic) of the Oceanic Austronesian languages still spoken across much of the region today; indeed, it is this continuity of language which allows us to identify through historical linguistic methods the proximate Lapita homeland in the Bismarcks as being the linguistic homeland for all Oceanic languages [...]. [...] And of course, along with the language novel concepts of kinship, social organization and religion also spread.}}</ref>

==Origin==
The Lapita complex is part of the eastern migration branch of the [[Austronesian expansion]], which started from Taiwan<ref>{{Cite web|last=Jakobsen|first=Rasmus Kragh|date=2017-04-17|title=Fossil DNA identifies the first seafarers in the Pacific Ocean|url=https://sciencenordic.com/a/1444486|access-date=2021-10-24|website=sciencenordic.com|language=nb-no}}</ref> between about 5,000 and 6,000 years ago. Some of the emigrants reached Melanesia and were distant descendants of much earlier migrations into the super-continent of [[Sahul]].{{r|kirch|p=1-3}} There are different theories about the route they took to get there. They may have gone through the [[Marianas Islands]], or through the [[Philippines]], or both.<ref name="Blust1999">{{cite book|author-link=Robert Blust|last=Blust|first=R.|year=1999|chapter=Subgrouping, circularity and extinction: some issues in Austronesian comparative linguistics|title=Selected Papers from the Eighth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics|editor= E. Zeitoun and P. J.-K. Li. |location=Taipei|publisher=Symposium Series of the Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica}}.</ref> The strongest support for the theory that the original people of the Lapita culture were Austronesian is linguistic evidence showing very considerable [[Lexical (semiotics)|lexical]] continuity between [[Proto-Malayo-Polynesian]] (presumably spoken in the Philippines) and [[Proto-Oceanic]] (presumably spoken by the Lapita people). In addition, the patterns of linguistic continuity correspond to patterns of similarity in material culture.<ref name="Science" /><ref name="Pawley">{{cite book |last1=Pawley |first1=Andrew |title=Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement |date=2007 |publisher=ANU E Press |chapter=The origins of Early Lapita culture: the testimony of historical linguistics|series=Terra Australis |pages=17–49 |url=http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p61051/pdf/ch0227.pdf}}</ref>

[[File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|thumb|left|350px|Chronological dispersal of [[Austronesian peoples]] across the [[Indo-Pacific]]<ref name="Chambers2013">{{cite book |last1=Chambers |first1=Geoff |title=eLS |publisher= John Wiley & Sons, Inc.|date=2013 |doi=10.1002/9780470015902.a0020808.pub2|isbn=978-0-470-01617-6 |chapter=Genetics and the Origins of the Polynesians}}</ref>]]

In 2011, Peter Bellwood proposed that the initial movement of Malayo-Polynesian speakers into Oceania was from the northern Philippines eastward into the [[Mariana Islands]], then southward into the Bismarcks. An older proposal was that Lapita settlers first arrived in Melanesia via eastern Indonesia. Bellwood's proposal included the possibility that both migration patterns happened, with different migrants taking different routes.<ref name="Bellwood2011">{{cite journal|author-link=Peter Bellwood|last=Bellwood|first=Peter|year=2011|title=The Checkered Prehistory of Rice Movement Southwards as a Domesticated Cereal – from the Yangzi to the Equator|journal=Rice|volume=4|issue=3|pages=93–103|doi=10.1007/s12284-011-9068-9|doi-access=free|bibcode=2011Rice....4...93B |hdl=1885/58842|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Bellwood's proposal is supported by the pottery evidence: Lapita pottery is more similar to pottery recovered from the Philippines (at the Nagsabaran archaeological site on [[Luzon]] Island) than it is to pottery discovered anywhere else. Other evidence suggests that the Luzon area may have been the original homeland of the stamped pottery tradition that is carried forward in Lapita culture.<ref name="Carson2013"/>

Archaeological evidence also broadly supports the theory that the people of the Lapita culture are of Austronesian origin. On the [[Bismarck Archipelago]], around 3,500 years ago, the Lapita complex appears suddenly, as a fully-developed archaeological horizon with associated highly developed technological assemblages. No evidence has been found on the archipelago of settlements in earlier developmental stages. This suggests that the Lapita culture was brought in by a migrating population, and did not – as had been proposed in the 1980s and 1990s by scholars like [[Jim Allen (archaeologist)|Jim Allen]] and J. Peter White – evolve locally.

There is evidence that western Melanesia was continuously occupied by indigenous [[Indigenous people of New Guinea|Papuans]] beginning between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago. That evidence includes recovered artifacts. But those remnants of the older material culture are far less diverse than the relics dating from after the Lapita horizon. The older material culture appears to have contributed only a few elements to the later Lapita material culture: some crops and some tools.<ref name="Pawley"/><ref name="Kirch"/>

The vast majority of the Lapita material-culture elements are clearly Southeast Asian in origin. These include pottery, crops, [[paddy field]] agriculture, domesticated animals (chickens, dogs, and pigs), rectangular [[stilt house]]s, tattoo chisels, quadrangular adzes, polished stone chisels, [[outrigger boat]] technology, trolling hooks, and various other stone artifacts.<ref name="Pawley"/><ref name="Kirch">{{cite journal |last1=Kirch |first1=Patrick V. |title=Lapita and Its Aftermath: The Austronesian Settlement of Oceania |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |date=1996 |volume=86 |issue=5 |pages=557–570 |doi=10.2307/1006621 |jstor=1006621 }}</ref><ref name="Bellwood2011"/> Lapita pottery offers the strongest evidence of an Austronesian origin. It has very distinctive elements, like the use of the red [[Slip (ceramics)|slip]]s, tiny punch marks, dentate stamps, circle stamps, and a cross-in-circle motif. Similar pottery has been found in [[Taiwan]], the [[Batanes]] and [[Luzon]] islands of the [[Philippines]], and the [[Marianas]].<ref name="Carson2013"/>

The orthodox view, advocated by [[Roger Curtis Green|Roger Green]] and [[Peter Bellwood]], and accepted by most specialists today, is the so-called "Triple-I model" (short for "intrusion, innovation, and integration"). This model posits that the Early Lapita culture arose as the result of a three-part process: "intrusion" of the Austronesian peoples of the islands of Southeast Asia (and their language, materials, and ideas) into Near Oceania; "innovation" by the Lapita people, once they reached in Melanesia, in the form of new technologies; and "integration" of the Lapita peoples into the pre-existing (non-Austronesian) populations.<ref name="GreenhillandGray2005">Greenhill, S. J. & Gray, R. D. (2005).Testing Population Dispersal Hypotheses: Pacific Settlement, Phylogenetic Trees, and Austronesian Languages. In: The Evolution of Cultural Diversity: Phylogenetic Approaches. Editors: R. Mace, C. Holden, & S. Shennan. Publisher: UCL Press.[http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/publications/index.php?pub=Greenhill_and_Gray2005] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928152914/http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/publications/index.php?pub=Greenhill_and_Gray2005|date=28 September 2011}}</ref><ref name="Carson2013">{{cite journal |last1=Carson |first1=Mike T. |last2=Hung |first2=Hsiao-chun |last3=Summerhayes |first3=Glenn |last4=Bellwood |first4=Peter |title=The Pottery Trail From Southeast Asia to Remote Oceania |journal=The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology |date=January 2013 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=17–36 |doi=10.1080/15564894.2012.726941|s2cid=128641903 |hdl=1885/72437 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
[[File:The Mana skeleton.jpg|thumb|The [[Mana (skeleton)|Mana skeleton]]]]
The [[Mana (skeleton)|Mana skeleton]], a complete skeleton of a Lapita woman that lived in [[Fiji]] in 800 BCE, had her face [[Forensic facial reconstruction|reconstructed]] with the use of computer modelling. Her facial features bear similarities to those typically associated with [[Polynesians|Polynesian]], [[Fijians|Fijian]] and [[Asians|Asian]] ancestry, however she does not clearly align with any one of these groups.<ref name=":3" />

===Archaeogenetics===
In 2016, [[DNA analysis]] of four Lapita skeletons found in ancient cemeteries on the islands of Vanuatu and Tonga showed that the Lapita people had descended from inhabitants of [[Taiwan]] and of the northern [[Philippines]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/origins-of-vanuatu-and-tongas-first-people-revealed|title=Origins of Vanuatu and Tonga's first people revealed|date=2016-10-04}}</ref> This evidence of the Lapita peoples' migration route was corroborated in 2020 by a study that did a complete [[Human mitochondrial genetics|mtDNA]] and [[whole genome sequencing|genome-wide SNP]] comparison of the remains of early settlers of the [[Mariana Islands]] with the remains of early Lapita individuals from [[Vanuatu]] and [[Tonga]]. The results suggest that both groups had descended from the same ancient Austronesian source population in the [[Philippines]]. The complete absence of "Papuan" admixture in these remains suggest that the voyages of the migrants bypassed eastern [[Indonesia]] and the rest of [[New Guinea]]. The study authors noted that their results also support the possibility that early Lapita Austronesians were direct descendants of the early colonists of the Marianas (who preceded them by about 150 years); this idea is also consistent with the pottery evidence.<ref name="Pugach">{{cite journal |last1=Pugach |first1=Irina |last2=Hübner |first2=Alexander |last3=Hung |first3=Hsiao-chun |last4=Meyer |first4=Matthias |last5=Carson |first5=Mike T. |last6=Stoneking |first6=Mark |title=Ancient DNA from Guam and the Peopling of the Pacific |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=118 |issue=1 |date=5 January 2021 |article-number=e2022112118 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2022112118 |pmid=33443177 |pmc=7817125 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11822112P |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Recent DNA studies show that the Lapita people and modern [[Polynesians]] have a common ancestry with the [[Atayal people]] of Taiwan and the [[Kankanaey people]] of the northern Philippines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/game-changing-study-suggests-first-polynesians-voyaged-all-way-east-asia|title='Game-changing' study suggests first Polynesians voyaged all the way from East Asia|date=3 October 2016|last=Gibbons|first=Ann|website=Science|access-date=28 December 2017}}</ref>

A 2023 study states that Lapita people already have increased Northeast Asian ancestry (~21–29%) compared to ancient groups that initially settled in Taiwan (~0–8%).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Dang |last2=Ko |first2=Albert Min-Shan |last3=Stoneking |first3=Mark |date=2023 |title=The genomic diversity of Taiwanese Austronesian groups: Implications for the 'Into- and Out-of-Taiwan' models |url=https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/2/5/pgad122/7160857?login=false#412514429 |journal=PNAS Nexus |volume=2 |issue=5 |article-number=pgad122 |doi=10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad122  |doi-access=free|pmc=10187666 |pmid=37200801 |via=Oxford Academic}}</ref>

==Discovery==
[[File:Cast of a Pot Sherd MET vs1980 153 2.jpg|thumb|275px|Cast of a [[potsherd]], Lapita people, mid-20th century excavation.]]

The first recorded discovery of Lapita materials was by Otto Meyer, a [[Sacred Heart]] missionary working on [[Watom Island]] in 1909.<ref name=sarout>{{Cite journal|last=Dotte-Sarout|first=Emilie|date=2019|title=Lapita before Lapita: The Early Story of the Meyer/O'Reilly Watom Island Archaeological Collection|url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/226726/1/Lapita%20before%20Lapita%20AAM.pdf|journal=The Journal of Pacific History|volume=54|issue=3|pages=354–378|doi=10.1080/00223344.2018.1561254|jstor=|hdl=1885/226726 |issn=1469-9605}}</ref> Meyer discovered potsherds after a tropical storm hit the island and exposed the artifacts. The decorated sherds were sent by Meyer to the [[Musée de l'Homme]] in Paris. In 1920, anthropologist William C. McKern unearthed over 1500 potsherds in the island of [[Tongatapu]] as part of a widespread expedition,<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=[[Te Rangi Hiroa]] |editor-first=(Peter Buck) |title=An Introduction to Polynesian Anthropology |publisher=Bernice P. [[Bishop Museum]] |location=Honolulu, Hawaii |chapter=The Bayard Dominick Expeditions |page=45 |date=1945 |url= http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucIntr-t1-body-d7-d2-d3.html |access-date=March 9, 2020}}</ref> most with stamped motifs. McKern wasn't aware of Meyer's discoveries and assumed the sherds were prehistoric Fijian ceramics.{{r|kirch|p=6}} The connection between Meyer's sherds and those excavated by McKern was made in 1940 with the discovery of pottery on the [[Isle of Pines (New Caledonia)|Ile des Pins]].

In the 1950s, [[Edward Winslow Gifford]], who assisted McKern in 1920, led expeditions that eventually centered on the beach of the Koné Peninsula from where the ''Lapita'' term was coined. Gifford used the recently invented carbon dating on his excavated charcoal, dating the artifacts between 2,800 and 2,450 [[Before Present|years bp]]. Gifford later demonstrated the connection between the evidence from previous discoveries, including Meyer's Watom islands sherds and McKern's [[Bayard Dominick expedition]]. Gifford also proved a relationship between his ''Lapita'' artifacts and those discovered by Pieter Vincent van Stein Callenfels along the [[Karama River]] in [[Sulawesi]].{{r|kirch|p=8}} The time scale of the ''Lapita model'' between these discoveries and additional excavations were proven in the 1960s by [[Jack Golson]], predating the Melanesian cultures and other Western Polynesian cultures.<ref name=sarout /> Some of the notable archeological locations include the Lolokoka site in [[Niuatoputapu]] and within the Eastern Lapita, the Nenumbo site in the [[Reef Islands]] which includes the expansion to the [[Solomon Islands]], and the Talepakemalai in [[Mussau Island|Massau]] that exemplifies the earliest Lapita group within the [[Bismarck Archipelago|Bismarck archipelago]].

==Lapita in Polynesia==
{{Synthesis|section|topic=connections between melanesian, polynesian, and lapita cultures|date=November 2008}}
As the archaeological record improved in the 1980s and 1990s, the Lapita people were found to be the original settlers in parts of Melanesia and Western Polynesia.<ref name=Pawley/> Many scientists believe Lapita pottery in Melanesia to be proof that Polynesian ancestors passed through this area on their way into the central Pacific. The earliest archaeological site in Polynesia is in Tonga.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Dickinson |first1=William R. |last2=Green |first2=Roger C. |date=February 1998 |title=Geoarchaeological context of Holocene subsidence at the Ferry Berth Lapita site, Mulifanua, Upolu, Samoa |journal=Geoarchaeology |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=239–263 |doi=10.1002/(sici)1520-6548(199802)13:3<239::aid-gea1>3.0.co;2-5 |bibcode=1998Gearc..13..239D |issn=0883-6353}}</ref>

Other early Lapita discovery sites dating back to 900 BCE are also found in [[Tonga]] and contain the typical pottery and other archaeological "kit" of Lapita sites in Fiji and eastern Melanesia of about that time and immediately before.<ref>{{Cite journal|first1=David V. |last1=Burley |first2=Andrew |last2=Barton |first3=William R. |last3=Dickinson |first4=Sean P.|last4=Connaughton |first5= Karine |last5=Taché |year=2010 |title= Nukuleka as a Founder Colony for West Polynesian Settlement: New Insights from Recent Excavations |journal= Journal of Pacific Archaeology |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=128–144 }}</ref><ref name="AnitaSmith">{{cite journal|author-first=Anita |author-last=Smith |title=An Archaeology of West Polynesian Prehistory |journal=Terra Australis |volume=18 |date=2002 |publisher=Pandanus Books and [[Australian National University]] |location=Canberra |url=https://pacificinstitute.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/resources-links/TA_18.pdf |isbn=1-74076-019-0 |issn=0725-9018 }}</ref>

Anita Smith compares the Polynesian Lapita period with the later Polynesian Plainware ceramic period in Polynesia:

<blockquote>"There do not appear to be new or different kinds of evidence associated with plain-ware 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)."<ref name="AnitaSmith"/></blockquote>

Plainware pottery is found on many Western Polynesian islands and marks a transitional period between when only Lapita pottery was found and a later period before the settlement of Eastern Polynesia when the Western Polynesians of the time had given up pottery production altogether. Archaeological evidence indicates that plainware pottery ceases abruptly in Samoa around 1 CE.

According to Smith, "Ceramics were not manufactured by Polynesian societies at any time in East Polynesian prehistory."<ref name="AnitaSmith" />

[[Matthew Spriggs]] stated: "The possibility of cultural continuity between Lapita Potters and Melanesians has not 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 artefacts".<ref>[[Matthew Spriggs]], ''The Lapita Cultural Complex'', 1985.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Teouma]] – a major archaeological site in Vanuatu
* [[Archaeology in Samoa]]
* [[Early history of Tonga]]

==References==
{{reflist|33em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin|33em}}
* {{cite journal|first=J. |last=Allen|title=In Search of the Lapita Homeland: Reconstructing the Prehistory of the Bismarck Archipelago|journal=Journal of Pacific History |volume=19|issue=4|year=1984|pages=186–187|doi=10.1080/00223348408572494}}
* {{cite book|first= P.|last= Bellwood|title=Man's conquest of the Pacific|location=London|publisher=Collins |year=1978}}
* {{cite journal|first= K. |last=Chino|title=Lapita Pottery – Ties in the South Pacific|journal=Wave of Pacifika |volume=8 |year=2002}}[http://www.spf.org/spinf/news/pdf/wop8.pdf]
* {{cite book|first1= G. |last1=Clark |last2=Anderson |first2=Atholl |author2-link=Atholl Anderson |author3= Vunidilo, T.|title=The archaeology of Lapita dispersal in Oceania: papers from the 4th Lapita conference|date=June 2000 |location=Canberra|publisher=Pandanus Books|pages=15–23}}
* {{cite book|first= A.|last= Noury|year=2005|title=Le reflet de l'ame Lapita|publisher=Noury |location=Paris|isbn=978-2-9524455-0-4}}
* {{cite book|last=Noury|first=Arnaud|author2=Galipaud J.-C. |year=2011|title=Les Lapita, nomades du Pacifique (french)|location=France|publisher= IRD Editions}}
* {{cite book|last=Noury|first=Arnaud|year=2012|title=Grammaire des décors lapita (french)|location=France|publisher= Andromaque Editions}}
* {{cite book|first= Arnaud|last= Noury|year=2013|title=Le Lapita: a l'origine des sociétés d'Oceanie (french)|publisher=Lulu eds|location=France}}
* [http://hdl.handle.net/2292/997 Felgate, Matthew (2003) Reading Lapita in near Oceania : intertidal and shallow-water pottery scatters, Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia, Solomon Islands.] University of Auckland PhD Thesis

{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Lapita Culture}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010503195917/http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/humanities/history/52148/modules/pacific_peoplesA.html#lapita Lapita cultural complex – brief description with picture of pottery] (Central Queensland University School of Humanities)
* [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/96/5/2563 Extinctions connected with the spread of Lapita] (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
* [https://archive.today/20100117133212/http://arethpa.ifrance.com/ Lapita cultural complex, Lapita designs, texts about Lapita, LapitaDraw ("software to aid in studying archaeological ceramic artefacts")] (Archéologie et Informatique, in French)
* [http://info.anu.edu.au/mac/Media/Media_Releases/_2005/_July/_140705Vanuatu_pots.asp 'Heads found in pots in Vanuatu dig'], ANU media release, 14 July 2005, on discovery of Lapita skulls following 2004 find of headless Lapita skeletons
* [http://digitool.auckland.ac.nz Over 1000 Lapita photographs from the University of Auckland Anthropology Photographic Archive database. Search for "lapita"]

{{Culture of Oceania}}
{{Austronesian ships}}

[[Category:Prehistoric Oceania]]
[[Category:Polynesian culture]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures of Oceania]]
[[Category:Neolithic cultures]]