Human Cultural Diversity in Prehistoric Fiji Ethan E. Cochrane

ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL appear at different times during the cul Human cultural diversity in prehistoric Fiji tural sequence, for example, pig, turtle, fruitbat and a variety of lizards are present Ethan E. Cochrane in the Olo and Qaranicagi deposits. Remote islands and their human, animal and plant populations Over time, subsistence and settlement have long fascinated archaeologists, biologists and geographers. systems in the Y asawa Islands changed, In this article, the chronology, diversity and interactions of although perhaps not as greatly as on the larger islands ofFiji.5 Although agriculture human cultures in some small islands of the Fiji archipelago are was certainly practised in the Yasawas, explored, particularly through the application of sophisticated there is little direct archaeological evi chemical analyses of the composition of prehistoric pottery. dence of this, unlike other areas ofFiW and Remote Oceania. By AD 500, increasing numbers of inland (possibly defensive) set he Fiji Islands (Fig. 1) were first in approximately 700 and have been home tlements occur on the larger Fijian islands. inhabited in approximately 900 to human populations since then to the This settlement change appears to occur by colonists sailing eastwards present. The initial colonization and sus later in the Y asawa Islands, with mountain from island Melanesia.1 Like all tained occupation of the Yasawas probably top settlements protected by annular ditch T 4, 5) the founding populations of occurred several hundred years after the and bank defences (Figs appearing western Remote Oceania - from Vanuatu initial habitation of sites in other parts of from about AD 1400. and New Caledonia, to Fiji, Tonga and Fiji, particularly in the east of the archipel Pottery is the most abundant category of Samoa - the first Fijians were part of ago. The earliest identified occupations of artefact recovered in the Y asawa Islands a related group of colonizing peoples the Yasawa Islands, at sites such as Olo and it displays a range of decorative and for sharing aspects of language, biology and (Fig. 3) and Qaranicagi, is indicated by mal variation that is used to divide Fiji-an also material culture, including the well pottery with vessel forms and decorative prehistory into phases or periods of relative known Lapita pottery. Many archaeolo attributes similar to the so-called "ter cultural homogeneity. Like all archaeologi gists, anthropologists and other scholars minal Lapita"4 pottery found at other sites cal phases, those used in Fiji chop a record suggest that, over the past three millennia, in Fiji and Remote Oceania. The earliest of continuous temporal and spatial vari these once-similar populations diverged inhabitants of the Yasawas lived in small ation into convenient packages.7 Yasawa from their common origins.2 Our current communities on the coasts, but probably Islands pottery, as with pottery throughout research in Fiji investigates the generation also spent time in the uplands, where Fiji, is classified into the following phases: of cultural difference over 3000 years of occupation sites have been found in caves • Sigatoka phase (900-500) pottery assem human occupation. Specifically, how do and on ridges. Unfortunately, the limited blages comprise sherds that are often we explain present-day cultural diversity research on early settlement patterns and intricately decorated and known by the across Fiji and Remote Oceania? Is cultural mobility means that we can only speculate archaeological term Lapita. divergence the most appropriate model?3 about this aspect of life in the islands. • These assemblages contain a diverse The earliest inhabitants also left a record array of vessel shapes, including cari Culture history of Fiji ofboth artefacts and food remains, indicat nated bowls, pot stands, water jugs, and To measure changes in human cultural ing a heavy reliance on marine resources, various types of cooking pots. diversity we must first generate a repre but the earliest inhabitants of the Yasawas sentative and precise description of the consumed chickens in addition to plant N archaeological record in a region. This has resources that were probably grown in gar been a primary goal of our research in the dens. Modified shells found at Olo may YASAWA western islands of the Fiji archipelago over have been used as root peelers, and ham the past few years. In the Yasawa Islands, mer stones may have been used to extract f the focus of our current research (Fig. 2), the kernels from nuts. Evidence of a reli Natia• •Druidrui NACULA chronological variation in the material ance on marine resources occurs through MATACAWA culture record shares broad similarities out the Yasawa Islands sequence, with LEVU fishbone and marine shell occurring in with the rest of Fiji. YASAWA The Y asawa Islands were first inhabited deposits of all ages. Other animal resources NAVITI BISMARCK ISLANDS ARCHIPELAGO WAYA :Qaranicagi SOLOMON PA CIFIC 0 C E A N Olo ISLANDS < NEW GUINEA SAMOA 0 MAMANUCA VITI LEVU FI)l TONGA ISLANDS N NEW CALEDONIA km 20 AUSTRALIA 0 km 1000 Figure 2 Western Fiji, showing the f Ya sawa and Mamanuca Island groups, Figure 1 Th e southwest Pacific, showing major island groups and the boundary and some principal archaeological sites in between Near and Remote Oceania. The box on Fiji shows the area covered by Figure 2. the Yasawa Islands. -I 32 ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL Figure 3 Southern Waya island. The Qaranicagi site is beneath the cliffs at righ t. Vi ew to southwest. • Navatu phase (500 to AD 1000) pottery assemblages begin with the loss of Lapita pottery and contain Polynesian Plainware that initially has very little decoration. Later Navatu assemblages contain increasing numbers of pots dec orated by grooves and ridges impressed into the vessel surface. These are formed by beating the wet clay vessel with a carved wooden paddle prior to final firing. In general, Navatu phase deposits contain fewer vessel shapes than earlier assemblages do, although at least one new cooking-vessel type emerged dur ing this phase. Interestingly, several 0 m 15 N archaeologists8·9 argue that, during the Navatu phase, some novel pottery vari ants are an indication of new popula l '\ tions arriving in Fiji fromthe west. I! ( ) f • Vuda phase AD 1000-1800 assemblages r' �.-" ' contain fewer carved-paddle impressed bedrock pot-sherds than Navatu phase assem 0 blages and are characterized by sherds boulder with incised, punctate and applique & mapping decorations. station • Ra phase (AD 1800-1900) pottery ass em blages are characterized by increasingly slope complex incised and applique patterns. cliff There is little evidence for large-scale .:; -V craft specialization associated with pottery dit�h manufacture in Fiji. Most pottery appears to retaining have been made by households that were rock wall tree not integrated into larger specialized pro duction systems, but no systematic research has investigated the possibility of special & 3 ized ceramic production. Archaeologists have long argued that similarities in pottery decoration and ves sel shape across a region may reflect inter action between producers of the pottery.10 Assemblages of pottery to be found in the Yasawa Islands are similar to those found throughout Fiji, as described by the phases above, and it therefore appears that people in the Yasawas were interacting with pop ulations throughout Fiji, sharing informa tion about pottery at similar intensities /rock alignment throughout prehistory. However, the simi larities in decorative features and vessel freshwater shape between pottery in the Yasawas and 1seep the rest of Fiji may not precisely measure ', , 1 interaction between different groups. Other & potential measures of interaction, such as ' 4, language, 11•12 show great differences across dense broad-leaf forest the archipelago and suggest that Fijian continues to the south populations may have interacted less fre quently than implied by these pottery data. The resolution of these apparent contra dictions is one of the principal objectives Cross section (faint dotted north-south line) of my research in the Fijian islands. & 3 & Fijian cultural diversity: new 4 questions and methods Our current research in Fiji is based on a m 50 l frameworkof evolutionary and ecological theory, within which human diversity is Figure 4 Plan of the hillfo rt settlement of Druidrui on Nacula Island. explained as the result of a variety of 33 ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL Figure 5 A view of central Nacula island, looking northeast. The site of Druidrui is located on top of the rocky hilltop in the middle ground. processes, including the interaction and from pots made from the same, or similar, equal proportions of sherds made from transmission of ideas between individu clay sources. By studying the geology of clays derived from the two principal geo als, variation and change in environmental the Yasawa Islands, we were able to link logical sources (Fig. 6). This suggests that, and ecological factors, adaptation, and sherd compositional groups to general by AD 500, the inhabitants of Waya Island convergence.13 If contemporary cultural geographical areas having particular types made equal use of pottery produced from diversity in Fiji is at least partly a product of clay resources. Finally, after examining clay deposits across the Yasawa Islands of variation in the spatial scale and fre the varying proportions of sherd composi and Mamanuca Islands and were, there quency of human interaction in prehis tional groups present in Yasawa Islands fore, part of an interaction system that tory, what aspects of pottery variation assemblages over time, we were able to stretched across the Yasawa-Mamanuca might help us track any such changes in track the changing geographical scale of island arc. interaction? Provenance analyses of arte geological clay resources used by the This widespread interaction ends at facts are one method for tracking inter island inhabitants. about AD 1000, as indicated by pottery action in prehistoric populations.

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