terra australis 26 Terra 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. List of volumes in Terra Australis Volume 1: Burrill Lake and Currarong: Coastal Sites in Southern New South Wales. R.J. Lampert (1971) Volume 2: Ol Tumbuna: Archaeological Excavations in the Eastern Central Highlands, Papua New Guinea. J.P. White (1972) Volume 3: New Guinea Stone Age Trade: The Geography and Ecology of Traffic in the Interior. I. Hughes (1977) Volume 4: Recent Prehistory in Southeast Papua. B. Egloff (1979) Volume 5: The Great Kartan Mystery. R. Lampert (1981) Volume 6: Early Man in North Queensland: Art and Archaeology in the Laura Area. A. Rosenfeld, D. Horton and J. Winter (1981) Volume 7: The Alligator Rivers: Prehistory and Ecology in Western Arnhem Land. C. Schrire (1982) Volume 8: Hunter Hill, Hunter Island: Archaeological Investigations of a Prehistoric Tasmanian Site. S. Bowdler (1984) Volume 9: Coastal South-West Tasmania: The Prehistory of Louisa Bay and Maatsuyker Island. R. Vanderwal and D. Horton (1984) Volume 10: The Emergence of Mailu. G. Irwin (1985) Volume 11: Archaeology in Eastern Timor, 1966–67. I. Glover (1986) Volume 12: Early Tongan Prehistory: The Lapita Period on Tongatapu and its Relationships. J. Poulsen (1987) Volume 13: Coobool Creek. P. Brown (1989) Volume 14: 30,000 Years of Aboriginal Occupation: Kimberley, North-West Australia. S. O’Connor (1999) Volume 15: Lapita Interaction. G. Summerhayes (2000) Volume 16: The Prehistory of Buka: A Stepping Stone Island in the Northern Solomons. S. Wickler (2001) Volume 17: The Archaeology of Lapita Dispersal in Oceania. G.R. Clark, A.J. Anderson and T. Vunidilo (2001) Volume 18: An Archaeology of West Polynesian Prehistory. A. Smith (2002) Volume 19: Phytolith and Starch Research in the Australian-Pacific-Asian Regions: The State of the Art. D. Hart and L. Wallis (2003) Volume 20: The Sea People: Late-Holocene Maritime Specialisation in the Whitsunday Islands, Central Queensland. B. Barker (2004) Volume 21: What’s Changing: Population Size or Land-Use Patterns? The Archaeology of Upper Mangrove Creek, Sydney Basin. V. Attenbrow (2004) Volume 22: The Archaeology of the Aru Islands, Eastern Indonesia. S. O’Connor, M. Spriggs and P. Veth (2005) Volume 23: Pieces of the Vanuatu Puzzle: Archaeology of the North, South and Centre. S. Bedford (2006) Volume 24: Coastal Themes: An Archaeology of the Southern Curtis Coast, Quuensland. S. Ulm (2006) Volume 25: Lithics in the Land of the Lightning Brothers: The Archaeology of Wardaman Country, Northern Territory. C. Clarkson (2007) Volume 26: Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement. Stuart Bedford, Christophe Sand and Sean P. Connaughton (2007) terra australis 26 Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement Edited by Stuart Bedford, Christophe Sand and Sean P. Connaughton © 2007 ANU E Press Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Email: [email protected] Web: http://epress.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry editors, Stuart Bedford ; Sean P. Connaughton ; Christophe Sand. Oceanic explorations [electronic resource] : lapita and western pacific settlement Bibliography/Index ISBN 9781921313325 (pbk.) ISBN 9781921313332 (web) 1. Lapita culture. 2 Anthropology—Melanesia. 3. Anthropology—Polynesia. 4, Melanesia—Antiquities. 5. Polynesia—Antiquities. 995 Copyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2007. 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. Series Editor: Sue O’Connor Typesetting and design: ANU E Press and Totem Infographie, Noumea Cover: Vao Island, Malakula, Vanuatu (photo: S. Bedford). Back cover map: Hollandia Nova. Thevenot 1663 by courtesy of the National Library of Australia. Reprinted with permission of the National Library of Australia. Terra Australis Editorial Board: Sue O’Connor, Jack Golson, Simon Haberle, Sally Brockwell, Geoff Clarke, Ben Marwick To the memory of José Garanger (1926-2006) and Richard Shutler Jr. (1922-2007), Pacific Pioneers Preface This collection of papers evolved from the Oceanic Explorations Conference organised by the Tongan Traditions Committee and Professor David Burley of Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada that was held at Nuku’alofa in the Kingdom of Tonga from August 1st – 7th 2005. A total of 62 papers were presented during the five days of sessions, along with six posters. At the end of the Conference, discussions were held regarding the potential publication of papers and while the all-inclusive nature of the Conference was one of its strong points, the wide range of topics, time periods, disciplines and regions did not easily lend itself to publication. Initially Bedford and David Burley corresponded over the potential of a Lapita focused volume, following in the fine tradition of Spriggs (1990), Galipaud (1992) and Clark et al. (2001). After some months of deliberation the form of the volume had been decided and commitments to its publication confirmed. Bedford was joined at that stage by Christophe Sand and Sean Connaughton as the editors. During this time several suitable papers presented in Tonga had been submitted for publication elsewhere (Allen 2006; Clark and Murray 2006; Sheppard and Walter 2006) so a number of those same authors were invited to submit other Lapita-related papers. Three years can be a very long time in Lapita research and this was the time period between the Kone-Noumea 50th Anniversary Conference (2002) and the Oceanic Explorations Conference in Tonga. It is four years since the proceedings of the Kone-Nouméa Conference were published (Sand 2003) so although it has been a little slow coming this volume does bring together much of the most significant Lapita-related discoveries that have surfaced since 2002. New discoveries often lead to reassessments with new and modified theories. Such is the case in Lapita research as demonstrated by a number of papers included here. Following an introductory paper with an updated inventory of Lapita sites (Bedford and Sand), the 16 papers reflect on a broad range of interrelated themes including Lapita chronology (Burley, Connaughton, Felgate, Nunn, Specht, terra australis 26 vii Preface Specht and Torrence), site location, geomorphology and settlement patterns (Burley, Connaughton, Dickinson, Felgate, Galipaud and Swete Kelly, Nunn, Specht, Specht and Torrence), migration, interaction and exchange (Galipaud and Swete Kelly, Pawley, Specht, Specht and Torrence, Summerhayes and Allen), sampling strategies (Burley, Sheppard and Green, Specht and Torrence) and ceramic analyses including decorative technique (Ambrose), profiling of specific Lapita regions and sites (Bedford et al., Connaughton, Felgate, Nunn, Sand) and the social significance and meaning of the famously decorated pots (Ambrose, Bedfordet al., Chiu, Clark, Summerhayes and Allen). We would like to thank the contributors who were it must be said widely varied in terms of meeting deadlines but who all eventually produced. A whole host of reviewers from many different countries also played their role in improving the quality of the papers. Particular thanks go to Sue O’Connor, the Terra Australis series editor, who welcomed the volume proposal during an uncertain period of infrastructural change in publishing conditions at the Australian National University. Formatting of the volume was undertaken by Aldo Ganter of Totem Infographie, Nouméa and Duncan Beard of ANU E Press designed the cover and has facilitated its final production. The costs for producing the volume came from the Department of Archaeology of New Caledonia and the Centre for Archaeological Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. During the gestation of this book, the archaeological community learnt of the sad loss of two of the pioneers of Pacific Archaeology, Professors José Garanger and Richard Shutler Jr. As colleagues and as friends to a great number of the professionals working in the region, and also as mentors to younger generations, these gentlemen had during the last 50 years held a special position in our small community of prehistorians devoted to the past of the peoples of Oceania. They will be sadly missed and it seemed only appropriate to dedicate this volume to their memory. “Au revoir monsieur le professeur” and Richard