terra australis 51 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. List of volumes in Terra Australis 1. Burrill Lake and Currarong: Coastal Sites in Southern 30. Archaeological Science Under a Microscope: Studies in Residue New South Wales. R.J. Lampert (1971) and Ancient DNA Analysis in Honour of Thomas H. Loy. 2. Ol Tumbuna: Archaeological Excavations in the Eastern M. Haslam, G. Robertson, A. Crowther, S. Nugent and Central Highlands, Papua New Guinea. J.P. White (1972) L. Kirkwood (eds) (2009) 3. New Guinea Stone Age Trade: The Geography and Ecology 31. The Early Prehistory of Fiji. G. Clark and A. Anderson of Traffic in the Interior. I. Hughes (1977) (eds) (2009) 4. Recent Prehistory in Southeast Papua. B. Egloff (1979) 32. Altered Ecologies: Fire, Climate and Human Influence on Terrestrial Landscapes. S. Haberle, J. Stevenson and 5. The Great Kartan Mystery. R. Lampert (1981) M. Prebble (eds) (2010) 6. Early Man in North Queensland: Art and Archaeology in the 33. Man Bac: The Excavation of a Neolithic Site in Northern Laura Area. A. Rosenfeld, D. Horton and J. Winter (1981) Vietnam: The Biology. M. Oxenham, H. Matsumura and 7. The Alligator Rivers: Prehistory and Ecology in Western N. Kim Dung (eds) (2011) Arnhem Land. C. Schrire (1982) 34. Peopled Landscapes: Archaeological and Biogeographic Approaches 8. Hunter Hill, Hunter Island: Archaeological Investigations to Landscapes. S. Haberle and B. David (eds) (2012) of a Prehistoric Tasmanian Site. S. Bowdler (1984) 35. Pacific Island Heritage: Archaeology, Identity & Community. 9. Coastal South-West Tasmania: The Prehistory of Louisa Bay and J. Liston, G. Clark and D. Alexander (eds) (2011) Maatsuyker Island. R. Vanderwal and D. Horton (1984) 36. Transcending the Culture–Nature Divide in Cultural 10. The Emergence of Mailu. G. Irwin (1985) Heritage: Views from the Asia-Pacific region. S. Brockwell, 11. Archaeology in Eastern Timor, 1966–67. I. Glover (1986) S. O’Connor and D. Byrne (eds) (2013) 12. Early Tongan Prehistory: The Lapita Period on Tongatapu 37. Taking the High Ground: The archaeology of Rapa, a fortified and its Relationships. J. Poulsen (1987) island in remote East Polynesia. A. Anderson and D.J. Kennett (eds) (2012) 13. Coobool Creek. P. Brown (1989) 38. Life on the Margins: An Archaeological Investigation of Late 14. 30,000 Years of Aboriginal Occupation: Kimberley, North-West Holocene Economic Variability, Blue Mud Bay, Northern Australia. S. O’Connor (1999) Australia. P. Faulkner (2013) 15. Lapita Interaction. G. Summerhayes (2000) 39. Prehistoric Marine Resource Use in the Indo-Pacific Regions. 16. The Prehistory of Buka: A Stepping Stone Island in the R. Ono, A. Morrison and D. Addison (eds) (2013) Northern Solomons. S. Wickler (2001) 40. 4000 Years of Migration and Cultural Exchange: 17. The Archaeology of Lapita Dispersal in Oceania. G.R. Clark, The Archaeology of the Batanes Islands, Northern Philippines. A.J. Anderson and T. Vunidilo (2001) P. Bellwood and E. Dizon (eds) (2013) 18. An Archaeology of West Polynesian Prehistory. A. Smith (2002) 41. Degei’s Descendants: Spirits, Place and People in Pre-Cession 19. Phytolith and Starch Research in the Australian-Pacific-Asian Fiji. Aubrey Parke. M. Spriggs and D. Scarr (eds) (2014) Regions: The State of the Art. D. Hart and L. Wallis (2003) 42. Contextualising the Neolithic Occupation of Southern 20. The Sea People: Late-Holocene Maritime Specialisation in the Vietnam: The Role of Ceramics and Potters at An Son. Whitsunday Islands, Central Queensland. B. Barker (2004) C. Sarjeant (2014) 21. What’s Changing: Population Size or Land-Use Patterns? 43. Journeys into the Rainforest: Archaeology of Culture Change The Archaeology of Upper Mangrove Creek, Sydney Basin. and Continuity on the Evelyn Tableland, North Queensland. V. Attenbrow (2004) Å. Ferrier (2015) 22. The Archaeology of the Aru Islands, Eastern Indonesia. 44. An Archaeology of Early Christianity in Vanuatu: Kastom S. O’Connor, M. Spriggs and P. Veth (eds) (2005) and Religious Change on Tanna and Erromango, 1839–1920. 23. Pieces of the Vanuatu Puzzle: Archaeology of the North, J.L. Flexner (2016) South and Centre. S. Bedford (2006) 45. New Perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific Prehistory. 24. Coastal Themes: An Archaeology of the Southern Curtis Coast, P.J. Piper, H. Matsumura and D. Bulbeck (eds) (2017) Queensland. S. Ulm (2006) 46. Ten Thousand Years of Cultivation at Kuk Swamp in the 25. Lithics in the Land of the Lightning Brothers: The Archaeology Highlands of Papua New Guinea. J. Golson, T. Denham, of Wardaman Country, Northern Territory. C. Clarkson (2007) P. Hughes, P. Swadling and J. Muke (eds) (2017) 26. Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement. 47. The Archaeology of Rock Art in Western Arnhem Land, S. Bedford, C. Sand and S. P. Connaughton (eds) (2007) Australia. B. David, P. Taçon, J-J. Delannoy, J-M. Geneste (eds) (2017) 27. Dreamtime Superhighway: Sydney Basin Rock Art and Prehistoric Information Exchange. J. McDonald (2008) 48. The Archaeology of Sulawesi: Current Research on the Pleistocene to the Historic Period. S. O’Connor, D. Bulbeck 28. New Directions in Archaeological Science. A. Fairbairn, and J. Meyer (eds) (2018) S. O’Connor and B. Marwick (eds) (2008) 49. Drawing in the Land: Rock Art in the Upper Nepean, Sydney 29. Islands of Inquiry: Colonisation, Seafaring and the Archaeology Basin, New South Wales. J. Dibden (2019) of Maritime Landscapes. G. Clark, F. Leach and S. O’Connor (eds) (2008) 50. The Spice Islands in Prehistory: Archaeology in the Northern Moluccas, Indonesia, P. Bellwood (ed.) (2019) terra australis 51 Archaeologies of Island Melanesia Current approaches to landscapes, exchange and practice Edited by Mathieu Leclerc and James Flexner Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] Available to download for free at press.anu.edu.au A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia ISBN (print): 9781760463021 ISBN (online): 9781760463038 WorldCat (print): 1110722299 WorldCat (online): 1110722285 DOI: 10.22459/TA51.2019 This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The full licence terms are available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode Terra Australis Editorial Board: Sue O’Connor, Sally Brockwell, Ursula Frederick, Tristen Jones, Ceri Shipton and Mathieu Leclerc Series Editor: Sue O’Connor Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover photograph by Tim Thomas on Tetepare, Solomon Islands, looking across Blanche Channel to New Georgia in the distance. This edition © 2019 ANU Press Contents List of figures vii List of tables xi 1. Complexities and diversity in archaeologies of Island Melanesia 1 James Flexner and Mathieu Leclerc Historical perspective 2. Towards a history of Melanesian archaeological practices 9 Matthew Spriggs Landscapes and complexities 3. Saltwater and bush in New Georgia, Solomon Islands: Exchange relations, agricultural intensification and limits to social complexity 35 Tim Bayliss-Smith, Matthew Prebble and Stephen Manebosa 4. From test pits to big-scale archaeology in New Caledonia, southern Melanesia 53 Christophe Sand, David Baret, Jacques Bolé, Stéphanie Domergue, André-John Ouetcho and Jean-Marie Wadrawane 5. The complexity of monumentality in Melanesia: Mixed messages from Vanuatu 67 Stuart Bedford 6. Reconsidering the ‘Neolithic’ at Manim rock shelter, Wurup Valley, Papua New Guinea 81 Tim Denham Exchange and contacts 7. Axes of entanglement in the New Georgia group, Solomon Islands 103 Tim Thomas 8. Four hundred years of niche construction in the western Solomon Islands 117 Peter Sheppard 9. Sustenance and sustainability: Food remains and contact sites in Vanuatu 135 James Flexner, Edson Willie and Mark Horrocks Practices 10. From gathering to discard and beyond: Ethnoarchaeological studies on shellfishing practices in the Solomon Islands 151 Annette Oertle and Katherine Szabó 11. Mummification of the human body as a vector of social link: The case of Faténaoué (New Caledonia) 165 Frédérique Valentin and Christophe Sand 12. Organic residue analysis and the role of Lapita pottery 179 Mathieu Leclerc, Karine Taché, Stuart Bedford and Matthew Spriggs 13. Technological process in pre-colonial Melanesia 191 Dylan Gaffney 14. A Melanesian view of archaeology in Vanuatu 211 Edson Willie Contributors 215 List of figures Figure 3.1. Localities in the western Solomons where terraced irrigated taro (ruta) has been reported and surveyed. 36 Figure 3.2. Eongo Ruta 2 showing the seven pondfields surviving after damage by loggers, and the location of the first excavation (Square 4). 38 Figure 3.3. Cross-section through five pondfields in Eongo Ruta 2, from point Y to point Z in Figure 3.2. 39 Figure 3.4. Cross-sections through the ruta terrace walls at points W and X of Eongo Ruta 2 (see Figure 3.2). 39 Figure 3.5. Detail of the map of Eongo Ruta 2 showing a buried linear feature that we interpret as the foundations of a ‘proto-ruta’ wall. 40 Figure 3.6. West-face stratigraphic diagram of the Eongo Ruta 2 Squares 4 and 5, showing two similar AMS dates based on charred Canarium nut from bulk sieved samples taken from Spit 6 (50–60 cm) and Spit 8 (70–80 cm). 41 Figure 4.1. Location of sites where major rescue archaeology and CRM projects have been undertaken in New Caledonia. 54 Figure 4.2. Large-scale excavation underway on site TON6 of Naïa by Colin Smart in 1966–67.