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Obsidian Results from the Lapita Sites of the Reef/Santa Cruz Islands
... For example, the Pacific database on obsidian is among the best in the world (Duerden et al, 1987), and raw material sourcing is a very active field (e.g. Best et al 1992; Dickinson and Shutler 1979;Green 1987;Leach and Davidson 1981;Seelenfreund and Bollong 1989;Sheppard et al. 1989;Weisler 1990), with a considerable history. (Green 1962). ...
... Raw material sources Obsidian. Of the 972 pieces of obsidian from the three sites sourced either by elemental analysis (Pixe-Pigme) or density (Green 1987), 97.5% are assigned to the Talasea source on the Willaumez Peninsula of New Britain; 1.13% to the Lou Island source in the Admiralty Islands and 1.23% to the Vanua Lava source in the Banks Islands. One flake, surprisingly, is strongly indicated as deriving from a source on West Fergusson Island off the coast of New Guinea in the D'Entrecasteaux group (Green and Bird 1989). ...
... Wide exchange networks existed very early and the evidence, in particular the focus on distant over close sources, suggests that exchange in the network was to promote social relationships (Green 1982(Green , 1987Green and Anson 1991;Sheppard and Green 1991;Summerhayes et al. nd). This may, as Kirch (1988) has suggested, play an adaptive role of risk reduction for small colonizing communities, although it appears to have persisted for some time. ...
An analysis of the obsidian and chert flaked stone assemblages from three Reefs/Santa Cruz Lapita sites (SE-SZ-8, SE-RF-2, SE-RF-6) is presented. Data on extraction, transport, core reduction, tool use and deposition are examined to see how well they fit a resource maximization model. It is concluded that factors other than utilitarian resource maximization are significant for an understanding of the use and distribution of lithic raw materials at these sites. It is suggested that transported obsidian and chert may have a complex commodity value history of which only the last stage is represented at the archaeological sites.
... It was also transported, along with obsidian from Mopir (Specht & Hollis, 1982), within New Britain (Specht et al., 1981) and to neighbouring New Ireland (Alien et al., 1989) in the late-terminal Pleistocene between 19 kya and 11 kya. It is only at a much later date, apparently coinciding with the appearance of Lapita pottery in the region, that obsidian from the Manus area appears in New Ireland sites (AlIen et al., 1989;Ambrose, 1976;Ambrose & Duerden, 1982;Ambrose et al., 1981;Downie & White, 1978); on Watom Island (Bird et al., 1981 a;Green & Anson, 1987); and southwards in the Solomon Islands (Ambrose, 1976;Ambrose & Green, 1972;Green, 1987) and in Vanuatu (Bird et al., 1981 a). At many of these sites, obsidian from two or three of the Bismarck sources is found together in proportions varying between sites and through time within sites (Green, 1987;Green & Anson, 1987;Gosden et al., 1989). ...
... It is only at a much later date, apparently coinciding with the appearance of Lapita pottery in the region, that obsidian from the Manus area appears in New Ireland sites (AlIen et al., 1989;Ambrose, 1976;Ambrose & Duerden, 1982;Ambrose et al., 1981;Downie & White, 1978); on Watom Island (Bird et al., 1981 a;Green & Anson, 1987); and southwards in the Solomon Islands (Ambrose, 1976;Ambrose & Green, 1972;Green, 1987) and in Vanuatu (Bird et al., 1981 a). At many of these sites, obsidian from two or three of the Bismarck sources is found together in proportions varying between sites and through time within sites (Green, 1987;Green & Anson, 1987;Gosden et al., 1989). The causes underlying these variations in distribution and frequency are not known but may reflect factors such as the realignment of exchange networks. ...
... While these finer discriminations do not include all possible obsidians from each region, they do indicate that in future it may be possible to assign an archaeological obsidian find not simply to 'Lou' or 'Talasea', but to a specific source flow within the relevant areas (cf. Green, 1987). This adds a new An Approach to Studying Source Selectivity Which mechanisms explain why obsidian from several different West New Britain sources is found in prehistoric sites outside the area? ...
... The practice of tattooing is an especially useful indication of how identity is conceived and operationalised because these permanent markings actually become the "skin" of a person (Gorman 2000;Rainbird 2002;Turner 2012). The creation of cultural links across a large geographical region through shared practices could have helped strengthen networks among small groups dispersed 2 Tattooing tools and the Lapita cultural complex widely within and beyond Near Oceania, similar to the use and exchange of obsidian and shell valuables, as proposed by Green (1987) and Kirch (1988;cf. Green & Kirch 1997). ...
... Scholars have pointed out the importance of shared cultural features as a way to create social networks that can act to reduce risks during the potentially hazardous process of colonisation (e.g. Green 1987;Green & Kirch 1997;Kirch 1988). The designs created on bodies, pots and other items of material culture may have played a role in cementing social relationships among widely spaced communities, especially within Remote Oceania. ...
A use-wear and residue study of 56 retouched obsidian flakes from seven Lapita sites in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu confirms that they had been used for tattooing. These specialised tools all bear one or more very small points formed by alternating retouch. A detailed comparison of use traces and pigments on these and 19 additional skin piercing tools analysed previously challenges the notion of homogeneity in cultural practices across the broad geographical range where Lapita pottery was used. The existence of shared innovations together with variation in the selection of pigments and the shape of the obsidian artefacts used for puncturing skin highlight a complex pattern of similarities and differences within this community of culture.
... According to Fredericksen and other researchers, obsidian movement and exchange networks expanded considerably during the Lapita period (3,300-2,200 BP), with New Britain (Kutau/Bao) obsidian reaching the Mussau group, Buka, the Reefs/Santa Cruz group, Tikopia, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia (Green, 1987;Fredericksen, 1997, p. 378). Farther to the east, small amounts of Kutau/Bao material have been found at early Lapita sites in the Fiji archipelago (Best, 1987, p. 31). ...
... Subsequently, all 1,410 obsidian pieces (see Appendix 13.4) collected during the survey phase of the A. B. Lewis Project were analyzed at the Museum by Cecelia Wagner using a relative density technique capable of differentiating between Lou Island and Bismarck obsidian with a high success rate but not between subsources (Green, 1987;Torrence & Victor, 1995;Galipaud & Swete Kelly, 2007). While Admiralty obsidian was dominant at all three Sepik coast sites, Bismarck obsidian was found to be more abundant in contexts suspected to be the oldest, particularly at Kobom. ...
... there may be some value in the density results for separating East and West Fergusson Islands sources when collections in the local region require preliminary sorting prior to more detailed chemical analysis. thus overall it can be seen that density measurement has some value only when the possible sources of an archaeological collection are already known, or as a preliminary sorting procedure for large collections of artefacts to be followed by chemical characterization of selected specimens that cannot be clearly separated by density (for examples of the latter procedure see Green 1987;cf. torrence and victor 1995). ...
... At this latter site it is suggested that the small quantity of obsidian results from scavenging of older deposits and so may not represent continuing contacts with Bismarcks obsidian sources at the time of occupation. From the 3 sites 97.5% (948 pieces) of obsidian are from West New Britain sources, with only 1.12% (11 pieces) coming from the Admiralties and 1.13% (12 pieces) from the Banks Islands, and a single piece (0.1%) from West Fergusson (Green 1987; the figures in Sheppard 1992 appear to be slightly different). ...
In 1982 an initial sourcing of 13 obsidians and volcanic glasses from Tikopia in the Solomon Islands suggested that four specimens came from Bismarcks sources, with Talasea in West New Britain being the most likely, and the rest came from the Banks Islands. Reanalysis now attributes ten pieces to Banks Islands sources and three to sources in the Admiralty Islands.
... 47 Specht 1972, 310. 48 Green 1976Green 1987;Sheppard 1993, 123;Sheppard 2010, 23. 49 Hedrick 1971, also mentioned by Ambrose 1978, 31 after him. ...
The authors studied 36 obsidian-tipped spears in the Oceania collection of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. In addition to describing the objects from the Admiralty Islands collected before 1897, the paper provides a summary of the related ethnographic information, including the technological and technical details of spear point making and the characterisation of the obsidian raw material used.
The blades used for making the obsidian points presented in this study showed no sign of standardisation (an indicator of advanced blade technology) in the spear point-making process. According to 19th-century ethnographic sources, the functional part of the points was the most important, and much time and effort were invested in ensuring that the blades were effective weapons. Later, as a sign of decline, primary production of obsidian blades ceased, and manufacturers started scavenging old artefacts and utilising waste and by-products. As a result, the blades decreased in size and became more irregular, and an increasingly large number included parts of the cortex, the crust of obsidian. After 1911, the relative importance of decoration increased, and the type became more standardised.
The irregular shape of the spear points presented in the study and the thin, weak shafts with an awkward curvature raise questions about whether the spears were actual weapons. At the same time, the artistic decoration of the mounting sockets and ethnographic parallels suggest that the pieces in the collection were likely status objects instead.
... positive bulb of percussion on both the dorsal and ventral faces (e.g., Araho et al., 2002: 65-67, Fig. 7;Inizan et al., 1992;Owen, 1938). Whereas making an ordinary small-or medium-sized kombewa flake is not difficult, our experimental replications using raw material from the Baki obsidian source on Garua Island found that it is quite difficult to produce a kombewa core with a large enough convex surface (i.e., positive bulb) to yield a flake with the appropriate dimensions to serve as a blank for the average-sized stemmed tool (e.g., 162 mm is the mean length of artefacts in Torrence et al., 2013a: table 1) (cf. ...
Widely held assumptions about static societies during the early-middle Holocene (c. 10,000–3300 BP) in the Willaumez Peninsula, Papua New Guinea are challenged by a hypothetical reconstruction of social negotiations that we propose were embedded within the manufacture of large obsidian stemmed tools that circulated as cultural valuables. Made by skilled knappers, these artefacts were manufactured in stages (quarrying, preform production, shaping, hafting, and re-hafting) often segregated in discrete and possibly restricted locations. The successful completion of a large obsidian stemmed tool may have required effective management to negotiate multiple social networks, thereby enhancing the status of those who directed the process. Social connections forged and re-inforced to support the production process may also have been enhanced by ritual practices. Through the social links created and strengthened by the process of its crafting and the subsequent ceremonies and exchanges in which it circulated, a stemmed tool contributed to a vibrant social life that persisted over several millennia.
... al., 2008: 55). Ceramic styles including decorative motifs are shared with Lapita assemblages from West New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago (Summerhayes, 2000); chert was imported from the Duff Islands and Ulawa/Malaita (100 km northeast and 350 km east of Santa Cruz respectively) (Sheppard, 1993(Sheppard, , 1996Walter and Sheppard, 2009); and obsidian was sourced from Willaumez Peninsula sources in the Bismarcks, Lou Island in the Admiralties, Fergusson Island in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands at the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea, and the Banks Islands in northern Vanuatu (Green, 1987;Green and Bird, 1989;Walter and Sheppard, 2009;Sheppard et al., 2010: 27, table 5). Together with archaeological evidence from the SE-SZ-8 site on Nendö, where an abundance of obsidian from the same sources was also found along with dentate stamped pottery and motifs most similar to SE-RF-2 (Anson, 1986;Green, 1991;Summerhayes, 2000;Green and Jones, 2007: 7;Green et al., 2008), this suggests that early Lapita colonists maintained close trade and/or exchange and social networks, providing important safety nets for groups as they established themselves in their new settings. ...
... Large quantities of Kutau/Bao obsidian artefacts in Remote Oceania are limited to the Reef/ Santa Cruz sites in the Solomon Islands (Sheppard, 1993). From the thousands of artefacts found at those sites, only 12 were sourced to Vanua Lava, 11 to the Lou in the Admiralty Islands and one piece to West Fergusson (Green, 1987;Green and Bird, 1989). Admiralty Island obsidian artefacts are very rare in Remote Oceania, and on Tikopia in the Solomon Islands it is only present in the earliest deposits (Kirch and Yen, 1982;Kirch, 1986;Spriggs et al., 2010;McCoy et al., 2020), and only one piece has been confirmed in Vanuatu (Ambrose, 1976;Reepmeyer et al., 2011: 218). ...
... Wickler (1990:143) details the archeological evidence for trade in the northern Solomon Islands and notes that there is extensive material evidence of local and long-distance trade from Lapita sites in the Reef-Santa Cruz Islands. Furthermore, archaeological investigations carried out in the Reef and Santa Cruz islands found that exotic materials, like obsidian, were consistently imported into the region for over 700 years (Green, 1987;Kirch, 2000;Sheppard, Trichereau, & Milicich, 2010). On Taumako, grave goods interred with individuals in the Namu cemetery (ca. ...
Objectives
This study aims to assess if inter‐island mobility can be identified during the Namu period (ca. 1,510–1800 AD) using ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr analysis of dental enamel for individuals from the Namu burial ground on Taumako Island in the eastern Solomon Island Chain. Historic evidence from this region suggests that females migrated between the Duff, Reef, and Santa Cruz islands for marriage purposes. We hypothesize that observable trends in migrational (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and dietary (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) isotopes can reveal the relationship between demographic factors, social status, diet, and female mobility on Taumako.
Methods
This research analyzes enamel ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr for 58 individuals in the Namu skeletal sample. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr results were compared with published dietary isotope data (bone collagen and dentin δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values) and type/number of grave goods to assess whether trends within the data may be related to sex, age, or burial wealth.
Results
The results show that females display significantly higher ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values compared to males. One young adult female displayed a ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr value that was +2SD outside the mean for the sampled individuals. A linear mixed‐effects model and principle components analysis of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, δ¹³C, and δ¹⁵N values suggest that wealth, sex, and age‐cohort membership have an observable influence on the isotopic variation for the Taumako population.
Conclusion
We suggest that during the Namu period, Taumako was patrilocal and that some females migrated there from the nearby Santa Cruz and Reef islands. One female immigrated to Taumako from a geologically distinct region outside of the Duff, Reef, and Santa Cruz Island groups.
... Until recently, archaeologists tracing the Lapita expansion, and subsequent contacts between Lapita communities, have mainly relied on ceramic vessel typology, and on motif analysis of the characteristic dentate-stamped patterns (for example, Chiu, 2019;Green, 1979). Another valuable source of evidence has been the long-distance transport of some rare, easily sourced rocks like obsidian (for examples, see Best, 1987;Constantine, et al., 2015;Fredericksen, 1997;Galipaud, et al., 2014;Green, 1987;Reepmeyer, et al., 2012;Ross-Sheppard, et al., 2013;Sand and Sheppard, 2000;Summerhayes, 2010;White and Harris, 1997). Petrographic analysis, pioneered by W. Dickinson, has in some cases shown the transfer of Lapita pots between islands (for a summary, see Dickinson, 2006). ...
As part of a wider study of the transfer of Lapita pottery into and within New Caledonia, we studied a sample of Lapita sherds from the site of Kurin on Maré, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia. The Loyalty Islands lie between the Vanuatu island chain and the rest of New Caledonia, so it has been suggested that they may have been the first part of New Caledonia to have been colonized during the initial Lapita expansion. We examined 28 sherds by optical petrography, and compared these to archived thin sections of Lapita pottery from the islands of Erromango and Efate in Vanuatu. We also made chemical analyses by neutron activation analysis (INAA) of 11 of these 28 sherds, and later reanalyzed these 11, and 12 more, by inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) analysis as part of the analysis of 329 sherds from throughout New Caledonia. We find no evidence in this sample for the transfer of Lapita pottery from Vanuatu to the Loyalty Islands; the only demonstrably exotic pots are 5 sherds from the main island (Grande Terre) of New Caledonia. Our results offer some support to the view that the initial Lapita expansion was not a continuous wave of advance, but a discontinuous “leapfrogging” process that initially bypassed some island chains. We also note evidence for the existence of at least two mutually exclusive networks of exchange of Lapita pottery in New Caledonia after the initial colonization of the region.
... When Friedman (1981; originally categorised Lapita as a prestigegood economy, the only such item he could point to was obsidian. It has further been suggested that its appeal was because it represented in some symbolic way the Lapita homeland from whence it derived and it was thus seen as helping maintain social links back to the Bismarck Archipelago (Green, 1987). ...
Theory in the Pacific, the Pacific in Theory explores the role of theory in Pacific archaeology and its interplay with archaeological theory worldwide.
The contributors assess how the practice of archaeology in Pacific contexts has led to particular types of theoretical enquiry and interest, and, more broadly, how the Pacific is conceptualised in the archaeological imagination. Long seen as a laboratory environment for the testing and refinement of social theory, the Pacific islands occupy a central place in global theoretical discourse. This volume highlights this role through an exploration of how Pacific models and exemplars have shaped, and continue to shape, approaches to the archaeological past. The authors evaluate key theoretical perspectives and explore current and future directions in Pacific archaeology. In doing so, attention is paid to the influence of Pacific people and environments in motivating and shaping theory-building.
Theory in the Pacific, the Pacific in Theory makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how theory develops attuned to the affordances and needs of specific contexts, and how those contexts promote reformulation and development of theory elsewhere. It will be fascinating to scholars and archaeologists interested in the Pacific region, as well as students of wider archaeological theory.
... The Kiki Phase is notable for the presence of sand-tempered pottery associated with the early Lapita cultural complex (Green, 1979). The nearest contemporary populations in the Reef-Santa Cruz Islands (Green, 1987;Green and Bird, 1989) and the southern end of Vanuatu (Bedford et al., 2006) are also associated with early Lapita pottery and with the longdistance transport of obsidian. ...
Reconstructing routes of ancient long-distance voyaging, long a topic of speculation, has become possible thanks to advances in the geochemical sourcing of archaeological artifacts. Of particular interest are islands classified as Polynesian Outliers, where people speak Polynesian languages and have distinctly Polynesian cultural traits, but are located within the Melanesian or Micronesian cultural areas. While the classification of these groups as Polynesian is not in dispute, the material evidence for the movement between Polynesia and the Polynesian Outliers is exceedingly rare, unconfirmed, and in most cases, nonexistent. We report on the first comprehensive sourcing (using a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer) of obsidian and volcanic glass artifacts recovered from excavations on the Polynesian Outlier island of Tikopia. We find evidence for: (1) initial settlement followed by continued voyages between Tikopia and an island Melanesian homeland; (2) long-distance voyaging becoming much less frequent and continuing to decline; and (3) later voyaging from Polynesia marked by imports of volcanic glass from Tonga beginning at 765 cal yr BP (±54 yr). Later long-distance voyages from Polynesia were surprisingly rare, given the strong cultural and linguistic influences of Polynesia, and we suggest, may indicate that Tikopia was targeted by Tongans for political expansion.
... In the last 30 years or so, research in the Mediterranean, the southwest Pacific and Southeast Asia have produced successful results using obsidian sourcing to extract information on prehistoric trade and exchange. This is mainly because linking obsidian artifacts to its geographical sources can be successfully done using a wide range of techniques such as the X-ray flourescene analysis, the electron microprobe analysis, the neutron activation analysis, the proton-induced gamma-ray emission method and the proton-induced X-ray emission method (Ward 1973, Smith et al. 1977, Duerden et al. 1987, Green 1987, Green & Bird 1989, Bellwood & Koon 1989, Williams-Thorpe 1995, Tykot 1996, Shackley 1998, Chia 2003, 2003a. ...
This paper presents the results of a study to determine whether the obsidian artifacts found in Gua Pawon, Dago and Bukit Karsamanik in Bandung came from the well-known sources of Gunung Kendan in Nagreg, Kampung Rejeng in Garut or elsewhere. Obsidian artifacts for this study were obtained from earlier archaeological excavations at Gua Pawon and from chance finds at the sites of Dago and Bukit Karsamanik in Bandung. Samples of obsidian were also collected from the known obsidian sources in Gunung Kendan in Nagreg and Kampung Rejeng in Garut for comparative purposes.Analyses of these samples were done on a scanning electron microscope using the energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer at the University of Science Malaysia, Penang and the electron microprobe at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. Multi-element analysis was undertaken, and statistical procedures were performed on data obtained from the artifacts and the sources. The results of the study thus far suggested that the obsidian artifacts from Gua Pawon were made using obsidian obtained from both Gunung Kendan and Kampung Rejeng sources while those from Dago and Bukit Karsamanik have yet to be determined. More samples from all the known obsidian sources are needed to determine the variability within and between all the different sources. Temporally, the study also revealed that prehistoric humans at Gua Pawon exploited or used the same obsidian resources over several thousands of years. Abstrak. Tulisan ini membahas hasil studi tentang sumber bahan baku artefak obsidian yang ditemukan di Gua Pawon, Dago, dan Bukit Karsamanik, Bandung. Analisis dilakukan terhadap sejumlah artefak obsidian, temuan ekskavasi di Gua Pawon dan temuan permukaan di Situs Dago dan Bukit Karsamanik. Untuk perbandingan dilakukan juga analisis terhadap obsidian dari Gunung Kendan di Nagrek dan Kampung Rejeng di Garut, dua lokasi sumber obsidian di Jawa Barat.Analisis dilakukan dengan cara "scanning electron microscope", menggunakan "energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer" di Universitas Sains Malaysia, Penang dan "electron microprobe" di Universitas Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. Analisis multielemen dan perhitungan statistic dilakukan terhadap data yang diperoleh dari artefak dan bahan. Hasil studi memperlihatkan artefak obsidian dari Gua Pawon menggunakan bahan dari Gunung Kendan dan Kampung Rejeng, sementara artefak Dago dan Bukit Karsamanik belum diketahui sumbernya. Analisis terhadap bahan dari sumber-sumber lain sangat diperlukan untuk menentukan variabilitas di dalam dan di antarasumber-sumber yang berbeda. Untuk sementara, hasil studi memperlihatkan manusia prasejarah Gua Pawon mengeksploitasi dan menggunakan sumber-sumber obsidian yang sama selama beberapa ribu tahun.
... The common presence of dentate-stamped Lapita pottery in the Garua Harbour area might reflect a location strategy designed to facilitate -and perhaps monopolise -exploitation of the Kutau obsidian source, the products of which dominate early Lapita obsidian assemblages in Near Oceania and the SE Solomon Islands (Green 1987;Sheppard 1993;Specht 2002;Summerhayes 2004) as well as the isthmus itself (Torrence 2004b). No such explanation can be applied to the isthmus area. ...
... Yet, like the assemblages from Moresby, obsidian continues to be distributed after the initial colonisation pulse is over. Obsidian continues to be imported into Lapita assemblages in the Reef Islands and Santa Cruz well after it was initially colonised (Green 1987). East of the southeast Solomons obsidian is rare (although see Galipaud and Swete Kelly this volume) although still found in post colonisation contexts, such as in Naigini, Fiji (Best 1987), and Tikopia where it was found in Middle to Late Lapita contexts (Kirch and Yen 1982). ...
... In this paper we will further discuss ceramic sampling issues relating to the Reef/Santa Cruz Lapita sites in the Outer Eastern Islands of the Solomons excavated in the early 1970s as part of the Southeast Solomons Culture History Project (Green 1976) . These were among the first and largest well excavated Lapita sites and their analysis and position on the western edge of Remote Oceania has made them central to discussions of the definition of the Lapita Complex and its movement into the Pacific (Green 1979(Green , 1987(Green , 1991a(Green , 1991b(Green , 1992(Green , 2003Sheppard and Green 1991;Sheppard and Walter 2006). ...
... The hypothesis of a multi-directional backward and forward movement of goods and people has long been accepted further east in the Lapita distribution (Sheppard 2011), as exemplified by the flow of obsidian raw material (Green 1987;Sheppard 1993;Reepmeyer 2009). If we accept the later proposed dates for the appearance of Lapita in the Bismarck Archipelago (post-3200 cal BP; Specht et al. 2014) and the earlier age range of both Mansiri and the Karama valley sites (pre-3300 cal BP), then the Mansiri site might be viewed as an archaeological precursor to Lapita in ISEA, which would support earlier claims for direct connections between ISEA and the Western Pacific (Hung et al. 2011;Carson et al. 2014). ...
... variables telles que la nature et la quantité des biens échangés ou l'amplitude géographique des réseaux (Green, Kirch, 1997 ;Kirch, 1990 ;. Les transferts identifiés ( fig. 2a) recouvrent rarement l'ensemble de l'aire culturelle Lapita et, lorsque c'est le cas, ils sont interprétés en termes d'échanges de proche en proche relatifs à des fronts de colonisation (Green, 1987 ;Summerhayes, 2009). Ces réseaux d'échange se rapportent ainsi aux quatre régions du Lapita : la région extrême-occidentale des Bismarck, la région occidentale du Vanuatu et des îles Reef-Santa Cruz, la région méridionale de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et des îles Loyauté, et la région orientale composée des archipels des Fidji et Polynésie occidentale (Green, 1996 ;Green, Kirch, 1997 ;Kirch, 1997 ;. ...
Dans le cadre de cet article, nous proposons une synthèse de la littérature archéolo-gique récente sur deux aspects fondamentaux de la mobilité dans les sociétés tradi-tionnelles d'Océanie : le peuplement progressif des différents archipels et les systèmes d'échange à longue distance mis en place depuis la période du Lapita. L'établissement d'un solide cadre chronologique permet de penser l'évolution des sociétés austroné-siennes d'Océanie dans la longue durée, notamment vis-à-vis des réseaux d'interaction dont l'étude a longtemps été dominée par les travaux ethnographiques. Abstract Through a review of the recent literature, this paper summarizes two main aspects of mobility patterns within Austronesian societies in Oceania, namely the peopling of the Pacific islands and the inter-island interactions over long distances during the last three millennia. While the study of external exchange systems is traditionally restricted to the ethnographic present, the established chronological framework for human occupation in Remote Oceania over a long period of time allows for the reconstruction of inter-community interactions.
... Over the last few years, archaeology has begun to contribute 'hard' evidence for post-settlement voyaging and patterns of continuing inter-island contact. Research in the western Pacific has identified long-distance exchange between Polynesia's earliest colonists, bearers of Lapita pottery (e.g., Ambrose and Green 1972;Green 1987;Kirch 1988Kirch , 1990. In East Polynesia, geochemical sourcing of archaeological materials also is identifying inter-island links and informing on the nature, extent and intensity of prehistoric interaction (e.g., Allen and Johnson 1994;Best et al. 1992;Walter 1990;Weisler 1993a; and papers in this volume). ...
Archaeological stone tool assemblages from Aitutaki Island (southern Cook Islands), dating from the 13th century AD through to shortly before western contact, were subjected to petrographic and geochemical analysis. Although local stone sources dominate, results indicate exchange with other southern Cook Islands and with Samoa, the Society Islands, and as yet unidentified localities. The Aitutkai evidence demonstrates that exchange persisted here, albeit at reduced levels, long after initial settlement, potentially buffering against the environmental and social risks of life on a small island.
... There is, however, evidence to indicate that there is no systematic difference in the pattern of deposition of sherds, chert and obsidian, materials with radically different transport costs. This indicates that explanation of variability in these materials may not be sought in a simple economic model centred on the materials themselves (Green 1987). Explanation will most likely lie at a higher level in the relations of social reproduction, which may in itself be susceptible to an economic/evolutionary analysis. ...
Data on the spatial distribution of features, pottery, lithic materials, fishbones and shellfish are used to examine spatial organization in the SE-RF-2 Lapita site (Reef Islands, Southeast Solomons). It is shown that the site is at most a small hamlet and consisted of a large rectilinear central structure with an adjacent cooking area. It is argued that the distribution of imports (pottery, chert, obsidian) with different transport costs cannot be explained in simple economic terms and that their movement was embedded in a set of important social relations.
... variables telles que la nature et la quantité des biens échangés ou l'amplitude géographique des réseaux (Green, Kirch, 1997 ;Kirch, 1990 ;. Les transferts identifiés ( fig. 2a) recouvrent rarement l'ensemble de l'aire culturelle Lapita et, lorsque c'est le cas, ils sont interprétés en termes d'échanges de proche en proche relatifs à des fronts de colonisation (Green, 1987 ;Summerhayes, 2009). Ces réseaux d'échange se rapportent ainsi aux quatre régions du Lapita : la région extrême-occidentale des Bismarck, la région occidentale du Vanuatu et des îles Reef-Santa Cruz, la région méridionale de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et des îles Loyauté, et la région orientale composée des archipels des Fidji et Polynésie occidentale (Green, 1996 ;Green, Kirch, 1997 ;Kirch, 1997 ;. ...
Through a review of the recent literature, this paper summarizes two main aspects of mobility patterns within Austronesian societies in Oceania, namely the peopling of the Pacific islands and the inter-island interactions over long distances during the last three millennia. While the study of external exchange systems is traditionally restricted to the ethnographic present, the established chronological framework for human occu -pation in Remote Oceania over a long period of time allows for the reconstruction of inter-community interactions.
... It has long been suggested that the value of obsidian in Lapita times was that it evoked the Bismarcks 'homeland'. Its continued exchange across much of the Lapita zone helped maintain affective links back to that homeland (Green 1987). As Kristiansen and Larsson have put it in another context, building on the work of the anthropologist Mary Helms: 'Often travel to distant places corresponds to time travel to the origin of ancestors, making ancestors and the mythical past an ingredient of the present that can be reached through travel' (Kristiansen & Larsson 2005:40). ...
At the end of The Rise of Bronze Age Society, Kristiansen and Larsson called for 'a contextualised search for historical and evolutionary regularities in the formation of particular histories'. In reading the book and other works by Kristiansen I have been struck by parallels across the other side of the world during a period of rapid sociocultural change as the Lapita culture spread by sea from its proximate homeland in the Bismarck Archipelago, just off the eastern end of New Guinea, out as far as Tonga and Samoa in western Polynesia around 3,000 years ago. The reaching of Lapita's eastern margins was shortly followed by a radical diversification of cultures across what had been during colonization a homogeneous cultural and linguistic space. The question is posed as to whether the exploration of apparently parallel cultural sequences can usefully be developed into a comparative archaeology.
... A strong case can also be made that this material was transported directly and in repeat voyages over a period of some hundreds of years (Sheppard 1993, Sheppard andWalter 2006a: 59). Most of the material comes from the Talasea (97.5%) and Admiralties sources, but a small amount comes from the comparatively close Banks Islands 400 km to the south, and one piece is sourced to Fergusson Island off the coast of Papua New Guinea (Green 1987, Green andBird 1989). By comparison the Lapita period (Kiki Phase) on the island of Tikopia, which is also in the Southeast Solomons and dates from 900 to 100 B.C. thus overlapping the Reef Islands Lapita period, has only three pieces of rhyolitic obsidian sourced to Manus (Spriggs 1997: 137). ...
... While numerous trans-Lapita studies of earthenware pottery (e.g. Green 1978;Anson 1986;Summerhayes 2000a;Chiu 2003), as well as other aspects of Lapita culture such as obsidian transport (e.g. Ambrose 1976;Best 1987;Green 1987;Summerhayes 2003), and approaches to fishing (Kirch and Dye 1979;Butler 1988Butler , 1994Walter 1989) have been undertaken, papers dedicated to assessing the nature of, and variation in, Lapita shell-working are rare. Kirch (1988a) presents the most inclusive review, in which he makes an argument for the localised production and extensive trade of shell artefacts. ...
Despite a consistent presence in the archaeological record of the Lapita cultural complex, and their omnipresence in the associated literature, the nature and range of shell artefacts recovered from Lapita sites has only been partially summarized at best. Considering the categories of raw material choice, working techniques, formal artefact types and curation, this article summarizes our current knowledge and points to areas for further research.
... It is clear that although both types of outcrops were exploited in the past, the island sources would have been adequate for the types of tools used at Lapita pottery sites both in this area and in the rest of the Pacific where obsidian has been recovered (e.g. Green 1987). Secondly, we have found Lapita and possibly Lapita-related sites in the vicinity of the island sources but, with the possible exception of Bamba, such sites are not clearly located with respect to the mainland sources. ...
The application of Social Network Analysis to the study of archaeological networks has become increasingly common around the world, with a proven track record of processing large, complex, spatial and temporal archaeological datasets. This study builds upon previous network-based analyses of interaction between communities of the Lapita Cultural Complex, with a specific focus on the Early Period (c.3300/3200–3100 calBP) in the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. Employing motif inventories from 13 Early Lapita Period assemblages, motif similarity and Centrality Analysis are undertaken, with the results compared to data from portable material culture, particularly obsidian and pottery, to further define the networks of interaction that linked communities during this period. We conclude that motif similarities and Centrality Analysis scores show good agreement with patterns of interactions established from the analysis of other types of portable material culture, which together support the existence of northern west to east and southern obsidian distribution networks, comprised of communities that employed unique types of interaction tailored towards their own cultural and societal circumstances and needs. Finally, we further conclude that these two networks may have arisen during the initial formation of the Lapita Cultural Complex, as populations established new social connections with other settler communities and incumbent populations across the
region to survive in a new and foreign environment.
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Trade before Civilization explores the role that long-distance exchange played in the establishment and/or maintenance of social complexity, and its role in the transformation of societies from egalitarian to non-egalitarian. Bringing together research by an international and methodologically diverse team of scholars, it analyses the relationship between long-distance trade and the rise of inequality. The volume illustrates how elites used exotic prestige goods to enhance and maintain their elevated social positions in society. Global in scope, it offers case studies of early societies and sites in Europe, Asia, Oceania, North America, and Mesoamerica. Deploying a range of inter-disciplinary and cutting-edge theoretical approaches from a cross-cultural framework, the volume offers new insights and enhances our understanding of socio-political evolution. It will appeal to archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, conflict theorists, and ethnohistorians, as well as economists seeking to understand the nexus between imported luxury items and cultural evolution.
Trade before Civilization explores the role that long-distance exchange played in the establishment and/or maintenance of social complexity, and its role in the transformation of societies from egalitarian to non-egalitarian. Bringing together research by an international and methodologically diverse team of scholars, it analyses the relationship between long-distance trade and the rise of inequality. The volume illustrates how elites used exotic prestige goods to enhance and maintain their elevated social positions in society. Global in scope, it offers case studies of early societies and sites in Europe, Asia, Oceania, North America, and Mesoamerica. Deploying a range of inter-disciplinary and cutting-edge theoretical approaches from a cross-cultural framework, the volume offers new insights and enhances our understanding of socio-political evolution. It will appeal to archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, conflict theorists, and ethnohistorians, as well as economists seeking to understand the nexus between imported luxury items and cultural evolution.
Geological analysis was conducted on a stone adze, which was accidentally dug up from an intertidal dredging site on a reef flat in Pohnpei Island, Micronesia in the 1980s. Detailed geological observations identified the material as metamorphic rock (schist), not basalt as originally reported. This result places its source in the continental rocks of Island Melanesia, most probably New Guinea. The location where it was recovered suggests an age that may well go back to when the island was first settled in the early centuries AD. The eastern Micronesian homeland is often thought to be eastern Melanesia based on linguistic and archaeological evidence. The adze, which may have functioned as a prestige good, was possibly brought from their homeland by early settlers or their immediate successors, or imported from New Guinea by them, suggesting that they still had interaction with the Lapita homeland region even after the decline of Lapita long-distance communications. This is the first artifact found at an early settlement site in Micronesia that is documented to be imported from Melanesia and sheds light on a possible early eastern Micronesian settlers’ interaction system.
This research uses portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) to geochemically assign an archaeological obsidian assemblage from Elletts Mountain in the Auckland (Tamaki) region of New Zealand to source. Provenance studies are an important aspect of archaeological research, and the precise results of a modern XRF analysis mean that archaeologists are now capable of separating rocks that appear very similar into distinct source groups rapidly, inexpensively, and in a way which is non-destructive. For this study, 316 flakes of obsidian were geochemically sourced and the results show that over 90% originate from either Mayor Island or Great Barrier Island. These results fit an emerging pattern of obsidian use in the Auckland region whereby an emphasis on Mayor Island material during the Early Period of occupation is replaced by the growing importance of Great Barrier Island obsidian during the Late Period. This potentially indicates a shift in spatial interactions and communication networks among pre-European Maori. This research adds to the existing body of knowledge regarding obsidian use in the wider Auckland region.
Results of petrographic analysis for ten New Caledonian Lapita pottery assemblages are presented in this paper. These findings enable us to identify several major pottery production areas during the Lapita period. It could be argued that the rise of pottery production traditions at the northern bank of the Diahot Valley near Ouégoa/Pouébo in the north, and the region between Tontouta and Nouméa/Saint Louis in the south, was influential in the formation of the northern versus southern New Caledonian cultural divisions (Sand et al.: 64-5, fig. 11) that developed at a later date.
‘Not another trendy and incomprehensible title,’ some will sigh. No, the title means what it states, albeit with metaphorical flourish. The Lapita cultural complex of Melanesia and western Polynesia, an entity beloved of a generation of Pacific prehistorians and ever a hot source of debate, can now be shown to have retained at least some links with contemporary populations far to the west of its known distribution. This is significant, not least because some scholars identify the immediate source zone for Lapita as having existed somewhere in the islands of Southeast Asia. At the same time, the obsidian quarried by Lapita artisans from Talasea on the Melanesian island of New Britain can be shown to have been among the most far-traded commodities of the Neolithic world.
For nearly 30 years, archaeological obsidian has been collected from geological and archaeological contexts, analyzed by a spate of methods, and offered to the scientific community as internally valid research. Virtually none of this work has been gathered in explicitly scientific ways such that the results are reliable and valid. In an attempt to provide a starting point for consideration, this chapter discusses the field and laboratory methods used in the ongoing Southwest and Northwestern Mexico Archaeological Obsidian Project dealing with arid environments, very old glass sources, relatively extreme secondary deposition, and a great range of chemical variability common in this geological context.
The commentary of this overview stems from reading seven papers in this volume on sourcing volcanic glasses found in archaeologial sites in a range of geographic regions throughout the world and two on using rhyolitic obsidian for hydration rim dating. One perspective developed from this exercise is historical and personal relating to the progress made in the last three decades in the field. Another highlight some of the variation in termonology applied by different analysts when speaking of sources and the material in them. A third has to do with reasonably successful procedures and techniques now being employed in both sourcing and independent age determinations from hydration rims. Finally, comments are directed at the need to connect these studies with cultural analyses and interpretations which focus on the debris from the source localities and whole site assemblages.
From the perspective of ‘working with Wal’ on problems of obsidian sourcing and dating, I provide a personal assessment of Ambrose's contributions to Australasian archaeometry and Pacific archaeology over the past 35 years.
This paper lays out a theoretical framework for interpreting a regional archaeological record in terms of the social formations which produced it. The central idea is that of the social landscape. Past social groups are seen to operate in the landscape in order to provide and sustain a social system, rather than reacting to the structure of their environment. The idea of a social landscape is employed to examine how groups organise themselves on a local regional scale to meet social goals and to link these forms of organisation to the archaeological record they leave behind. The central social principle explored here is that of debt, which enjoins dispersal of materials and sets up landscapes which are non-accumulative. Data from the Arawe island group on the south coast of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea are presented to illustrate these ideas.
The excavations of seven archaeological sites on the island of Santa Cruz (Nendö), undertaken during the second phase of the Southeast Solomon Islands Culture History Program in 1977–78 are briefly summarized and the results discussed in terms of a local and regional culture historical framework. The local sequence, characterized by an earlier ceramic period and a later aceramic period, appears to have begun some 3000 years ago with a Western Lapita occupation, though there is also evidence for a coeval plain pottery complex that existed for a longer period of time. On present evidence the important ceramic to aceramic transition took place on Santa Cruz between c. 100 BC and AD 100. Only one site contains evidence of the early part of the aceramic period, which thus remains essentially unknown, including the matter of whether or not Santa Cruz was part of a posited regional exchange network in the first millenium AD. The latter part of the local sequence is represented in several sites from which important data were obtained relating to settlement and subsistence patterns, material culture and technology. including craft specialization, and ritual dance circles.
Wal Ambrose has a special status in his profession because he is both archaeologist and archaeometrician. This paper discusses not only the nature of his contributions in conservation and materials analysis, particularly of obsidian, but also the archaeological contexts in which the work was done. It is a celebration of the achievements of an individual of remarkable talents who has put his colleagues greatly in his debt in the fields in which he has operated.
Since the Lapita Homeland Project of 1985 there has been an upsurge of research on Lapita in the Bismarck Archipelago. A description and comparison of two Lapita pottery assemblages from the Arawe Islands and Anir in the Bismarck Archipelago is presented in order to explore the social and economic relationships between these early communities which produced and used the ware. Assemblages from a third area, Mussau, are then compared in order to show that these three assemblages have many similarities in both decoration and production which are best explained in terms of social interaction.
The natural occurrence of obsidian in volcanic flows in West New Britain has been thoroughly investigated and new measurements of the composition of field samples have been made with a proton dose of 150 μC, increased by a factor of three compared to analyses reported in early studies. New data on precision and accuracy of PIXE-PIGME show that measurement error is not a significant factor in interpretations of chemical variability among source and artifact samples. The results provide evidence for 5 readily distinguishable groups of source samples (Gulu, Kutau/Bao, Baki, Hamilton and Mopir) plus two subgroups (GaralaB and GaralaC) which differ from the Baki source for a few elements and have higher standard deviations from most elements. An unusual degree of variability within the Hamilton and Garala source samples must be taken into account during the classification of artifact collections.
This paper argues that obsidian movement in the Bismarck Archipelago at the start of the Lapita period shows continuity with earlier patterns and that changes in sources used occur later than the introduction of ceramics. We base our argument on the analysis of obsidian from two ceramic sites in the Duke of York Islands. The sites contain very differently decorated pottery, but both radiocarbon and obsidian hydration dating show they are very close in time, dating to around 3000 years ago. Density and PIXE‐PIGME analysis show that nearly all the obsidian from the putatively older site (SEE), containing ‘classic’ Lapita, came from West New Britain, mostly the Kutau/Bao sources. The possibly slightly later site (SDP), with very thin walled pottery decorated only by rim notching, was initially supplied exclusively from the Umrei source in the Admiralties, with a subsequent reversion to West New Britain. The first two stages in this history appear to be repeated in the similarly dated sequence from EKQ on Mussau Is.
Pre‐Lapita data from New Ireland, Nissan and the Papua New Guinea mainland show an extensive distribution of obsidian, exclusively using West New Britain sources, while in the same period Admiralty obsidian has not been found beyond the Admiralties. Thus the use of West New Britain sources in the probably oldest Lapita levels in the Duke of Yorks and Mussau suggests continuity in obsidian distribution with the preceding period. Some other evidence of continuity is noted.
Distributional studies of archaeological volcanic glass play key roles in determining the scale, complexity, and duration of prehistoric social interaction between island societies in Oceania. Volcanic glass distributions have shed light on the spatial limits and antiquity of Melanesian exchange systems and on strategies necessary to colonize and sustain communities on isolated landfalls. The efficacy of three characterization techniques of Oceanic glasses are examined: macroscopic source assignment of a unique volcanic glass (ignimbrite) from the Pitcairn Group, southeast Polynesia; non-destructive energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) of Melanesian obsidian; and electron microprobe analysis of Hawaiian volcanic glass. Suggestions for facilitating volcanic glass studies in Oceania are offered.
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