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A technological analysis of Lapita pottery decoration
... The secularisation or re-working of founder emblems is part of the human colonising experience, but what seems less likely is the quick abandonment of a useful technology that was a feature of the art form's production, even Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement while ceramics continued to be made. The loss of a technology that had a singular ability to produce such distinctive abstract and formal-figurative references may be a deliberate rejection of both the message and its linked medium as suggested by Siorat (1990). ...
... Best has published a simulation using roulettes of a face image found on a Lapita ceramic (Best 2002:48), but the simulation fails to acknowledge that a wider range of stamp impressions was produced with a defined tool kit, such as that described by Siorat (1990). For example Siorat refers to the parabolic forms of the curved stamps, among others, a view confirmed by identifying the family of geometric curves commonly observed on sherds at the Malekolon site on Ambitle Island (Ambrose 1999). ...
... Some naturally occurring materials have been considered but rejected as ready-made stamps suited to produce the Lapita design corpus (Siorat 1990:60), such as the impressed ventral margin crenellation of various bivalve shellfish, occasionally recognized both in Lapita and later wares. Hollow sectioned bird bone could be used to make circular impressions while incised designs could be made with a multitude (Poulsen 1987:207). ...
... Considering that very few long-distance exchanges occurred, it is surprising that the recurrent presence of decorative motifs, organised following common culturally encoded rules (Kirch 2000:102;Mead 1975;Sand 2007;Siorat 1990), is found over a region covering 4000 km, albeit with some regional variation (Chiu 2007;Sand 2007;Spriggs 1990. This demonstrates that ideas rather than objects were being exchanged (Earle and Spriggs 2015). ...
... Yet, the production quickly became homogenised. Such sudden change is suggestive of the deliberate rejection of both the message and its linked medium (Siorat 1990). The immediately Post-Lapita homogeneity in terms of pottery technological styles suggests not only that the Lapita system did not mean anything to these communities anymore but also that they wanted to distance themselves from it. ...
... Looking at the big motifs: a typology of the central band decorations of the Lapita ceramic tradition of New Caledonia of tattooing. Siorat (1990) has identified the existence of two main forms of tools to achieve the dentate-stamping, along with a rounded tube for full stamps. Although challenged for a period by Basek, who advocated that "dentate Lapita pottery decoration (…) do not (…) need to use a series of toothed stamps with straight and curved teeth rows to impress straight and curved lines" (Basek 1993:63), the proposal has proven its validity though more recent studies (cf. ...
... Although no detailed presentation is proposed in the context of the present paper, it must though be emphasised that the typology of dentate-stamped friezes can be subdivided into three main categories: the motifs made with only the straight tool, those made with only the curved tool, and the friezes combining two or three tools, with the adding of the round imprint. As had been highlighted in Anson's tables (1983) as well as in the figures published by Donovan (1973) and Siorat (1990), a fairly large amount of designs combining the possibilities offered by the three tools was developed on the Lapita pots (Sand 2006: Figs. 3.102-3.104). ...
... The third approach, developed by Siorat (1990) and followed by Sand (1996) and Noury (1998) in recent years, structures the coding of the motifs by emphasizing the differences between "supplementary friezes" and central "major bands." Siorat's method treats the more geometric supplementary friezes separately from those of the more naturalistic and complex central bands. ...
... Since the construction rules for friezes can be more easily reconstructed, as shown by the systematic descriptions developed by Mead, Donovan and Sharp, we believe that the more applicable methodology at this stage is to adopt an approach that not only separates the recording of the supplementary friezes from the central bands, but also analyzes them differently. Thus, the basic concepts of classifying motifs according to the tools used to execute them, of treating friezes differently from central bands (Siorat 1990), of describing the ways different tools were combined to create images (Donovan 1973;Mead 1975;Sharp 1988), and of stressing the importance of the moving direction of a design element in the decoration (Anson 1986) are all combined and integrated in this new program. ...
... For several decades, archaeologists working in the Pacific have tried to fathom the logic and rules of design that Lapita artisans may have followed when decorating their pottery and conceivably other more fleeting sorts of material culture (e.g. Best 2002; Chiu & Sand 2005; Green 1979; Mead et al. 1975; Sharp 1988; Siorat 1990; Spriggs 1990a). Anthony Forge wrote briefly about how it is possible for people to convey complex symbolic meanings to those similarly in the know, culturally speaking, through (what we would usually see as just) art, using simple graphic forms or 'elements' and being sure to follow carefully the right (culturally interpretable) rules of composition — there is a grammar of forms (Forge 1990, 28 ). ...
... For years, this interpretation was understandable , given how limited and fragmentary the evidence was (e.g. Anson 1983; Mead et al. 1975; Sharp 1988; Siorat 1990). To paraphrase in colloquial terms and expand somewhat on something Ishimura (2002, 79) has already said, until Spriggs's influential study (Spriggs 1990a), the evidence at hand made it hard to see faces amongst all the countless 'motifs' and 'design elements' then being proposed to describe and classify the fragments under examination (Spriggs 1990b, 4). ...
Archaeological and ethnographic evidence from the Sepik coast of Papua New Guinea documents the survival in the western Pacific of a stylized symbol or motif — the so-called ‘Lapita face’ — on pottery and possibly other kinds of material items (such as wooden bowls and serving platters) for at least 3300 years. A plausible reason for the persistence of this iconography is that it has referred to ideas about the living and the dead, the human and the divine, and the individual and society that remained socially and spiritually profound and worth expressing long after the demise of Lapita as a distinct ceramic style. We detail evidence for saying that the ‘faces’ on Lapita vessels from thousands of years ago and certain stylized designs on historic and modern carved wooden bowls and platters from this coast are historically linked ways of alluding to sea turtles, creatures figuring prominently in the lore and cosmology of Pacific Islanders. Here we describe four prehistoric wares (or ‘phases’ or ‘periods’) in the Aitape ceramic sequence on the Sepik coast that, considered in series, fill the temporal gap between practices and beliefs in Lapita times and present-day realities in this part of the world.
... Looking at the big motifs: a typology of the central band decorations of the Lapita ceramic tradition of New Caledonia of tattooing. Siorat (1990) has identified the existence of two main forms of tools to achieve the dentate-stamping, along with a rounded tube for full stamps. Although challenged for a period by Basek, who advocated that "dentate Lapita pottery decoration (…) do not (…) need to use a series of toothed stamps with straight and curved teeth rows to impress straight and curved lines" (Basek 1993:63), the proposal has proven its validity though more recent studies (cf. ...
... Although no detailed presentation is proposed in the context of the present paper, it must though be emphasised that the typology of dentate-stamped friezes can be subdivided into three main categories: the motifs made with only the straight tool, those made with only the curved tool, and the friezes combining two or three tools, with the adding of the round imprint. As had been highlighted in Anson's tables (1983) as well as in the figures published by Donovan (1973) and Siorat (1990), a fairly large amount of designs combining the possibilities offered by the three tools was developed on the Lapita pots (Sand 2006: Figs. 3.102-3.104). ...
... The dots on these motifs are all produced with a straight comb with rounded, widely-spaced teeth. This differs from Lapita motifs, which combine straight and curved tools with mostly closely-joining square teeth (see Siorat 1990;Ambrose 1999;Sand 2006: 70-73). Moreover, the Lapita stamps are made with combs whose teeth have a fl at tip, allowing for clear imprints in the clay but unsuited for tattooing on the skin. ...
... This science was clearly thus perceived as 'colonial', the Kanak having the feeling that it was principally focussed on themes tending to deny Indigenous legitimacy on the past. This viewpoint was not wholly unfounded as the three major subjects of study of the sole professional archaeologist working in the archipelago from the end of the 1960s, Daniel Frimigacci, were devoted principally to Lapita sites (Frimigacci 1977;Siorat 1990), petroglyphs (Frimigacci 1976, Frimigacci andMonnin 1980) and the 'tumuli' (Frimigacci and Maitre 1981). He had tried, under the guidance of ethnologist Jean Guiart, to undertake a program of ethnoarchaeology in the region of Mont Mé Ori between Bourail and the high Kouaoua, applying a model of research developed successfully by José Garanger (1972) in Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides). ...
... ii. Supplementary friezes are additional fabric edge techniques seen reflected in Lapita design as decorative margins (Siorat 1990). Siorat's study recognises the importance of edge features in Lapita design whereas Mead wrote (1973:21) that 'strictly speaking, the boundary markers which confine patterns into restricted space are not design elements'. ...
... New Caledonian examples with curved lines above the eyes are illustrated for example by Chiu (2007: Figures 7.2, 7.6, 7.7 and 7.25) and with straight lines by Spriggs (1990: Figures 25, 30 and 31). Siorat (1990: Plate 4) illustrates a variant where the straight lines are alternately long and short, perhaps an abstract form of the previously mentioned infilled triangles above the heads that could represent hair or headdresses. Such triangles do in fact occur with X-shaped eyes, such as in an example from the Golson excavations at Vatcha on the Ile des Pins, New Caledonia (sherd 1285). ...
... Such is the case with Lapita pottery, associated with the first human presence in Remote Oceania about 3000 years ago. Given the widespread sharing of intricate decorative motifs, highly organised designs and remarkable vessel forms across Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, archaeologists generally believe that the people who manufactured and used decorated Lapita pots attributed great cultural significance to their iconography (Chiu 2007;Mead 1975;Sand and Bedford 2010;Siorat 1990). Current models assume that the symbolic significance of these vessels was more important than their economic value. ...
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... An example of this is seen in the decorated Lapita pottery assemblage of the site WKO013A in New Caledonia (Chiu 2003a, p. 175). This is significant considering the presumed importance of some specific motifs (such as the face motif) and the shared inherent rules organising decorative elements across the Lapita distribution (Chiu 2007;Mead 1975;Siorat 1990). ...
This paper examines the social implications of the results from the petrographic and chemical analysis by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry of dentate-stamped pottery sherds from the colonising-phase Lapita site of Teouma, Vanuatu, in the South Pacific (2940 to 2710 cal BP). Data from Dickinson et al.’s (2013) petrographic provenance are combined with the chemical analysis of 26 of these sherds to contextualise the provenance work and temper types identified at the Teouma site within the social context and with reference to the cultural practices of the Lapita community. Results show that the Lapita assemblage is characterised by significant variability in terms of fabric types, which is aligned with other Lapita pottery assemblages in the region. The variability of fabrics at Teouma reveals that there were no clear cultural guidelines regarding the raw materials used for Lapita pottery production. The absence of rules or at the very least the existence of rules allowing a wide range of raw materials indicates that the raw materials did not have any real significance or impact on the perception of the final product. This behaviour appears logical considering the high mobility of Lapita groups and the fact that Lapita settlers, beyond the main Solomon’s chain, were the first inhabitants on a wide array of different insular environments with diverse geological origins. From a political economy perspective, the wide range of fabrics at Teouma is a sign that there was no apparent political control or imposed limitations over access to the raw materials.
... The analysis of the decorative aspects of Lapita pottery has revealed that specific decorative motifs and quite rigid organisational rules were shared across a region covering 4000 km (Ambrose, 1997;Chiu, 2007;Mead, 1975;Sand, 2007;Siorat, 1990;Spriggs, 1990). Such a complex and organised decorative system implies that the iconography on the pots held an important cultural significance for the people who were manufacturing and using them. ...
Biomolecular and isotopic characterisation of absorbed organic residues have been performed on eight dentate-stamped and two plain Lapita potsherds from the site of Teouma, in Vanuatu. Lipid profiles associated with decorated pots are homogenous, suggesting that similar food types or mixtures of food types were placed in these vessels. This suggests a high degree of consistency in the use of Lapita decorated pots, irrespective of the morphological and stylistic variation of these vessels. Data obtained from single-compound isotope analysis are also not consistent with marine resources as potential food sources for Lapita vessels. The absence of such commonly consumed, ubiquitous and easily accessible resources in Lapita vessels suggests that these pots were not manufactured to be used for ordinary occasions and day-to-day food consumption. This is the first time tangible data related to the use of these vessels are provided to support this claim in addition to contextual inferences.
... The dentate-stamped technique characteristic of the Lapita ceramic series required straight and curved toothed (dentate) tools with multiple tines like a comb. These were impressed directly onto the unfired clay pot to produce a range of narrow and wide bands of dentate-stamped motifs (Ambrose 1999(Ambrose , 2007Green 1979;Mead 1975;Siorat 1990). McNiven et al. (2011:4) introduced the terms 'comb dentate', 'comb dentate-stamped' and 'comb-impressed' as apparent synonyms or alternatives for 'dentate-stamped' . ...
Pottery of the Lapita ceramic series and evidence for mid-Holocene human presence were recently reported from nine sites at Caution Bay to the west of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (David et al. 2011a; McNiven et al. 2011). The authors made claims about the sites and the associated pottery that require closer examination and clarification to ensure that misunderstandings and misinterpretations do not enter the literature. Here I discuss particularly the location of the reported sites, suggesting that they were not necessarily originally situated on the New Guinea mainland as claimed by David et al. (2011a), but were coastal, and that at least some were probably on inshore islands. I also argue that, in comparison with Lapita sites in the Bismarck Archipelago, their number and density is not especially unusual. Aspects of the pottery forms and decoration are consistent with the Late Lapita facies elsewhere, though older Lapita levels may be indicated by some evidence. This paper briefly discusses related pottery sites on Wari Island, southeast Papua, and warns against simple unidirectional interpretations of the region's prehistory.
... Les tessons décorés observés dans le site représentent plusieurs traditions que l'on peut classer en plusieurs types: L'incisé de la période de Naïa Oundjo (INCl) , la tradition Lapita de la période de Koné qui comprend trois variantes : le Lapita géométrique (GEOM) (Frimigacci 1978), le Lapita pointillé d'accompagnement (PNTA) et le pointillé du bandeau principal (PNTB) (Siorat 1990). Les tessons décorés trop petits sont classés dans les indéterminés (INDT). ...
... The comb-like tools, which have never been recovered archaeologically, comprised both a set of linear and curved varieties of varying lengths and also circular tools (Ambrose 1999). The motifs were applied following a highly structured process with certain rules governing the sequence and structure of motif production (Siorat 1990), although this varied enormously through time and space. Other decorative techniques that are associated with Lapita ceramics, which were sometimes used in combination with the dentate-stamping, were incising, excising, appliqué and shell impression. ...
Lapita pottery, the herald of the settlement of the wider island Pacific, turns out to have heen painted with lime and clay, to give a red and white finish over the decorated surface. The find of a pot in Vanuatu, its sherds in different states of deterioration showed why painted Lapita has previously gone unrecognised. The author suggests that it was widespread from 1000 BC and reminds us that pottery was painted in China 7000 years ago.
... Both faces and "earplugs" are present in the FEA surface collections (e.g., White et al., 2002: figs 3a-b, 3d and 3f;Specht & Summerhayes, 2007: plate 6;figs 12c, 12d, 12f, 16f and 19d-h). Both sites have sherds with interlocking rectilinear dentate-stamped designs (the "labyrinth" of Siorat, 1990: 62) that might have been used as a space filler between faces (cf. Kirch, 1987: fig. ...
... Following the research initiated by Garanger on the Mangaasi ceramic motifs, typological studies of ceramic decorations, with a specific interest in Lapita motifs, have been conducted (e.g. Siorat, 1990Siorat, , 1992Sand, 1996b). ...
... The similarity of complex Lapita designs across Near and Remote Oceania suggests that design variation is a product of cultural relatedness. Lapita pottery comprises diverse vessel forms and an intricate decorative system that has been the subject of intense archaeological study for the last few decades (summarized in Kirch 1997), including multiple classifications of the Lapita decorative system, all with the intent of measuring homologous similarity (Mead et al. 1973;Anson 1983;Poulsen 1987;Siorat 1990;Chiu 2003). Mead et al. (1973) observed that the decorations on Lapita pots were made using a limited number of individual dentate stamps and shaped tools to create 'design elements' (DEs). ...
Evolutionary approaches to cultural change are increasingly influential, and many scientists believe that a 'grand synthesis' is now in sight. The papers in this Theme Issue, which derives from a symposium held by the AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity (University College London) in December 2008, focus on how the phylogenetic tree-building and network-based techniques used to estimate descent relationships in biology can be adapted to reconstruct cultural histories, where some degree of inter-societal diffusion will almost inevitably be superimposed on any deeper signal of a historical branching process. The disciplines represented include the three most purely 'cultural' fields from the four-field model of anthropology (cultural anthropology, archaeology and linguistic anthropology). In this short introduction, some context is provided from the history of anthropology, and key issues raised by the papers are highlighted.
... The similarity of complex Lapita designs across Near and Remote Oceania suggests that design variation is a product of cultural relatedness. Lapita pottery comprises diverse vessel forms and an intricate decorative system that has been the subject of intense archaeological study for the last few decades (summarized in Kirch 1997), including multiple classifications of the Lapita decorative system, all with the intent of measuring homologous similarity (Mead et al. 1973;Anson 1983;Poulsen 1987;Siorat 1990;Chiu 2003). Mead et al. (1973) observed that the decorations on Lapita pots were made using a limited number of individual dentate stamps and shaped tools to create 'design elements' (DEs). ...
Intricately decorated Lapita pottery was made and deposited by the prehistoric colonizers of the southwest Pacific. Analyses of this pottery have for decades focused on the ancestor-descent relationships of populations and the relative degree of interaction across the region to explain similarities in Lapita decoration. Cladistic analyses, increasingly used to examine the evolutionary relationships of material culture assemblages, have not been conducted on Lapita artefacts. Here we present the first cladistic analysis of Lapita pottery and note the difficulties in using cladistics to investigate data sets where a high degree of horizontal transmission and non-branching evolution may explain observed variation. We additionally present neighbornet and graph-network analyses to generate hypotheses that may account for Lapita decorative similarity.
Methodological approaches to archaeological ceramic design analysis often rely upon the subjective identification and comparison of decorative design elements and motifs. In an effort to develop more objective methods, I propose and evaluate the utility of a new structural approach that focuses on the application and layout of design. This is compared to an element/motif approach and applied to a data set of Lapita archaeological ceramics from Fiji and Tonga, regions that are known to share motifs, but differ in motif application and layout. A stereomicroscope and a laser scanning confocal microscope are used to identify and measure several structural aspects of design including the shape, density, and overall layout of design elements and motifs onto a vessel surface. Results of structural analysis indicate that Fiji and Tonga should not be grouped under the previously proposed Eastern Lapita Province, given differences in design application and organization. This conclusion differs from results provided by element/motif analysis. This new structural approach provides a novel way of quantifying design diversity with application beyond the field of Lapita archaeology to other forms of archaeological ceramic design analysis.
New studies on the Lapita phenomenon in New Caledonia have led to the identification of local patterns that allow the outlining of the concept of a ‘Southern Lapita Province‘, recently proposed by Kirch (1997). By defining the chronological limits and the typological characteristics of the dentate, non-dentate and undecorated Lapita ware, and the forms of the non-ceramic material, this paper makes a preliminary study of the local differences of the Lapita cultural complex in Southern Melanesia.
Within the Pacific Islands, the archaeological phenomenon called the Lapita Cultural Complex is widely regarded as first appearing in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea and then spreading southward. This complex supposedly represents the sudden arrival of migrants from Island Southeast Asia with new technologies, foreign languages, and a different worldview. We question these interpretations and the assumptions behind them and suggest instead that current evidence supports the introduction of new cultural traits over several centuries, rather than the sudden intrusion of foreign migrants.
Ambrose (this issue, above) and Sand (this issue, above) reported on Lapita in the specific, without being parochial in their concerns. This paper looks at the largest Lapita picture, but is itself in turn based on new reports in the specific, here from the coast of Papua New Guinea which is key for the relations in space, in time and in cultural affinity of whatever human it is that Lapita is.
The SYSREL program uses a Monte Carlo simulation procedure to derive estimates of the reliability of systems consisting of a series of stages, each of which may be composed of components of equal or unequal reliability values operating in active, partial, or standby redundancy modes. In all cases a constant failure rate (exponential distribution of component life) is assumed. However, the addition of other descriptions of component life, such as gamma, log-normal, etc. would be relatively simple.Honeywell Series 60 Level 66,6000; BASIC; GCOS.
Lapita all over: Land-use on Willaumez Peninsula, Papua New Guinea
Jim Specht and Robin Torrence
Australian Museum
ABSTRACT. This paper applies the landscape approach previously used by Torrence and Stevenson for Garua Island to study the history of land-use on the isthmus of Willaumez Peninsula, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Combining an analysis of ceramics with a sequence of radiocarbon dates, we track the history of re-colonization of this region by pottery-users following the W-K2 eruption of 3480-3200 BP. People using dentate-stamped Lapita pottery probably spread southwards from an initial focus in the obsidian source region around Garua Harbour. Not surprisingly, given the Garua Island study, their activities were not restricted to the beach or even to coastal regions, but included inland areas at elevations well above sea level. This new study capitalizes on the opportunity provided by the well-preserved volcanic landscapes of the Peninsula to offer a rich picture of settlement and land-use during this period in New Britain.
Not included in the final publication:
Specht, J., and R. Torrence 2007. Lapita all over: Land-use on the Willaumez Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. In S. Bedford, C. Sand and S. Connaughton (eds), Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement, pp. 71-96. Department of Archaeology and Natural History, and Centre for Archaeology, Australian National University, Canberra. Terra Australis 26.
The Pacific Islands or Oceania, typically subdivided into Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, have witnessed a virtual explosion of archaeological research, as indicated by this review of the past 5 years' literature. Most recent work centers on one or more of six major themes. Two themes are concerned with the movement of people into the Pacific region: the discovery of Pleistocene-age sites in island Melanesia and the search for early assemblages evidencing Austronesian dispersals. Substantial efforts have also focused on reconstructing prehistoric economic behavior and on assessing the impacts that colonizing human populations had on isolated and fragile island ecosystems. In the realm of social archaeology, Oceanic studies have contributed to understanding the long-term dimensions of interisland exchange and to the rise of complex, hierarchical sociopolitical systems, especially chiefdoms.
Intricately decorated Lapita pottery (3100-2700 BP) was made and deposited by the prehistoric colonizers of Pacific islands, east of the main Solomon's chain. For decades, analyses of this pottery have focused on the ancestor-descendant relationships of populations and the relative degree of interaction across the region to explain similarities in Lapita decoration. Cladistic analyses, increasingly used to examine the evolutionary relationships of material culture assemblages, have not been conducted on Lapita artefacts. Here, we present the first cladistic analysis of Lapita pottery and note the difficulties in using cladistics to investigate datasets where a high degree of horizontal transmission and non-branching evolution may explain observed variation. We additionally present NeighborNet and phenetic distance network analyses to generate hypotheses that may account for Lapita decorative similarity.
Les résultats de l'étude détaillée des formes et décors du site Lapita de Bourail-Nessadiou sont présentés ici dans une perspective chronologique et spatiale. (Résumé d'auteur)
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