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55-585: The region is primarily inhabited by the Arawe people, who maintain trade with other people groups primarily via water. There are also multiple archaeological sites featuring Lapita structures and goods. A small harbour known as Arawe Harbour provides an anchorage. During World War II , Japanese and Allied forces fought in the Battle of Arawe for control of the region. This West New Britain Province geography article

110-427: A chronological timeline for past occurrences at the site. Modern archaeologists take care to distinguish material culture from ethnicity , which is often more complex, as expressed by Carol Kramer in the dictum "pots are not people." Artifact analysis is determined by what type of artifact is being examined, the best. Lithic analysis refers to analyzing artifacts that are created with stones and are often in

165-415: A chronological timeline is a crucial part of artifact analysis. The different types of analyses above can all assist in the process of artifact dating. The major types of dating include relative dating , historical dating and typology . Relative dating occurs when artifacts are placed in a specific order in relation to one another while historical dating occurs for periods of written evidence; relative dating

220-587: A hole' or 'the place where one digs', during the 1952 excavation in New Caledonia . The Lapita archaeological culture is named after the type site where it was first uncovered in the Foué peninsula on Grande Terre , the main island of New Caledonia . The excavation was carried out in 1952 by American archaeologists Edward W. Gifford and Richard Shutler Jr at 'Site 13'. The settlement and pottery sherds were later dated to 800 BCE and proved significant in research on

275-655: A later period before the settlement of Eastern Polynesia when the Western Polynesians of the time had given up pottery production altogether. Archaeological evidence indicates that plainware pottery ceases abruptly in Samoa around 1 CE. According to Smith: "Ceramics were not manufactured by Polynesian societies at any time in East Polynesian prehistory". Matthew Spriggs stated: "The possibility of cultural continuity between Lapita Potters and Melanesians has not been given

330-512: A number of different ancient languages, and material culture uncovered by archaeology does not generally provide clues to the language spoken by the makers of the artifacts. Furthermore, certain Lapita groups are likely to have differences in speech and appearance from their relatives in different archipelagos or islands. Matthew Spriggs sees the Lapita as the source of Oceanic Austronesian languages and of cultural and religious concepts in much of

385-513: A part of material culture . Artifacts can come from any archaeological context or source such as: Examples include stone tools , pottery vessels, metal objects such as weapons and items of personal adornment such as buttons , jewelry and clothing. Bones that show signs of human modification are also examples. Natural objects, such as fire cracked rocks from a hearth or plant material used for food, are classified by archaeologists as ecofacts rather than as artifacts. Artifacts exist as

440-408: A result of behavioral and transformational processes. A behavioral process involves acquiring raw materials , manufacturing these for a specific purpose and then discarding after use. Transformational processes begin at the end of behavioral processes; this is when the artifact is changed by nature and/or humans after it has been deposited. Both of these processes are significant factors in evaluating

495-592: A site in the village of Mulifanua in Samoa uncovered two adzes that strongly indicate Lapita influence. Carbon dating of material found with the adzes suggests there was a Lapita settlement at this site in roughly 1000 BCE. Radio carbon dating of sites in New Caledonia suggest there were Lapita settlements there as early as 1,110 ago. The dates and locations of more northerly Lapita-influenced settlements are still largely up for debate. The Lapita complex has been divided into three geographical subregions or provincesː

550-517: A subdivision of Early and Late Eastern Lapita variations. Linguists and other researchers theorize that the people of the Lapita cultural complex spoke Proto-Oceanic , which is a branch of the Austronesian language family widely distributed in Southeast Asia today. However, the particular language or languages spoken by the Lapita is unknown. The languages spoken in the region today derive from

605-588: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Lapita culture The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their distinct material culture , who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. The Lapita people are believed to have originated from the northern Philippines , either directly, via the Mariana Islands , or both. They were notable for their distinctive geometric designs on dentate-stamped pottery, which closely resemble

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660-576: Is supported by the pottery evidence: Lapita pottery is more similar to pottery recovered from the Philippines (at the Nagsabaran archaeological site on Luzon Island) than it is to pottery discovered anywhere else. Other evidence suggests that the Luzon area may have been the original homeland of the stamped pottery tradition that is carried forward in Lapita culture. Archaeological evidence also broadly supports

715-598: Is the so-called "Triple-I model" (short for “intrusion, innovation, and integration"). This model posits that the Early Lapita culture arose as the result of a three-part process: “intrusion” of the Austronesian peoples of the islands of Southeast Asia (and their language, materials, and ideas) into Near Oceania; “innovation” by the Lapita people, once they reached in Melanesia, in the form of new technologies; and “integration” of

770-442: Is when artifacts are dug up from sites and collected in private or sold before they are able to be excavated and analyzed through formal scientific archaeology. The debate is centered around the difference in beliefs between collectors and archaeologists. Archaeologists are focused on excavation, context and lab work when it comes to artifacts, while collectors are motivated by varying personal desires. This brings many to ask themselves

825-827: The Lapita model between these discoveries and additional excavations were proven in the 1960s by Jack Golson , predating the Melanesian cultures and other Western Polynesian cultures. Some of the notable archeological locations include the Lolokoka site in Niuatoputapu and within the Eastern Lapita, the Nenumbo site in the Reef Islands which includes the expansion to the Solomon Islands, and

880-686: The Marianas Islands , or through the Philippines , or both. The strongest support for the theory that the original people of the Lapita culture were Austronesian is linguistic evidence showing very considerable lexical continuity between Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (presumably spoken in the Philippines) and Proto-Oceanic (presumably spoken by the Lapita people). In addition, the patterns of linguistic continuity correspond to patterns of similarity in material culture. In 2011, Peter Bellwood proposed that

935-413: The context of an artifact. The context of an artifact can be broken into two categories: primary context and secondary context. A matrix is a physical setting within which an artifact exists, and a provenience refers to a specific location within a matrix. When an artifact is found in the realm of primary context, the matrix and provenience have not been changed by transformational processes. However,

990-970: The material culture found in excavations, especially pottery, related to these ancestral communities. 'Classic' Lapita pottery was produced between 1,600 and 1,200 BCE on the Bismarck Archipelago . Artifacts exhibiting Lapita designs and techniques from a period later than 1,200 BCE have been found in the Solomon Islands , Vanuatu and New Caledonia . Lapita pottery styles from around 1,000 BCE have been found in Fiji and Western Polynesia. In Western Polynesia, Lapita pottery became less decorative and progressively simpler over time. It seems to have stopped being produced altogether in Samoa by about 2,800 years ago, and in Tonga by about 2,000 years ago. Pottery whose detailed decorative designs suggest Lapita influence

1045-651: The Far Western Lapita, the Western Lapita, and the Eastern Lapita. Within the Far Western Lapita is the New Britain or Bismarck archipelago, including the area discovered by Otto Meyer in 1909. The Western Lapita includes the artifacts found within the Solomon Islands to New Caledonia. The Eastern Lapita is attributed to the Fiji, Tonga and Samoa region. Discoveries of unique patterns within the Eastern Lapita region suggest

1100-451: The Lapita peoples into the pre-existing (non-Austronesian) populations. In 2016, DNA analysis of four Lapita skeletons found in ancient cemeteries on the islands of Vanuatu and Tonga showed that the Lapita people had descended from inhabitants of Taiwan and of the northern Philippines . This evidence of the Lapita peoples’ migration route was corroborated in 2020 by a study that did a complete mtDNA and genome-wide SNP comparison of

1155-456: The Pacific. The Lapita complex is part of the eastern migration branch of the Austronesian expansion , which started from Taiwan between about 5,000 and 6,000 years ago. Some of the emigrants reached Melanesia and were distant descendants of much earlier migrations into the super-continent of Sahul . There are different theories about the route they took to get there. They may have gone through

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1210-559: The Talepakemalai in Massau that exemplifies the earliest Lapita group within the Bismarck archipelago. As the archaeological record improved in the 1980s and 1990s, the Lapita people were found to be the original settlers in parts of Melanesia and Western Polynesia. Many scientists believe Lapita pottery in Melanesia to be proof that Polynesian ancestors passed through this area on their way into

1265-526: The archaeological question, "Who owns the past?" There are also ethical issues over the display of artifacts in museums which have been taken from other countries in questionable circumstances, for example the display of the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles by the British Museum . The display of objects belonging to indigenous peoples of non-European countries by European museums – particularly those taken during

1320-566: The artifacts between 2,800 and 2,450 years bp . Gifford later demonstrated the connection between the evidence from previous discoveries, including Merye's Watom islands sherds and McKern's Bayard Dominick expedition . Gifford also proved a relationship between his Lapita artifacts and those discovered by Pieter Vincent van Stein Callenfels along the Karama River in Sulawesi . The time scale of

1375-540: The beach, or on small offshore islets. These locations may have been chosen because inland areas – for example in New Guinea – were already settled by other peoples. Or they may have been chosen in order to avoid areas inhabited by mosquitoes carrying malaria, against which Lapita people likely had no immune defence. Some of their houses were built on stilts over large lagoons. In New Britain , however, there were inland settlements; they were located near obsidian sources. And on

1430-773: The central Pacific. The earliest archaeological site in Polynesia is in Tonga. Other early Lapita discovery sites dating back to 900 BCE are also found in Tonga and contain the typical pottery and other archaeological "kit" of Lapita sites in Fiji and eastern Melanesia of about that time and immediately before. Anita Smith compares the Polynesian Lapita period with the later Polynesian Plainware ceramic period in Polynesia: "There do not appear to be new or different kinds of evidence associated with plain-ware ceramics (& lapita), only

1485-464: The consideration it deserves. In most sites there was an overlap of styles with no stratigraphic separation discernible. Continuity is found in pottery temper, importation of obsidian and in non-ceramic artefacts". Artifact (archaeology) An artifact or artefact ( British English ) is a general term for an item made or given shape by humans, such as a tool or a work of art, especially an object of archaeological interest. In archaeology ,

1540-407: The differences between actual human-made lithic artifact and geofacts – naturally occurring lithics that resemble human-made tools. It is possible to authenticate artifacts by examining the general characteristics attributed to human-made tools and local characteristics of the site. Artifacts, features and ecofacts can all be located together at sites. Sites may include different arrangements of

1595-407: The disappearance of a minor component of material culture and faunal assemblages is apparent. There is continuity in most aspects of the archaeological record that appears to mimic post Lapita sequences of Fiji and island Melanesia (Mangaasi and Naviti pottery).” Plainware pottery is found on many Western Polynesian islands and marks a transitional period between when only Lapita pottery was found and

1650-445: The distribution of goods. The following lab techniques all contribute to the process of lithic analysis: petrographic analysis, neutron activation , x-ray fluorescence , particle-induced x-ray emission , individual flake analysis and mass analysis. Another type of artifact analysis is ceramic analysis, which is based around the archaeological study of pottery . This type of analysis can help archaeologists gain information on

1705-576: The early peopling of the Pacific Islands . More than 200 Lapita sites have since been uncovered, ranging more than 4,000 km from coastal and island Melanesia to Fiji and Tonga with its most eastern limit so far in Samoa . The term Lapita is now used to refer to the collection of theories regarding the origin and features of the ancestors of the people that speak the Oceanic languages. It also refers to

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1760-442: The form of animal remains. Just as with lithic artifacts, faunal remains are extremely common within the field of archaeology. Faunal analysis provides insight to trade due to animals being exchanged in different markets over time and being traded over long distances. Faunal remains can also provide information on social status, ethnic distinctions and dieting from previous complex societies . Dating artifacts and providing them with

1815-577: The form of tools. Stone artifacts occur often throughout prehistoric times and are, therefore, a crucial aspect in answering archaeological questions about the past. On the surface, lithic artifacts can help archaeologists study how technology has developed throughout history by showing a variety of tools and manufacturing techniques from different periods of time. However, even deeper questions can be answered through this type of analysis; these questions can revolve around topics that include how societies were organized and structured in terms of socialization and

1870-407: The heads had been reburied. One grave contained the skeleton of an elderly man with three skulls sitting on his chest. Another grave contained a burial jar depicting four birds looking into the jar. Carbon dating of the shells placed this cemetery as having been in use around 1000 BCE. Lapita culture villages on islands in the area of Remote Oceania tended not to be located inland, but instead on

1925-468: The initial movement of Malayo-Polynesian speakers into Oceania was from the northern Philippines eastward into the Mariana Islands , then southward into the Bismarcks. An older proposal was that Lapita settlers first arrived in Melanesia via eastern Indonesia. Bellwood’s proposal included the possibility that both migration patterns happened, with different migrants taking different routes. Bellwood’s proposal

1980-485: The islands at the eastern end of the archipelago, all settlements were located inland rather than on the beaches – sometimes fairly far inland. The Lapita complex encompasses a very large geographic region from Mussay to Samoa . Lapita pottery has been found in Near Oceania as well as Remote Oceania , as far west as the Bismarck Archipelago , as far east as Samoa, and as far south as New Caledonia. Excavation at

2035-922: The matrix and provenience are changed by transformational processes when referring to secondary context. Artifacts exist in both contexts, and this is taken into account during the analysis of them. Another important type of context for archeologists, particularly from an art history perspective, is the term provenance , or the more general history of an artifact's ownership, location, and importance. Artifacts are distinguished from stratigraphic features and ecofacts. Stratigraphic features are non-portable remains of human activity that include hearths , roads , deposits, trenches and similar remains. Ecofacts , also referred to as biofacts, are objects of archaeological interest made by other organisms, such as seeds or animal bone . Natural objects that humans have moved but not changed are called manuports . Examples include seashells moved inland or rounded pebbles placed away from

2090-597: The possibility that early Lapita Austronesians were direct descendants of the early colonists of the Marianas (who preceded them by about 150 years); this idea is also consistent with the pottery evidence. Recent DNA studies show that the Lapita people and modern Polynesians have a common ancestry with the Atayal people of Taiwan and the Kankanaey people of the northern Philippines. The first recorded discovery of Lapita materials

2145-463: The pottery recovered from the Nagsabaran archaeological site in northern Luzon . The Lapita intermarried with the Papuan populations to various degrees, and are the direct ancestors of the Austronesian peoples of Polynesia , eastern Micronesia , and Island Melanesia . The term 'Lapita' was coined by archaeologists after mishearing a word in the local Haveke language , xapeta'a , which means 'to dig

2200-603: The pottery – or transferred from the pottery onto those materials. Other important parts of the Lapita repertoire were: undecorated ("plain-ware") pottery, including beakers, cooking pots, and bowls; shell artifacts ; ground-stone adzes ; and flaked-stone tools made of obsidian , chert, or other available kinds of rock. The Lapita kept pigs, dogs, and chickens. Horticulture was based on root crops and tree crops, most importantly taro , yam , coconuts , bananas, and varieties of breadfruit . These foods were likely supplemented by fishing and mollusc gathering . Long-distance trade

2255-715: The processes that have acted on them over time. A wide variety of analyses take place to analyze artifacts and provide information on them. However, the process of analyzing artifacts through scientific archaeology can be hindered by the looting and collecting of artifacts, which sparks ethical debate. From the emergence of the Hominids in the Stone Age , humanity has developed a handful of artifacts through time and place. There are archaeological sites and museums that obtain artifacts for physical evidence through past traces of civilizations, as well as norms and rituals, where objects attested

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2310-614: The raw materials that were used and how they were utilized in the creation of pottery. Laboratory techniques that allow for this are mainly based around spectroscopy . The different types of spectroscopy used include atomic absorption , electrothermal atomic absorption, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission and x-ray fluorescence . Ceramic analysis does more than just provide information on raw materials and pottery production; it helps provide insight to past societies in terms of their technology, economy and social structure. Additionally, faunal analysis exists to study artifacts in

2365-588: The relics dating from after the Lapita horizon. The older material culture appears to have contributed only a few elements to the later Lapita material culture: some crops and some tools. The vast majority of the Lapita material-culture elements are clearly Southeast Asian in origin. These include pottery, crops, paddy field agriculture, domesticated animals (chickens, dogs, and pigs), rectangular stilt houses , tattoo chisels, quadrangular adzes, polished stone chisels, outrigger boat technology, trolling hooks, and various other stone artifacts. Lapita pottery offers

2420-469: The remains of early settlers of the Mariana Islands with the remains of early Lapita individuals from Vanuatu and Tonga . The results suggest that both groups had descended from the same ancient Austronesian source population in the Philippines . The complete absence of "Papuan" admixture in these remains suggest that the voyages of the migrants bypassed eastern Indonesia and the rest of New Guinea . The study authors noted that their results also support

2475-558: The sherds were prehistoric Fijian ceramics. The connection between Meyer's sherds and those excavated by McKern was made in 1940 with the discovery of pottery on the Ile des Pins . In the 1950s, Edward Winslow Gifford , who assisted McKern in 1920, led expeditions that eventually centered on the beach of the Koné Peninsula from where the Lapita term was coined. Gifford used the recently invented carbon dating on his excavated charcoal, dating

2530-572: The strongest evidence of an Austronesian origin. It has very distinctive elements, like the use of the red slips , tiny punch marks, dentate stamps, circle stamps, and a cross-in-circle motif. Similar pottery has been found in Taiwan , the Batanes and Luzon islands of the Philippines , and the Marianas . The orthodox view, advocated by Roger Green and Peter Bellwood , and accepted by most specialists today,

2585-404: The theory that the people of the Lapita culture are of Austronesian origin. On the Bismarck Archipelago , around 3,500 years ago, the Lapita complex appears suddenly, as a fully-developed archaeological horizon with associated highly developed technological assemblages. No evidence has been found on the archipelago of settlements in earlier developmental stages. This suggests that the Lapita culture

2640-433: The three; some might include all of them while others might only include one or two. Sites can have clear boundaries in the form of walls and moats , but this is not always the case. Sites can be distinguished through categories, such as location and past functions. How artifacts exist at these sites can provide archaeological insight. An example of this would be utilizing the position and depth of buried artifacts to determine

2695-411: The water action that made them. These distinctions are often blurred; a bone removed from an animal carcass is a biofact but a bone carved into a useful implement is an artifact. Similarly there can be debate over early stone objects that could be either crude artifact or naturally occurring and happen to resemble early objects made by early humans or Homo sapiens . It can be difficult to distinguish

2750-790: The word has become a term of particular nuance; it is defined as an object recovered by archaeological endeavor, including cultural artifacts (of cultural interest). "Artifact" is the general term used in archaeology, while in museums the equivalent general term is normally "object", and in art history perhaps artwork or a more specific term such as "carving". The same item may be called all or any of these in different contexts, and more specific terms will be used when talking about individual objects, or groups of similar ones. Artifacts exist in many different forms and can sometimes be confused with ecofacts and features ; all three of these can sometimes be found together at archaeological sites. They can also exist in different types of context depending on

2805-426: Was brought in by a migrating population, and did not – as had been proposed in the 1980s and 1990s by scholars like Jim Allen and J. Peter White – evolve locally. There is evidence that western Melanesia was continuously occupied by indigenous Papuans beginning between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago. That evidence includes recovered artifacts. But those remnants of the older material culture are far less diverse than

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2860-560: Was by Otto Meyer, a Sacred Heart missionary working on Watom Island in 1909. Meyer discovered potsherds after a tropical storm hit the island and exposed the artifacts. The decorated sherds were sent by Meyer to the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. In 1920, anthropologist William C. McKern unearthed over 1500 potsherds in the island of Tongatapu as part of a widespread expedition, most with stamped motifs. McKern wasn't aware of Meyer's discoveries and assumed

2915-456: Was made from a variety of materials, depending on what was available, and their crafters used a variety of techniques, depending on the tools they had. But, typically, the pottery consisted of low-fired earthenware, tempered with shells or sand, and decorated using a toothed (“dentate”) stamp. It has been theorized that these decorations may have been transferred from less hardy material, such as bark cloth (“tapa”) or mats, or from tattoos, onto

2970-559: Was practiced; items traded included obsidian , adzes , adze source-rock, and shells. In 2003, at the Teouma archeological excavation site on Efate Island in Vanuatu , a large cemetery was discovered, including 25 graves containing burial jars and a total of 36 human skeletons. All the skeletons were headless: At some point after the bodies had originally been buried, the skulls had been removed and replaced with rings made from cone shells, and

3025-413: Was the only form of dating for prehistoric periods of time. Typology is the process that groups together artifacts that are similar in material and shape. This strategy is based around the ideas that styles of objects match certain time periods and that these styles change slowly over time. Artifact collecting and looting has sparked heavy debate in the archaeological realm. Looting in archaeological terms

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