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The prehistoric colonization of islands in Remote Oceania that began ∼3400 B.P. represents what was arguably the most expansive and ambitious maritime dispersal of humans across any of the world’s seas or oceans. Though archaeological evidence has provided a relatively clear picture of when many of the major island groups were colonized, there is still considerable debate as to where these settlers originated from and their strategies/trajectories used to reach habitable land that other datasets (genetic, linguistic) are also still trying to resolve. To address these issues, we have harnessed the power of high-resolution climatic and oceanographic datasets in multiple seafaring simulation platforms to examine major pulses of colonization in the region. Our analysis, which takes into consideration currents, land distribution, wind periodicity, the influence of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, and “shortest-hop” trajectories, demonstrate that (i) seasonal and semiannual climatic changes were highly influential in structuring ancient Pacific voyaging; (ii) western Micronesia was likely settled from somewhere around the Maluku (Molucca) Islands; (iii) Samoa was the most probable staging area for the colonization of East Polynesia; and (iv) although there are major differences in success rates depending on time of year and the occurrence of ENSO events, settlement of Hawai’i and New Zealand is possible from the Marquesas or Society Islands, the same being the case for settlement of Easter Island from Mangareva or the Marquesas.

For many years the author has been tracking the spread of the Neolithic of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and its extension eastwards into the western Pacific, as a proxy for dating the spread of the Austronesian (AN) languages across that same vast area. Here he recalls the evidence, updates the hypothesis and poses some new questions.

Remote Oceania was colonized ca. 3000 BP by populations associated with the Lapita Cultural Complex, marking a major event in the prehistoric settlement of the Pacific Islands. Although over 250 Lapita sites have been found throughout the Western Pacific, human remains associated with Lapita period sites are rare. The site of Teouma, on Efate Island, Vanuatu has yielded the largest burial assemblage (n=68 inhumations) of Lapita period humans ever discovered, providing a unique opportunity for assessing human adaptation to the environment in a colonizing population. Stable isotope ratios (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S) of human bone collagen from forty-nine Teouma adults were analyzed against a comprehensive dietary baseline to assess the paleodiet of some of Vanuatu's earliest inhabitants. The isotopic dietary baseline included both modern plants and animals (n=98) and prehistoric fauna from the site (n=71). The human stable isotope data showed that dietary protein at Teouma included a mixture of reef fish and inshore organisms and a variety of higher trophic marine (e.g. marine turtle) and terrestrial animals (e.g. domestic animals and fruit bats). The domestic pigs and chickens at Teouma primarily ate food from a C3 terrestrial environment but their δ15N values indicated that they were eating foods from higher trophic levels than those of plants, such as insects or human fecal matter, suggesting that animal husbandry at the site may have included free range methods. The dietary interpretations for the humans suggest that broad-spectrum foraging and the consumption of domestic animals were the most important methods for procuring dietary protein at the site. Males displayed significantly higher δ15N values compared with females, possibly suggesting dietary differences associated with labor specialization or socio-cultural practices relating to food distribution.

Vanuatu was first settled ca. 3000 years ago by populations associated with the Lapita culture. Models of diet, subsistence practices, and human interaction for the Lapita and subsequent occupation periods have been developed mainly using the available archaeological and paleoenvironmental data. We test these models using stable (carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur) and radiogenic (strontium) isotopes to assess the diet and childhood residency of past communities that lived on the small (<1 km2) island of Uripiv, located off the northeast coast of Malakula, Vanuatu. The burials are from the initial Lapita occupation of the island (ca. 2800-2600 BP), the subsequent later Lapita (LL, ca. 2600-2500 BP) and post-Lapita (PL, ca. 2500-2000 BP) occupations, in addition to a late prehistoric/historic (LPH, ca. 300-150 BP) occupation period. The human stable isotope results indicate a progressively more terrestrial diet over time, which supports the archaeological model of an intensification of horticultural and arboricultural systems as local resources were depleted, populations grew, and cultural situations changed. Pig diets were similar and included marine foods during the Lapita and PL periods but were highly terrestrial during the LPH period. This dietary pattern indicates that there was little variation in animal husbandry methods during the first 800 years of prehistory; however, there was a subsequent change as animal diets became more controlled in the LPH period. After comparison with the local bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr baseline, all of the Lapita and LPH individuals appeared to be 'local', but three of the PL individuals were identified as \"non-local.\" We suggest that these \"non-locals\" moved to the island after infancy or childhood from one of the larger islands, supporting the model of a high level of regional interaction during the post-Lapita period.

Seventeen years before the first excavation at the archaeological site of Lapita (New Caledonia) in 1952, two men of the cloth met and exchanged artefacts, notes and ideas to produce some of the earliest analyses of what later became known as Lapita pottery. Otto Meyer (1877-1937), a Sacred Heart Missionary stationed on Watom Island, described chance finds of 'prehistoric pottery' in 1909, following these with more systematic excavations. Patrick O'Reilly (1900-88), a Marist Father associated with the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, drew on Meyer's work, his own extensive bibliographical knowledge and his observations during a one-year mission in the region in 1934-5 to present part of the collection in France, laying the ground for further theories. The publication, interpretation and curation of the Meyer/O'Reilly collection represents an exemplary journey through the history of Pacific archaeology and the emergence of the Lapita paradigm. We consider the context of Meyer's encounter with O'Reilly, the ideas both men advanced in analysing the collection and the site, and how these resonated during the development of Pacific and Lapita archaeology throughout the first half of the 20th century.

Lapita pottery seems to arrive in the Pacific out of the blue, and signal a new social, economic or ideological network. The authors show that widespread interaction, articulated by obsidian tools and stone mortars and pestles decorated with various motifs, was already in existence in New Guinea and New Britain. These earlier networks provide a preview of the social interaction that was to light up with the advent of Lapita.

This volume comprises 23 chapters that focus on the archaeology of Lapita, a cultural horizon associated with the founding populations who first colonised much of the south west Pacific some 3000 years ago. The Lapita culture has been most clearly defined by its distinctive dentate-stamped decorated pottery and the design system represented on it and on further incised pots. Modern research now encompasses a whole range of aspects associated with Lapita and this is reflected in this volume. The broad overlapping themes of the volume—Lapita distribution and chronology, society and subsistence—relate to research questions that have long been debated in relation to Lapita.

We report on a collaboration between archaeology and the Yacht Research Unit at the University of Auckland to investigate the sailing characteristics of Pacific canoes, both ancient and modern. Archaeology provides a chronology for the colonisation of Pacific Islands, but one mystery that remains is how well the canoes could sail. We describe the first phase of testing reconstructed model hulls and sails. By combining aerodynamic and hydrodynamic information it was possible to compare the performance of three different kinds of canoe representing simple and more developed forms. We offer tentative suggestions about the sailing performance of canoes of the Lapita period and also conclude that canoes involved in the colonisation of East Polynesia were able to make return voyages between islands on passages that encountered adverse winds as well as fair ones.

Petrographic analyses of sand tempers in Pacific Island potsherds reveal information about ancient human interactions within archipelagic contexts. By comparison with bedrock mineralogy, analyses of 45 sherds from the Lapita settlement at Naitabale on Moturiki Island (central Fiji) show that most sherds were manufactured locally but that a minority is exotic. Using ternary plots of LF-QF-FM (LF—lithic fragments; QF—quartz + feldspar; FM—ferromagnesian), it is shown that exotic material (either pots or temper sands) most likely came from elsewhere in Fiji, probably southeast Viti Levu Island, central Lau, Lomaiviti and Kadavu. Geoscientific analyses of archaeological samples therefore gives us insights into how people likely interacted within the Fiji Archipelago three millennia ago.

Reviews the exhibition 'Lapita', Musée du quai Branly, Paris, 9 Nov 2010 - 9 Jan 2011, curated by Christophe Sand and Stuart Bedford, and its two associated publications, 'Lapita : ancêtres océaniens = Lapita : oceanic ancestors', edited by Christophe Sand and Stuart Bedford, and 'Lapita peoples : oceanic ancestors = Lapita pipol : bubu blong ol Man long Pasifik = Lapita peuples : ancêtres océaniens' by Stuart Bedford, Christophe Sand, and Richard Shing. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.