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Results of petrographie 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. Cet article présente les résultats obtenus à l'issue de l'analyse pétrographique de dix ensembles céramiques Lapita de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Ces données permettent de localiser un certain nombre de centres de production céramique majeurs durant la période Lapita. Il est possible que développement d'une tradition de production céramique sur la rive droite de la vallée du Diahot près de Ouégoa et Pouébo dans le nord, et d'une autre dans la région entre Tontouta et Nouméa/Saint- Louis dans le sud de la Grande Terre, ait influencé l'émergence des divisions culturelles entre le nord et le sud calédoniens (Sand et al.: 64-5, fig. 11) identifiés plus tard dans la chronologie.

The Bayesian calibration program OxCal v.4.1.5 is applied to two chronological datasets for early Lapita derived from two comprehensive reviews. The two datasets are supplemented by published ages for early Lapita sites in two key island groups within Remote Oceania: Vanuatu and Fiji. The analyses provide statistically robust chronologies for the emergence of Lapita on Mussau at 3470—3250 cal BP and in the rest of the Bismarck Archipelago at 3360—3240 cal BP. After a period of 130—290 years, Lapita dispersed to Vanuatu by 3250—3100 cal BP and to Fiji by 3130—3010 cal BP.

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.

The principal design motifs characteristic of Lapita ceramic iconography are conventionally described as anthropomorphic both in appearance and in symbolic intent. Based on recent systematic research by a number of archaeologists, it is now possible to offer a more nuanced interpretation of the meaning and importance of this iconography to Pacific Islanders during and after the widespread popularity of Lapita as a pottery style. We argue that the most likely interpretation is that most but not all of the faces on Lapita vessels may be variant representations of sea turtles, not human beings. Furthermore, while this distinctive ware has been used to support broad inferences about the social organization, motivations, and religious ideas of its makers and users, Lapita designs may not be ‘saying’ symbolically what many now evidently believe them to be saying, and their historical importance may be other than what many currently say it is.

Important new insights about long-term changes in human behaviour are gained when cultural landscapes rather than focal points or ‘sites’ are studied. The abundance of obsidian artefacts preserved on easily recognized, well-defined and short-lived ground surfaces makes Garua Island an excellent setting for monitoring the changing patterns of human behaviour through time and within cultural landscapes. The results raise questions about traditional interpretations of settlement and land use in Near Oceania, particularly during the time of Lapita pottery.

Coordinated geomorphic and archaeological observations indicate that ancient (c. 3000 years old) archaeological sites in Tonga typically lie inland from present coasts on paleoshorelines associated with a regional mid-Holocene highstand of sea level. Shorelines in Tonga include both seacliffs, which dominate windward coasts, and coral sand beaches, many of which fringe accretionary sand flats on leeward coasts. Seacliffs are characteristically notched at high-tide level by solution and bioerosion. Emergent paleoshoreline notches of mid-Holocene and last-interglacial ages record higher local stands of relative sea level on many Tongan islands. Other indicators of local mid-Holocene sea levels include emergent microatolls, paleobeachrock exposures, beach-ridge berm crests, and fossil beach placers of black sand derived from tephra deposits. Paleoshoreline indicators on Tongatapu and 'Eua, and in the Nomuka and Hahake subgroups of Haápai, show that mid-Holocene sea level stood 2.0-2.6 m higher than present sea level, with tectonic changes in island elevations negligible since the last interglacial. By contrast, the Vava'u Group and the Kotu subgroup of Ha'apai have subsided at mean Holocene rates of c. 0.5 mm/yr, enough to counteract the post-mid-Holocene fall in local relative sea level. Elevations and locations of ancient archaeological sites are generally compatible with independent geomorphic evidence for stability or subsidence of individual islands. Parts of Tongatapu were evidently inundated in 1853 by the temporary runup of a local tsunami associated with an earthquake generated by volcanic activity along the nearby volcanic arc.

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.

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.