Photo: Stuart Bedford
Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, “Ancient Origins” (2014).
This Lapita pottery is important as it serves as a kind of ‘migration time stamp’ for the migrations of peoples across the Pacific. Pottery such as this can be found across western Pacific islands like New Caledonia or Samoa. The creation of pottery such as this began at about 1300 BC, when the ‘Lapita cultural complex’ was believed to have been formed. This pottery was then “…produced repeatedly throughout the early Lapita domain and probably marked a sense of community…” (Anderson, 23). This form of pottery also lead to the discovery that the migration of the Lapita people approximately coincided with the settlement of western Micronesia , where very similar pottery was discovered that more closely resembled that of the pottery found in the Philippines. This similar pottery appeared in Palau, Marianas and Yap at around 1300-1100 BC, further enforcing the theory that the Lapita culture and the Marianas colonisation had similar origins in the eastern islands of Southeast Asia.
Anderson, Atholl. “Chapter 1: Ancient Origins”. Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History. Ed. Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, and Aroha Harris. Aotearoa: Bridget Williams Books, 2014. 16 – 41. Print
Nathan Peacock 