A Lapita-associated skeleton from Natunuku, Fiji

Journal of the Polynesian Society 94(4):389-414, 1985

1988

…, 1997

A relatively complete and well preserved skeleton of a 40-50 year old male, associated with Lapita ceramics from Site Y2-25 , near Yalobi Village, Waya Island, Fiji, is described. Radiometric dating of the site and of the skeleton indicates the individual lived ca. 2700 years ago (BP). The cranium is short , mesocranic, and high. The face is non-pro jecting and the orbits and nasal aperture are of medium shape . Caries in fection, extreme tooth wear, periodontal disease , premortem tooth loss, and hypercementosis are evident. The upper long limb bones exhibit mod erately strong muscle markings while the lower limb bones are more gracile. Living stature is estimated to have been ca 170 cm. A supracla vicular foramen , an oval-shaped fovea capitis, and tibial and talar squat ting facets are present. Paleopathological changes observed in the skele ton include cranial osteoporosis, a possible maxillary sinus infection , degenerati ve osteoarthritis, and slight-to-moderately developed occipital superstructures. Stresses, involving heavy mastication and strenuou s physical activity, are at least partly responsible for some of the features observed in this and other Lapita-a ssociated skeletal remains . Limited multivariate comparisons, including the use of FORDISC 2.0 and CRANID2 , suggest morphological similarities between the new Fiji cra nium and crania from East and Southeast Asia, the presumed homeland of Austronesian-speaking people s.

American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 1989

The Lapita Cultural Complex, radiometrically dated to between 3,600 and 2,500 B.P., is regarded on archaeological evidence as ancestral to modern Austronesian-speaking cultures of eastern Melanesia and Polynesia.

Records of the Australian Museum 41:235-292, 1989

ABSTRACT. Human skeleta l and dental remains from Watom Island, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, dated circa 500 to 100 years BC and associated with the Lapita cultural complex are described. The remains, often poorly preserved and incomplete, include six adult male and two adult female skeletons. Morphometric features of the mandible include a broad short mandibular body, divergent ramus and the rocker jaw condition.

With a cultural and linguistic origin in Island Southeast Asia the Lapita expansion is thought to have led ultimately to the Polynesian settlement of the east Polynesian region after a time of mixing/integration in north Melanesia and a nearly 2,000-y pause in West Polynesia. One of the major achievements of recent Lapita research in Vanuatu has been the discovery of the oldest cemetery found so far in the Pacific at Teouma on the south coast of Efate Island, opening up new prospects for the biological definition of the early settlers of the archipelago and of Remote Oceania in general. Using craniometric evidence from the skeletons in conjunction with archaeological data, we discuss here four debated issues: the Lapita-Asian connection, the degree of admixture, the Lapita-Polynesian connection, and the question of secondary population movement into Remote Oceania.

With a cultural and linguistic origin in Island Southeast Asia the Lapita expansion is thought to have led ultimately to the Polynesian settlement of the east Polynesian region after a time of mixing/integration in north Melanesia and a nearly 2,000-y pause in West Polynesia. One of the major achievements of recent Lapita research in Vanuatu has been the discovery of the oldest cemetery found so far in the Pacific at Teouma on the south coast of Efate Island, opening up new prospects for the biological definition of the early settlers of the archipelago and of Remote Oceania in general. Using craniometric evidence from the skeletons in conjunction with archaeological data, we discuss here four debated issues: the Lapita-Asian connection, the degree of admixture, the Lapita-Polynesian connection, and the question of secondary population movement into Remote Oceania.

HOMO 43(3):245-262, 1992

The skeletal biology of an historic Hawaiian cemetery: Familial relationships Die Skelettbiologie eines historischen hawaiianischen Friedhofs: Verwandtschaftsbeziehungen M. PIETRUSEWSKY, M. T. DOU GLAS, H on olulu Summary

Biological distance studies, especially those based on cranial and skeletal morphology, continue to provide physical anthropologists and bioarchaeologists with an exceptional set of mathematically based methods for understanding population relatedness and population history. Because of the demonstrated correlation between phenotypic and genotypic similarities, studies of cranial form, most notably cranial measurements, occupy a central role in modern biodistance studies. is paper examines the results of multivariate statistical procedures applied to measurements recorded in modern and prehistoric mandibles from the Pacific, including the largest sample of intact Lapita mandibles from the  site on Watom Island, New Britain, Papua New Guinea. e results of this analysis demonstrate that the Lapita-associated mandibles from the  site are morphologically most similar to mandibles from eastern Melanesia and the Polynesian mandible series are closest to mandibles from Southeast Asia. As demonstrated in earlier biological distance studies based on craniometric data, the results of this new biodistance study support an ancestral Polynesian homeland in Wallacea and not one within geographic Melanesia.

Artistic Heritage in a Changing Pacific, 1993

DesPite some earlier criticism(see,for example, Clark and Terrell 1978), there is almost universal agreement among archaeologists that the Lapita Cultural Complex (3600 to2500 years BP) represents the initial, ifnotrapid, colonization of the southwest Pacific by Austronesian speaking peoples. Furthermore, it is assumed that the Lapitaculture is ancestral to the Austronesian-speaking peoples ofPolynesia.easternMelanesiaand centralMicro nesia (Bellwood 1979, 1985; 'Green 1979; Kirch 1988). Thesearchfor theLapita homeland has generated several competing archaeological scenarios, including the view thattheLapitaculture arose indigenously in the Bismarck Archipelago region of Papua New Guinea (Spriggs 1984; Allen 1984),and an alternative view which posits that the Lapitacultureoriginatedsomewhere in Island SouthEast Asia. and then spread relatively quickly through the southwest Pacific (for example, Bellwood 1979). Although modest when compared to the archaeological evidence, there is an ever increasing body of human biological data available for assessing the peopling of the Pacific. These data include the now legion anthropo metric surveys of Oceanic populations (for example, Howells 1970),genetic studies (for example, Kirk 1980),