Lapita Pottery And The Early Settlers Of The Pacific Islands

MessageToEagle.com – Fiji island’s pottery traditions date back to the Lapita people over 3,000 years ago. Many changes in technique and style have occurred since then.

The Lapita people are known mainly on the basis of the remains of their fired pottery, which consists of beakers, cooking pots, and bowls.

Archaeological excavations revealed many of the pottery shards, decorated with geometric designs made by stamping the unfired clay with a toothlike implement. A few shards with figurative designs have also been unearthed.

Lapita pottery has been found from New Guinea eastward to Samoa.

A chance find of Lapita pottery in Fiji’s north last month is expected to spark further interest in the ancient people who settled islands in the Pacific.

Archaeologists came across a decorated shard on the coast of Bua province on the island of Vanua Levu and they expect there is more to be found.

See also:

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A field officer with the Fiji Museum, Sepeti Matararaba, who was involved in the dig, said the pottery fragments were about 3000 years old.

Mr Matararaba said Bua was one of the last remaining areas of Fiji which had not been explored for Lapita remnants.

“We still have a lot to do on Vanua Levu. I think this will really put foreign scholars on alert. You know they can come to Fiji to do research work and find more archaeological sites that contain Lapita pottery.”

MessageToEagle.com 

source: Britannica

MAA, Radio New Zealand