Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T04:35:51.265Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contradictions in Lapita pottery, a composite clone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

W. R. Ambrose
W. R. Ambrose*
Affiliation:
Division of Archaeology & Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia. wra410@coombs.anu.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Like the cultures of Neolithic Europe — ‘Glockenbecherkultur’, ‘Trichterbecherkultur’, ‘Linienbandkeramik’ — the ‘Lapita culture’ of the western Pacific is defined by its distinctive ceramics. What that ‘ceramic culture’ amounts to in human terms has been a key question in the region's archaeology — complete with a quest for a Lapita homeland. This fresh review focuses on the pottery, the defining stuff itself of the affair.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 273 , September 1997 , pp. 525 - 538
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akazawa, T. & Szathmáry, E.J.E. (ed.). 1996. Prehistoric Mongoloid dispersals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alderton, D. 1988. Turtles and tortoises of the world. New York (NY): Facts on File.Google Scholar
Allen, J. & Gosden, C. (ed.). 1991. Report of the Lapita Homeland Project. Canberra: Prehistory Department, RSPacS, Australian National University. Occasional Papers in Prehistory 20.Google Scholar
Allen, J., Gosden, C. & White, J.P.. 1989. Human Pleistocene adaptations in the tropica] island Pacific: recent evidence from New Ireland, a Greater Australian outlier, Antiquity 63: 548–61.Google Scholar
Allen, J. & White, J.P.. 1989. The Lapita homeland: some data and an interpretation, Journal of the Polynesian Society 98: 129–48.Google Scholar
Ambrose, W.R. 1988. An early bronze artefact from Papua New Guinea, Antiquity 62: 483–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, W.R. 1991. Lapita or not Lapita: the case of the Manus pots, in Allen, & Gosden, (ed.): 103–12.Google Scholar
Ambrose, W.R. 1993. Pottery raw materials: source recognition in the Manus Islands, in Spriggs, et al. (ed.): 206–17.Google Scholar
Anderson, A.J. 1996. Adaptive voyaging and subsistence strategies in the early settlement of East Polynesia, in Akazawa, & Szathmáry, (ed.): 359–73.Google Scholar
Anson, D. 1986. Lapita pottery of the Bismarck Archipelago and its affinities, Archaeology in Oceania 21: 157—65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anson, D. 1990. Aspiring to paradise, in Spriggs, (ed.): 53–8.Google Scholar
Arifin, K. 1991. Social aspects of pottery manufacture in Boera, Papua New Guinea, Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 11: 372–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baer, A.S. 1995. Human genes and hiocultural history in Southeast Asia, Asian Perspectives 34(1): 21–35.Google Scholar
Barton, F.R. 1918. Tattooing in southeastern New Guinea, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 45(33): 22–79.Google Scholar
Bellwoop, P. 1978. Man's conquest of the Pacific. Auckland: Collins.Google Scholar
Bellwoop, P. 1985. The prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian archipelago. Sydney: Academic Press Google Scholar
Bellwoop, P. 1993. Crossing the Wallace Line — with style, in Spriggs, et al. (ed.): 152–63.Google Scholar
Bellwoop, P. 1996. Early agriculture and the dispersal of the southern Mongoloids, in Akazawa, & Szathmáry, (ed.): 287–302.Google Scholar
Bellwood, P. & Koon, P.. 1989. ‘Lapita colonists leave boats unburned!’: the question of Lapita links with Island Southeast Asia, Antiquity, 63: 613–22.Google Scholar
Bhatia, K., Esteel, S. & Kirk, R.L.. 1995. A study of genetic distance and the Austronesian/Non-Austronesian dichotomy, in Bellwood, P., Fox, J.J. & Tryon, D. (ed.), The Austronesians: historical and comparative perspectives: 181–91. Canberra: Anthropology Department, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Blust, R.T. 1988. The Austronesian homeland: a linguistic perspective, Asian Perspectives 26(1): 45–67.Google Scholar
Budak, M.K. 1996. The function of shell temper in pottery, La Tinaja Newsletter of Archaeological Ceramics 9(2): 5—9.Google Scholar
Bulmer, S. 1985. Papuan pottery — an archaeological consideration, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 6: 123–32.Google Scholar
Bustard, H.R. 1879. Population dynamics of sea turtles, in Harless, M. & Morlock, H. (ed.), Turtles, perspectives and research: 523–40. New York (NY): John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Clough, R. 1992. Firing temperature and the analysis of Oceanic ceramics: a study of Lapita ceramics from Reef/ Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands, in Galipaud, 1992a (ed.): 177–92.Google Scholar
Davidson, J. & Leach, F.. 1991. Bird-man amulets and Tridacna shell discs from Taumako, Solomon Islands, in Pawley, (ed.): 478–83.Google Scholar
Dickinson, W.R. & Shutler, R. JR. 1979. Petrography of sand tempers in Pacific islands potsherds, Geological Society of America Bulletin 2(90): 1644–1701.Google Scholar
Dickinson, W.R., Shutler, R. JR, Shortland, R., Burley, D.V. & Dye, T.S.. 1996. Sand tempers in indigenous Lapita and lapitoid Polynesian plainware and imported prehistoric Fijian pottery of Ha’apai (Tonga) and the question of Lapita tradeware, Archaeology in Oceania 31: 87–98.Google Scholar
Doran, E.W. JR. 1981. Wangka, Austronesian canoe traditions. Austin (TX): A & M University Press.Google Scholar
Dye, T.S. & Dickinson, W.R. 1996. Sources of sand tempers in prehistoric Tongan pottery, Geoarchaeology 11(2): 141–64.Google Scholar
Fredericksen, C. 1997. Changes in Admiralty Islands obsidian source use: the view from Pamwak, Archaeology in Oceania 32(1): 68–73.Google Scholar
Fredericksen, C., Spriggs, M. & Ambrose, W.R.. 1993. Pamwak rocksheiter: a Pleistocene site on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, in Smith, M.A., Spriggs, M. & Fankhauser, B. (ed.), Sahul in review: Pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and Island Melanesia: 144—52. Canberra: Prehistory Department, RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Frimigacci, D. 1980. Localisation éco-géographique et utilisation de l’espace de quelques sites Lapita de Nouvelle Calédonie: essai d’interprétation, Journal de la Société des Océanistes 35(70–71): 5–11.Google Scholar
Galipaud, J.-C. 1990. The physico-chemical analysis of ancient pottery from New Caledonia, in Spriggs, (ed.): 134–42.Google Scholar
Galipaud, J.-C. (Ed.). 1992a. PoterieLapita et peuplement. Noumea, ORSTOM.Google Scholar
Galipaud, J.-C. 1992b. Un ou plusieurs peuples potiers en Nouvelle-Calédonie?, Journal de la Société des Océanistes 95:185–200.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1959. L'archeologie du Pacific Sud: résultats et perspectives, Journal de la Société des Océanistes 15: 5–54.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1991a. Bulmer Phase II: early agriculture in the New Guinea Highlands, in Pawley, (ed.): 484–91.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1991b. The New Guinea Highlands on the eve of agriculture, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 11: 82–91.Google Scholar
Gorecki, P. 1992. A Lapita smoke screen?, in Galipaud, 1992a (ed.): 27–47.Google Scholar
Gosden, C. 1991. Towards an understanding of the regional archaeological record from the Arawe Islands, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea, in Allen, & Gosden, (ed.): 205–16.Google Scholar
Gosden, C. 1995. Arboriculture and agriculture in coastal Papua New Guinea, Antiquity 69: 807–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosden, C., Allen, J., Ambrose, W., Anson, D., Golson, J., Green, R., Kirch, P., Lilley, I., Specht, J. & Spriggs, M.. 1989. Lapita sites of the Bismarck Archipelago, Antiquity 63: 561–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosden, C., Webb, J., Marshall, B. & Summerhayes, G.R.. 1994. Lolmo cave: a mid to late Holocene site, the Arawe Islands, West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, Asian Perspectives 33: 97–119.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1974. A review of portable artifacts from Western Samoa. Report 40, in Green, R.C. & Davidson, J.M. (ed.), Archaeology in Western Samoa 2: 245–75. Auckland: Auckland Institute and Museum. Bulletin 7.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1979a. Early Lapita art from Polynesia and island Melanesia: continuities in ceramic, barkcloth, and tattoo decorations, in Mead, S.M. (ed.), Exploring the visual art of Oceania: 13–31. Honolulu (HI): University Press of Hawaii.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1979b. Lapita, in Jennings, J.D. (ed.), The prehistory of Polynesia: 27—60. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1989. Lapita, pottery and Polynesians, New Zealand Potter 31(3): 4–6.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1990. Lapita design analysis: the Mead system and its use; a potted history, in Spriggs, (ed.): 33–52.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1991. Near and Remote Oceania — disestablishing ‘Melanesia’ in culture history, in Pawley, (ed.): 491—502.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1992. Definitions of the Lapita cultural complex and its non-ceramic component, in Galipaud, 1992a (ed.): 7–20.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1996. Pottery, in Turner, J. (ed.), The dictionary of art 23: 726–8. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. & Anson, D. 1991. The Reber-Rakival Lapita site on Watom: implications of the 1985 excavations at the SAC and SDI localities, in Allen, & Gosden, (ed.): 170–82.Google Scholar
Haberle, S. 1996. Palaeoenvironmental changes in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea, Archaeology in Oceania 31: 1–11.Google Scholar
Hagelberg, E. & Clegg, J.B.. 1993. Genetic polymorphisms in prehistoric Pacific islanders determined by analysis of ancient bone DNA, Proceedings of the Royal Society London 252: 163–70.Google Scholar
Hedrick, J. 1971. Lapita style pottery from Malo Island, Journal of the Polynesian Society 80(1): 5–19.Google Scholar
Hill, A.V.S. & Serjeantson, S.W.. 1989. The colonisation of the Pacific: a genetic trail Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Houghton, P. 1991. The early human biology of the Pacific: some considerations, Journal of the Polynesian Society 100: 167–96.Google Scholar
Intoh, M. 1982. The physical analysis of Pacific pottery. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.Google Scholar
Irwin, G.J. 1977. The emergence of Mailu as a central place in the prehistory of Coastal Papua. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Prehistory Department, RSPacS, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Irwin, G.J. 1981. How Lapita lost its pots: the question of continuity in the colonisation of Polynesia, Journal of the Polynesian Society 90: 481–94.Google Scholar
Irwin, G.J. 1989. Against, across and down the wind: a case for the systematic exploration of the remote Pacific islands, Journal of the Polynesian Society 98: 167–206.Google Scholar
Irwin, G.J. 1992. The prehistoric exploration and colonisation of the Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, J. 1982. Archaeology in the Admiralty Islands, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 3: 22–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, P.V. 1990. Specialisation and exchange in the Lapita Complex of Oceania, Asian Perspectives 29(2): 117–33.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V., Hunt, T.L., Welslek, W. & Butler, V.. 1991. Mussau Islands prehistory: results of the 1985-86 excavations, in Allen, & Gosden, (ed.): 144–63.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. & Weisler, M.I.. 1994. Archaeology in the Pacific Islands: an appraisal of recent research, Journal of Archaeological Research 2(4): 285–328.Google Scholar
Lauer, P.K. 1974. Pottery traditions in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua. St Lucia: Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland. Occasional Papers in Anthropology 3.Google Scholar
Lauer, P.K. 1970. Pottery traditions of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Prehistory Department, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Lepofsky, D. 1988. The environmental context of Lapita settlement locations, in Kirch, P.V. & Hunt, T.L. (ed.), Archaeology of the Lapita cultural complex: a critical review: 32–47. Seattle (WA): Burke Museum. Research Reports 5.Google Scholar
Lum, K.J., Rickards, O., Ching, C. & Cann, R.L.. 1994. Polynesian mitochondrial DNAs reveal three deep maternal lineage clusters, Human Biology 66(4): 567–90.Google ScholarPubMed
May, P. & Tuckson, M.. 1982. The traditional pottery of Papua New Guinea. Kensington (NSW): Bay Books.Google Scholar
Meacham, W. 1991. Further considerations of the hypothesised Austronesian Neolithic migration from south China to Taiwan und Luzon, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 11: 398–407.Google Scholar
Mead, S.M., Birks, L., Birks, H. & Shaw, E.. 1973. The Lapita pottery style of Fiji and its associations, Journal of the Polynesian Society. Supplement. Memoir 38.Google Scholar
Pawley, A. (ed.). 1991. Man and a half. Auckland: Polynesian Society.Google Scholar
Pawley, A. & Green, R.. 1976. Dating the dispersal of Oceanic languages, Oceanic Linguistics 12: 1–67.Google Scholar
Pawley, A. & Pawley, M.. 1994. Early Austronesian terms for canoe parts and seafaring, in Pawley, A.K. & Ross, M.D. (ed.), Austronesian terminologies: continuity and change: 329–61. Canberra: Linguistics Department, RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Ross, M.D. 1988. Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of Western Melanesia. Canberra: Linguistics Department, RSPacS, Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics Series C 98.Google Scholar
Rye, O.S. 1976. Keeping your temper under control: materials and manufacture of Papuan pottery, Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 11(2): 105–37.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 1992. La différentiation des chronologies céramiques de Polynésia Occidental à partir d’une tradition culturelle commune issue du complexe culturel Lapita, in Galipaud, 1992a (ed.): 207–17.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 1996. Recent developments in the study of New Caledonia’s prehistory, Archaeology in Oceania 31: 45—71.Google Scholar
Serjeantson, S.W. & Gao, X.. 1996. The genetic prehistory of Australia and Oceania: new insights from DNA analyses, in Akazawa, & Szathmáry, (ed.): 309–23.Google Scholar
Sharp, N.D. 1991. Lapita as text: the meaning of pottery in Melanesien prehistory, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 11(2): 323–32.Google Scholar
Slorat, J.P. 1990. A technological analysis of Lapita pottery decoration, in Spriggs, (ed.): 59–82.Google Scholar
Smith, H.L. 1976. A principal components analysis of Samoan ceramics, in Jennings, J.D., Holmer, R.N., Janetski, J.C. & Smith, H.L. (ed.), Excavations on Upolu Western Samoa: 83–95. Honolulu (HI): Bishop Museum. Pacific Anthropological Records 25.Google Scholar
Southern, W. N.d. The vegetation history of Lahakai swamp, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea: a preliminary report. MS.Google Scholar
Specht, J. 1991. Kreslo: a Lapita pottery site in southwest New Britain, Papua New Guinea, in Allen, & Gosden, (ed.): 139–204.Google Scholar
Specht, J., Fullagar, R. & Torrence, R.. 1991. What was the significance of Lapita pottery at Talasea?, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 11: 281–94.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1989. The dating of the Island Southeast Asian Neolithic: an attempt at Chronometrie hygiene and linguistic correlation, Antiquity 63: 587—613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spriggs, M. (Ed.) 1990. Lapita design, form and composition. Canberra: Prehistory Department, RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1990. Dating Lapita: another view, in Spriggs, (ed.): 6–27.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1991a. Considering Meacham's considerations on Southeast Asia, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin, 11:40811.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1991b. Nissan, the island in the middle: summary report on excavations at the north end of Solomons and the south end of the Bismarcks, in Allen, & Gosden, (ed.): 222—43.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1996a. Early agriculture and what went before in island Melanesia: continuity or intrusion, in Harris, D.R. (ed.), The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Eurasia: 524–37. London: University College London Press.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1996b. What is southeast Asian about Lapita?, in Akazawa, & Szathmáry, (ed.): 324–48.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1996c. Chronology and colonisation in Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific: new data and an evaluation, in Davidson, J.M., Irwin, G., Leach, B.F., Pawley, A. & Brown, D. (ed.), Oceanic culture history: essays in honour of Roger Green: 33—50. Dunedin: New Zealand Journal of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M., Yen, D.E., Ambrose, W., Jones, R., Thorne, A. & Andrews, A. (ed.). 1993. A community of culture: the people and prehistory of the Pacific. Canberra: Prehistory Department, RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Summerhayes, G. 1996. Interaction in Pacific prehistory: an approach based on the production, distribution and use of pottery. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.Google Scholar
Swadling, P., Araho, N. & Ivuyo, B.. 1991. Settlements associated with the inland Sepik-Ramu Sea, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 11: 92–112.Google Scholar
Terrell, J.E., Hunt, T.L. & Gosden, C.. 1997. The dimensions of social life in the Pacific, Current Anthropology 38(2): 155–95.Google Scholar
White, J.P. & Downey, J.E.. 1980. Excavations at Lesu, New Ireland, Asian Perspectives 23(2): 193–220.Google Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1991. Domestication: the lessons from New Guinea, in Pawley, (ed.): 558–69.Google Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1993. Pacific subsistence systems and aspects of cultural evolution, in Spriggs, et al. (ed.): 88—96.Google Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1995. The development of Sahul agriculture with Australia as a bystander, in Allen, J. & O’Connell, J. (ed.), ‘Transitions: Pleistocene to Holocene in Australia and Papua New Guinea’, Antiquity 69: special number 265: 831–47.Google Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1996. Melanesian arboriculture: historical perspectives with emphasis on the genus Canarium, in Stevens, M.L., Bourke, R.M. & Evans, B.R. (ed.), South Pacific indigenous nuts: 36–44. Canberra: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.Google Scholar