Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:58:26.800Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Pacific's earliest painted pottery: an added layer of intrigue to the Lapita debate and beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Stuart Bedford*
Affiliation:
*Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Asian and Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia (Email: stuart.bedford@anu.edu.au)

Extract

Lapita pottery, the herald of the settlement of the wider island Pacific, turns out to have been painted with lime and clay, to give a red and white finish over the decorated surface. The find of a pot in Vanuatu, its sherds in different states of deterioration showed why painted Lapita has previously gone unrecognised. The author suggests that it was widespread from 1000 BC and reminds us that pottery was painted in China 7000 years ago.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

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

Allen, J. 1972. Nebira 4: An early Austronesian site in Central Papua. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania II (2): 92124.Google Scholar
Allen, J. & Gosden, C. (ed.). 1991. Report of the Lapita Homeland Project. Occasional Papers in Prehistory 20. Canberra, Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Ambrose, W. 1970. Natural causes in the deterioration of buried archaeological materials, in McCarthy, F. (ed.) Aboriginal Antiquities in Australia. Their Nature and Preservation: 109–13. Australian Aboriginal Studies No. 22. Canberra.Google Scholar
Ambrose, W. 1973. Appendix 1. Weathering rate experiments at Urourina, Opposisi and Kakuba Cave, in R. L. Vanderwal, Prehistoric Studies in Central Costal Papua: 238–42. Unpublished PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Ambrose, W. 1999. Curves, tines, scutes and Lapita ware, in Galipaud, J.-C. & Lilley, I. (ed.) The Pacific from 5000 to 2000 BP. Colonisations and Transformations: 119–26. Noumea: Éditions de IRD.Google Scholar
Ambrose, W. 2001. Obsidian Hydration dating, in Brothwell, D.R. & Pollard, A.M. (ed.) Handbook of Archaeological Sciences: 8192. New York: J. Wiley & Sons Ltd.Google Scholar
Amesbury, J., Moore, D. & Hunter-Anderson, R.. 1996. Cultural adaptations and late Holocene sea level change in the Marianas: Recent excavations at Chalan Piao, Saipan, Micronesia, in Glover, I. & Bellwood, P. (ed.) Indo-Pacific Prehistory: The Chiang Mai Papers, Vol. 2: 5370. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
Anderson, A., Bedford, S., Clark, G., Lilley, I., Sand, C., Summerhayes, G. & Torrence, R.. 2001. An Inventory of Lapita Sites containing dentate-stamped pottery, in Clark, G., Anderson, A. & Sorovi-Vunidilo, T. (ed.) The Archaeology of Lapita Dispersal in Oceania: Papers from the Fourth Lapita Conference, June 2000, Canberra, Australia: 114. Terra Australis 17. Canberra: Centre for Archaeological Research and Department of Archaeology and Natural History, RSPAS, ANU.Google Scholar
Anson, D. 1983. Lapita Pottery of the Bismarck Archipelago and its Affinities. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Avias, J. 1950. Poteries Canaques et poteries préhistoriques en Nouvelle Calédonie. Journal de la Société des Océanistes 6: 111–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beardsley, F. & Basilius, U.. 2002. Sengall Ridge, Belau: burials, spirit walks, and painted pottery. The Melaka Papers, Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 22 (6): 147–51.Google Scholar
Bedford, S. 2003. The timing and nature of Lapita colonisation in Vanuatu: the haze begins to clear, in Sand, C. (ed.) Pacific Archaeology: assessments and prospects. Proceedings of the Conference for the 50th Anniversary of the First Lapita Excavation, Kone-Noumea, 2002: 147–58. Les Cahiers de l'archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie 15, Noumea.Google Scholar
Bedford, S. & Fankhauser, B.. in prep. Dissolving data: calcium carbonate and its manifestations in the archaeological record of the Pacific.Google Scholar
Bedford, S & Regenvanu, R.. 2002. Summary Report to the Vanuatu Government on Distance Education in the South-WestPacific: Cultural Heritage Training 2001-2003. Workshop and Training Program on Uripiv and Wala Islands, Malakula 2001. Unpublished report to the Vanuatu Government.Google Scholar
Bedford, S & Regenvanu, R. 2003. Summary Report to the Vanuatu Government on Distance Education in the South-West Pacific: Cultural Heritage Training 2001-2003. Workshop and Training Program on Uripiv, Uri, Atchin and Vao Islands, Malakula 2002. Unpublished report to the Vanuatu Government.Google Scholar
Bellwood, P. 1997. Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Best, S. 1981. Excavations at Site VL 21/5, Naigani Island, Fiji. A Preliminary Report. Anthropology Department, University of Auckland.Google Scholar
Best, S. 2002. Lapita: A View from the East. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph No. 24.Google Scholar
Bulmer, S. 1971. Prehistoric Settlement Patterns and pottery in the Port Moresby Area. Journal of the Papua and New Guinea Society 5 (2): 2937.Google Scholar
Burley, D., Storey, A. & Witt, J.. 2002. On the Definition and Implications of eastern Lapita Ceramics in Tonga, in Bedford, S., Burley, D. & Sand, C. (ed.) Fifty Years in the Field: Essays in Honour and Celebration of Richard Shutler Jrs Archaeological Career: 213–26. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph No. 25. Auckland.Google Scholar
Butler, B. 1994. Early prehistoric settlement in the Marianas Islands: New Evidence from Saipan. Man and Culture in Oceania 10: 1538.Google Scholar
Clark, G. & Anderson, A.. 2001. The pattern of Lapita settlement in Fiji. Archaeology in Oceania 36 (2): 7788.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chazine, J.-M. 2003. Rock Art and ceramics in east Borneo: logical discovery or new cornerstone?, in Sand, C. (ed.) Pacific Archaeology: assessments and prospects Proceedings of the Conference for the 50th anniversary of the first Lapita excavation. Kone-Noumea 2002: 4352. Noumea: Les Cahiers de l'archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie 15.Google Scholar
Cornwall, I. W. 1966. Soils for the Archaeologist. London: Phoenix House.Google Scholar
Cox, G., Watchman, A., Blake, K. & Ness, S.. 2001. Beyond the Pale: Preliminary Conclusions on Pottery Surfaces from Central Province, Papua New Guinea, in Jones, M. & Sheppard, P. (ed.) Australasian Connections and New Directions. Proceedings of the 7th Australasian Archaeometry Conference: 6383. Research in Anthropology and Linguistics, No. 5. Auckland: Anthropology Department University of Auckland.Google Scholar
Donovan, L. 1973. Inventory of Design Elements and Motifs in Lapita Reef-Santa Cruz Island Pottery. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland.Google Scholar
Galipaud, J.-C. 1998. The Lapita Site of Atanoasao Malo, Vanuatu. Field ReportNo. 8. Port Vila, ORSTOM. Gifford, E.W. & R.J.S hutler Jr. 1956. Archaeological Excavations in New Caledonia. Anthropological Records 18 (1). Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Goffer, G. 1980. Archaeological Chemistry. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1961. Report on New Zealand, Western Polynesia, New Caledonia and Fiji. Asian Perspectives 5 (2): 166–80.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1971. Lapita Ware and Its Transformations, in Green, R. & Kelly, M. (ed.) Studies in Oceanic Culture History, Volume 2: 6776. Pacific Anthropological Records Number 12. Honolulu: Bishop Museum.Google Scholar
Green, R. C. 1978. New sites with Lapita pottery and their implications for an understanding of the settlement of the Western Pacific. Working Papers in Anthropology, Archaeology and Maori Studies, No. 51. Auckland: Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland.Google Scholar
Green, R. C. 1979. Lapita, in Jennings, J.D. (ed.) The Prehistory of Polynesia: 2760. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Green, R. C. 2003. The Lapita horizon and traditions - Signature for one set of oceanic migrations, in Sand, C. (ed.) Pacific Archaeology: assessments and prospects Proceedings of the Conference for the 50th anniversary of the first Lapita excavation. Kone-Noumea 2002: 95120. Noumea: Les Cahiers de l'archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie 15.Google Scholar
Hedrick, J. nd. Archaeological Investigations of Malo Prehistory. Lapita Settlement Strategy in the Northern New Hebrides. Manuscript draft of PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Hurlbut, C. S. 1971. Dana's Manual of Mineralogy. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Irwin, G. 1985. The Emergence of Mailu. Terra Australis 10. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V. 1988. Niuatoputapu. The Prehistory of a Polynesian Chiefdom. Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum Monograph No. 5. Seattle: Burke Museum.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V. 1997. The Lapita Peoples. Ancestors of the Oceanic World. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V. 2003. Review of Clark G.R., Anderson A.J. & Vunidilo T. (ed.) The Archaeology of Lapita Dispersal in Oceania, Journal of the Polynesian Society 112: 405–7.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V. & Green, R.C.. 2001. Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia. An Essay in Historical Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, P. V. & Hunt, T. (ed.). 1988. Archaeology of the Lapita Cultural Complex: A Critical Review. Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum Research Report No. 5. Seattle: Burke Museum.Google Scholar
Leavesley, M. & Chappell, J.. 2004. Buang Merabak: additional early radiocarbon evidence of the colonisation of the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, Antiquity 78: http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/leavesley/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
May, P. & Tuckson, M.. 1982. The Traditional Pottery of New Guinea. Sydney: Bay Books.Google Scholar
Meyer, O. 1909. Funde prähistorischer Töpferei und Steinmesser auf Vuatom, Bismarck Archipel. Anthropos 4: 251–52.Google Scholar
Osborne, D. 1979. Archaeological Test Excavations, Palau Islands 1968-69. Micronesica Supplement 1.Google Scholar
Palmer, J. B. 1968. Recent results from the sigatoka archaeological programme, in Yawata, I. & Sinoto, Y.H. (ed.) Prehistoric Culture in Oceania, A Symposium: 1927. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press.Google Scholar
Phear, S. 2003. Painted Pottery in Palau: new evidence challenges past interpretations, Antiquity 77: http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/phear/phear.htmlGoogle Scholar
Phear, S. 2004. The Monumental Earthworks of Palau, Micronesia: a landscape perspective. Unpublished PhD thesis, 2 Vols., Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Pickering, W. 1989. The Competing Roles of Dissolution, Sorption and Complex Formation in Element Mobilisation, in Balasubramaniam, K.S. et al. (ed.) Weathering; its Products and Deposits. Volume 1. Processes: 259306. Athens: Theophrastus Publications.Google Scholar
Poulsen, J. 1987. Early Tongan Prehistory. 2 Vols. Terra Australis 12. Canberra; Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 2001. Evolutions in the Lapita Cultural Complex: a View from the Southern Lapita Province, Archaeology in Oceania 36: 6576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siorat, J.-P. 1990. A technological analysis of Lapita pottery decoration, in Spriggs, M.J.T. (ed.) Lapita design, form and composition: proceedings of the Lapita design workshop, Canberra, Australia, December 1988: 5982. Occasional Papers in Prehistory 18. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Specht, J. 1968. Preliminary Report of Excavations on Watom Island. Journal of the Polynesian Society 77 (2): 117–34.Google Scholar
Specht, J. 1972. The Pottery Industry of Buka Island, T.P.N.G. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania VII (2): 125–44.Google Scholar
Specht, J. 1985. Crabs as disturbance factors in tropical archaeological sites. Australian Archaeology 21: 11–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spoehr, A. 1957. Marianas Prehistory: Archaeological Survey and Excavations on Saipan, Tinian and Rota. Fieldiana: Anthropology 48. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1990. The Changing face of Lapita: the transformation of a design, in Spriggs, M.J.T. (ed.) Lapita design, form and composition: proceedings of the Lapita design workshop, Canberra, Australia, December 1988: 83122. Occasional Papers in Prehistory 18. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1993. How much of the Lapita design system represents the human face? in Dark, P.J.C. & Rose, R.G. (ed.) Artistic Heritage in a Changing Pacific: 714. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1997. The Island Melanesians. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1999. Archaeological dates and linguistic sub-groups in the settlement of the Island Southeast Asian-Pacific Region, in Bellwood, P., Bowdery, D., Bulbeck, D., Fiskesjo, M., Green, R., Lilley, I. & Maloney, B. (ed.) Indo-Pacific Prehistory: The Melaka Papers: 1724. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 18.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 2002. They've grown accustomed to your face, in Bedford, S., Burley, D. & Sand, C. (ed.) Fifty Years in the Field: Essays in Honour and Celebration of Richard Shutler Jrs Archaeological Career: 51–9. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph 25. Auckland.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Reimer, P.J.. 1993. Extended 14C database and revised CALIB radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 35: 215–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summerhayes, G. R. 2000. Lapita Interaction. Canberra: Department of Archaeology and Natural History and Centre for Archaeological Research, Australian National University. Terra Australis 15.Google Scholar
Wickler, S. 2001. The Prehistory of Buka: a Stepping Stone Island in the Northern Solomons. Canberra: Department of Archaeology and Natural History and Centre for Archaeological Research, ANU. Terra Australis 16.Google Scholar
Wickler, S. K. & Spriggs, M.. 1988. Pleistocene Human Occupation of the Solomons Islands, Melanesia. Antiquity 62: 703–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar