Lapita food production
and artefacts
The Lapita people moved into islands which, while they may
have
had earlier contact with man, to date have revealed no prior
settlements. They carried their domesticated food resources with
them: their animals, the pig, chicken and dog, were domesticated in
SE Asia, but some
yams, a variety of taro and one of bananas and sugar cane were
domesticated
in New Guinea (Gosden 1992:5/6) [pdf], while varieties of trees for example,
canarium (wild almond) and sago, came from the Bismarck region. The
pattern of food
production, that is agriculture, arboriculture and gathering, changed
as each group adapted to their new island, which resulted in
considerable variation in culture. Many of the domesticated food
resources associated with Lapita in the Bismarck region are not found in Lapita settlements of eastern Melanesia. Kennett (2006:31) [pdf] believes that remote islands of the western Pacific show few
indications
of farming domesticated crops, and that the Lapita here were dependent
on hunting
and gathering for food.
Pounding
sago
tree heart
 |
|
|
Breadfruit
 |
|
Artefacts associated with Lapita are ground shell and polished
stone tools, shell
ornaments and pottery sherds, both plain and decorated. It is this
last decorated pottery which defines Lapita because of the
distinctive indented, stamp-made patterns. As this fades from the
archaeological record, and is replaced by plainware, the Lapita
culture is seen as ceasing to exist.
| |
Kula shell
ornaments
 |
|
|
The
significant quantity of shell ornaments, in contrast to
the
number of stone tools, found on Tonga, is interesting in view of
ethnological studies that describe complex exchange circuits, called
kula, which involve ritually passing decorative shell ornaments in
western
Melanesia (Moore 1978:192). |
