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‘Lapita colonists leave boats unburned!’ The question of Lapita links with Island Southeast Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Peter Bellwood  and
Peter Koon
Peter Bellwood
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601
Peter Koon
Affiliation:
Sabah Museum and State Archives, 88000 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
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Extract

‘Not another trendy and incomprehensible title,’ some will sigh. No, the title means what it states, albeit with metaphorical flourish. The Lapita cultural complex of Melanesia and western Polynesia, an entity beloved of a generation of Pacific prehistorians and ever a hot source of debate, can now be shown to have retained at least some links with contemporary populations far to the west of its known distribution. This is significant, not least because some scholars identify the immediate source zone for Lapita as having existed somewhere in the islands of Southeast Asia. At the same time, the obsidian quarried by Lapita artisans from Talasea on the Melanesian island of New Britain can be shown to have been among the most far-traded commodities of the Neolithic world.

Type
Special section
Information
Antiquity , Volume 63 , Issue 240 , September 1989 , pp. 613 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1989

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