New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Index  >  Vol 26 Nunn

 

NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY ISSN 0110~540X ABSTRACT

 

 

Reconstructing the Lapita-era Geography

of Northern Fiji: a Newly-discovered Lapita

Site on Yadua Island and its Implications

 

Patrick D. Nunn1, Sepeti Matararaba2, Tomo Ishimura3, Roselyn Kumar4, and

Elia Nakoro5

 

ABSTRACT

Questions concerning the earliest human occupation of northern Fiji were addressed

by geoarchaeological survey on the island of Yadua. Yadua lies at the entrance to an

ocean passage that early seafarers might have followed into central Fiji where some

early Lapita sites exist. Evidence for a Lapita presence was discovered on Yadua at

a small coastal flat called Vagairiki, likely to have been occupied by Lapita people

around 2600 cal yr BP because of available freshwater and one of the few fringing

reefs existing in the area at the time. It is concluded that the Lapita people reached

Yadua and other parts of northern Fiji in a post-founder phase of Fiji history.

 

K e y w o rd s : L A P I TA , F I J I , A R C H A E O L O G Y, R A D I O C A R B O N ,

COLONISATION.

 

1 Department of Geography, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. Email: nunn_p@usp.ac.fj

2 Department of Prehistory-Archaeology, Fiji Museum, Suva, Fiji

3 Department of Archaeology, Kyoto University, Yoshida Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-

8501, Japan

4 Institute of Applied Sciences, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

5 Department of Geography, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

Ó Copyright New Zealand Archaeological Association.

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