7.3 The Lapita Migrations
125
the Spice Islanders’ acquisition of the technology of pottery making or to their
acquisition of pots for their spices and plumes through trade with Japan. The finding of Jomon pottery in Vanuatu dated to 5,000 BP may be relevant in such a
connection [3].
The decline of the pottery tradition in Island Melanesia and most of Western
Polynesia, from decorated to plain pottery, may reflect the loss by these colonists
of the spice and plume trades: luxury trades for which the decorated pots may
originally have been made.
If pottery and trading go hand in hand, so do pottery and horticulture. Lapita
jars, and especially those with narrow necks, have been associated with the storage of sago. Kirch [4], for example, suggests that the undecorated large globular
Lapita jars “with narrow necks” were used to hold “flour” derived from the pith of
sago (Metroxylon) palms. When kept dry, sago flour will keep for extended periods, and Kirch argues that this food may have been essential to tropical colonizing
groups while their horticultural systems were being established. Sago flour may
have proved as useful for crews on long-distance trading voyages or migrations.
The absence of a pottery tradition in Eastern Polynesia suggests that without
trade requiring pottery, and without reliance on sago flour as a carbohydrate staple
needing storage, it was simpler to use gourds or to manufacture wooden storage
vessels.
The presence of a vestigial clay tradition in New Zealand, possibly associated
with the Lapita-age origins of its first settlers, is discussed in Chapter 16.
7.3 The Lapita Migrations
The immediate causes of the Lapita migrations that may have followed the catastrophic Mount Witori eruption in New Britain (c. 3,600 BP) may never be known. It
is easy to suggest possibilities. Earthquakes and tsunamis, accompanying the eruption, might have devastated the Bismarcks, the Solomons, the north coast of New
Guinea, northern and possibly southern Halmahera and islands in the Moluccan
archipelago, with significant loss of life. With crops damaged, trading canoes
destroyed, and cropland inundated, Spice Islanders might have become vulnerable to the attacks of tribes from outside the affected areas who seized the chance to
wrest spice-producing islands from them. Alternatively we can speculate that there
might have been an opportunistic response by the Spice Islanders themselves to the
sudden de-peopling of the Bismarcks through the eruption. They may have seized
the opportunity to acquire a rich trading resource, that of Talisean obsidian, and to
take over significant land areas temporarily rendered infertile and vacated. The two
possibilities may have conjoined. Whatever the causes for the Lapita migrations to
Near Oceania, the size of the Lapita sites – especially the 80-ha size of the earliest
known site at Talepakemalai in the Bismarck archipelago – suggests a remarkable,
large-scale response. The degree of organization involved and the cultural uniformity and prosperity of the new sites are striking. Kirch [5] speaks of the “sudden
125
the Spice Islanders’ acquisition of the technology of pottery making or to their
acquisition of pots for their spices and plumes through trade with Japan. The finding of Jomon pottery in Vanuatu dated to 5,000 BP may be relevant in such a
connection [3].
The decline of the pottery tradition in Island Melanesia and most of Western
Polynesia, from decorated to plain pottery, may reflect the loss by these colonists
of the spice and plume trades: luxury trades for which the decorated pots may
originally have been made.
If pottery and trading go hand in hand, so do pottery and horticulture. Lapita
jars, and especially those with narrow necks, have been associated with the storage of sago. Kirch [4], for example, suggests that the undecorated large globular
Lapita jars “with narrow necks” were used to hold “flour” derived from the pith of
sago (Metroxylon) palms. When kept dry, sago flour will keep for extended periods, and Kirch argues that this food may have been essential to tropical colonizing
groups while their horticultural systems were being established. Sago flour may
have proved as useful for crews on long-distance trading voyages or migrations.
The absence of a pottery tradition in Eastern Polynesia suggests that without
trade requiring pottery, and without reliance on sago flour as a carbohydrate staple
needing storage, it was simpler to use gourds or to manufacture wooden storage
vessels.
The presence of a vestigial clay tradition in New Zealand, possibly associated
with the Lapita-age origins of its first settlers, is discussed in Chapter 16.
7.3 The Lapita Migrations
The immediate causes of the Lapita migrations that may have followed the catastrophic Mount Witori eruption in New Britain (c. 3,600 BP) may never be known. It
is easy to suggest possibilities. Earthquakes and tsunamis, accompanying the eruption, might have devastated the Bismarcks, the Solomons, the north coast of New
Guinea, northern and possibly southern Halmahera and islands in the Moluccan
archipelago, with significant loss of life. With crops damaged, trading canoes
destroyed, and cropland inundated, Spice Islanders might have become vulnerable to the attacks of tribes from outside the affected areas who seized the chance to
wrest spice-producing islands from them. Alternatively we can speculate that there
might have been an opportunistic response by the Spice Islanders themselves to the
sudden de-peopling of the Bismarcks through the eruption. They may have seized
the opportunity to acquire a rich trading resource, that of Talisean obsidian, and to
take over significant land areas temporarily rendered infertile and vacated. The two
possibilities may have conjoined. Whatever the causes for the Lapita migrations to
Near Oceania, the size of the Lapita sites – especially the 80-ha size of the earliest
known site at Talepakemalai in the Bismarck archipelago – suggests a remarkable,
large-scale response. The degree of organization involved and the cultural uniformity and prosperity of the new sites are striking. Kirch [5] speaks of the “sudden