Early Lapita sites, the colonisation of Tonga and recent data from northern Ha'apai

Abstract

Recent and earlier archaeological research in the northern Ha'apai island group, Kingdom of Tonga, has documented several sites associated with initial colonization and expansion during the Lapita period. Excavated and other data for these sites are described in a preliminary fashion and placed within the larger context of Lapita archaeology in Tonga. The earliest sites, including Tongoleleka on Li fuka Island, Faleloa on Foa Island and Pukotala on Ha'ano island are radiocarbon dated between 3000 and 2500 years ago. Dentate‐stamped and other decorated ceramics are characteristic of site assemblages. All recorded Lapita period sites in northern Ha'apai occur 200 m or more from the present shoreline and are raised 2 m or more above current sea levels. Original site occupations, however, were superpositioned on sand beaches and it is proposed that sea level decline and substantial accretionary shoreline development has taken place over the past 2500 years. Northern Ha'apai dentate‐stamped ceramics share design elements with other Lapita sites in Tonga and Fiji and the existing conceptual framework for an integrated eastern Lapita province with sustained inter‐island contacts seems secure. Lapita sites in northern Ha'apai further indicate that these islands were settled simultaneously with other areas in Tonga, including Tongatapu and Nivatoputapu. Finally, each of the principal islands in northern Ha'apai is characterised by a single early Lapita settlement without significant growth over the next few centuries. This distribution supports Green's ‘Colonizer Model’ for Lapita expansion in which new groups were continually and intentionally being dispersed to settlement locales on adjacent islands.