The pattern of Lapita settlement in Fiji

Abstract

AbstractAt continental and oceanic geographic scales radiocarbon chronologies are important for calibrating the expansion of prehistoric populations, and understanding the type of dispersal process. In Fiji where the colonisation phase was relatively brief — within two standard deviations of most C14 dates — there are significant differences between Lapita sites and material culture suites. To investigate this variability three models of intra‐archipelagic dispersal are reviewed against four categories of archaeological data to examine the pattern of settlement in the scattered Fiji Islands. Initial colonisation was probably restricted to west Fiji and may represent an inter‐archipelago hiatus in Lapita expansion eastward. East Fiji was settled later during a second phase of systematic colonisation that centered on Lakeba and took in the small non‐continental islands of the Lau Group.