ARCHEOLOGISTS FIND 3,000 YEAR-OLD LAPITA JEWELRY

PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

ARCHEOLOGISTS FIND 3,000 YEAR-OLD LAPITA JEWELRY
Discovery in Natadola on Fiji’s Coral Coast

SUVA, Fiji (Fijilive, April 23, 2008) – Archeologists have discovered a 3,000-year-old pot in Fiji containing jewelry believed to have been made by the South Pacific’s original settlers – the Lapita people.

The discovery was made by an excavation party from the Fiji-based University of the South Pacific and the Fiji Museum at Bourewa in Natadola on the Coral Coast.

The dig at Bourewa, which is the earliest human settlement in Fiji, unearthed the pot and a thick piece of "exquisitely decorated pottery".

The Lapita people were the first colonists of Pacific Island groups, including the eastern Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

The descendants of the Lapita people, who disappeared as a distinct cultural group around 550 BC, live in these countries today.

Fiji Museum's Sepeti Matararaba found the jewelry made of shells.

"As Sepeti continued excavating, he found in the middle of these two rows an upturned pot," says USP’s School of Geography's Professor Patrick Nunn. "It was filled with shell jewellery. Nine shell rings of different sizes, four shell bracelets, six straight units with drill-holes." Another researcher also found a pot.

Professor Nunn said when she got it out she was initially disappointed because it seemed to have no decoration on it.Then she turned it over.

"She saw the most extraordinary find ever made in Fiji," Professor Nunn said.

Cut into it was the eyes and nose Lapita motif, made of very fine dots and all in-filled with lime.

Excavations involved more than 70 people, including 38 students from the University of the South Pacific.

The project was directed by Professor Nunn from the School of Geography at the University of the South Pacific, supported by Roselyn Kumar from the University and Matararaba.

Researchers from universities in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, USA and UK were also involved.

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