A project undertaken at The Australian National University, and supervised by A/Prof Stuart Bedford.
The islands of the Pacific provide a rare opportunity globally to investigate the dynamics of first human arrival in pristine environments. In the southwest Pacific, beyond the main Solomons chain, this is associated with a culture known as Lapita, which arrived in the region 3000 years ago. The archipelago of Vanuatu is at the frontier of this first wave of migration and a number of well-preserved colonising sites have been investigated across the archipelago producing spectacular results including the identification of a range of extinct fauna, confirmation of the introduction of mammals and food crops and the DNA profiling of some of the founding people. The recent discovery of an extensive new Lapita site at Pangpang village, on the east coast of Efate Island, is providing an exciting opportunity to greatly expand our knowledge of this crucial period. Initial investigations at the site and across the wider landscape in 2023 has recovered pottery that indicates that it covers an area of dozens of hectares and represents continuous occupation for some 1600 years. This is the only site in Vanuatu where such a continuous lengthy sequence has been identified. The project has revealed detail about the strategies and impacts of the first colonisers but also how they changed over time both in their subsistence and settlement patterns as they adapted to a new and changing environment and a growing population. Excavations were undertaken over three weeks and were concentrated in two areas at Pangpang, namely Etok and Meltabong. Etok revealed deeply stratified, well preserved deposits dating to first arrival of people (Lapita). Lapita sherds, exotic obsidian from New Guinea and extinct fauna (tortoise) recovered from the lowest layers confirmed this as a site of first arrival. Etok provides evidence of continued occupation at the site till c. 2500 years ago (BP) with an abundance of immediately post-Lapita style pottery (Erueti-style) and midden sealing the earlier deposits. The site appears to cover an area of some 3-400m2. Marine shell, animal bone and pottery were recovered in abundance. Mangaasi-period (2200-1600 BP) settlement covers many hectares and some kilometres inland but is often in disturbed garden contexts. The entire valley was surveyed to record a total of 21 abandoned villages that date to the pre-European contact period. Introduced diseases in the nineteenth century had a massive impact on indigenous populations. The Meltabong site is a massive artificially created linear mound (up to 4m high) that comprises totally of midden deposits which all date to pre-2500 BP. It is an indication that communities at least during the initial establishment of settlements lived in large close-knit groups feasting together and discarding their waste in a centralised ceremonial fashion. The human impact on a pristine environment is clear from the recovered faunal material. Already more than 250 tortoise bones have been recovered, along with what appeared to be extinct bird species. Fruit bat and fish bone is abundant. Introduced species are also in evidence at the earliest levels, with pig, rat and chicken bones being recovered. Analysis of materials is ongoing but the well preserved deeply stratified deposits will provide a very finely dated sequence, as throughout the deposits, ‘fresh’ branch coral has been recovered. It was brought to the site, broken up and used mainly as files to produce shell ornaments. The coral can be dated very precisely and will help establish the most accurately dated sequence anywhere in the archipelago. Excavations and survey in 2023 have confirmed that the wider Pangpang landscape has the potential for tracking the dynamics of first human arrival and subsequent adaptation in Central Vanuatu over three millennia.
