The Lapitoid Period in West Polynesia: Excavations and Survey in Niuatoputapu, Tonga

Abstract

AbstractAbstractThe Lapitoid period in Western Polynesia represents initial human colonization of this region by Austronesian-speaking peoples during the 1st millenium B.C. As such, an understanding of cultural adaptation by the Lapitoid peoples to their insular environments is crucial to our knowledge of Polynesian cultural development. Recent excavations on Niuatoputapu Island, in the modern Kingdom of Tonga, have provided significant new data on the Lapitoid period; these results are discussed in terms of the emerging culture-historical framework of Oceanic prehistory.