Origin and significance of a founding settlement in Polynesia
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Abstract:
Selected prehistoric potsherds from the deepest cultural level of the oldest known archaeological site in the Kingdom of Tonga, within the Eastern Lapita province of western Polynesia, display decorative motifs characteristic of the Western Lapita province of modern-day Island Melanesia, to the west. Most of the stylistically anomalous sherds contain temper sands exotic to Tonga but, in one case, petrographically indistinguishable from temper in a Lapita sherd recovered from the Santa Cruz Islands of Melanesia, and are inferred to record maritime transport of Lapita ceramics into Tonga from Melanesia far to the west. The non-Tongan sherds found on Tongatapu provide direct physical evidence for interisland transfer of earthenware ceramics between Western and Eastern Lapita provinces, and the Nukuleka site, where they occur, is interpreted as one of the founding settlements of Polynesia.Keywords:
Human settlement
Settlement (finance)
Minor archaeological works completed at Wellmeadow Street, Paisley between 2017 and 2018 have identified evidence of prehistoric activity in the centre of the city. Comprising a single prehistoric feature and a shafthole stone, the finds from these works demonstrate the importance of archaeological mitigation, even in areas of low expectation.
Bronze
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