Conférencier：Dr. Christophe SAND (Senior Archaeologist, New Caledonia Cultural Bureau)

Titre : Austronesian Settlement of the Polynesian Homeland: Archaeology and the End of the Lapita Trail


Date : Mercredi 30 octobre 2019, 10:00.
Lieu : Salle 702, Institut d'histoire et philologie, Academia Sinica, Taipei

Résumé:
The Austronesian dispersal across Island South-East Asia and the Western Pacific is today fairly well documented through archaeological and related research. The presence of the distinctive Lapita regional ceramic tradition from New Guinea in Northern Melanesia to Samoa in the central Pacific, spanning a total extent of 4500 km, allows to follow the progressive advance of human settlement across Near and
Remote Oceania. But archaeology has also identified rapid local transformations
of the ceramic kit after first Lapita discovery about 3000 years ago, leading
to the definition of a number of discrete Provinces. This presentation will
detail the latest data on the geographical triangle formed by Fiji, Tonga and
Samoa in the central Pacific, which represent the Eastern end of the Lapita
expansion. Excavations have shown that this Province rapidly exhibited a whole
number of unique typological evolutions in the Lapita material culture and
adapted to more restricted and often impoverished island settings. The recent
study of early skeletal remains allows today to re-evaluate the link between
these first Lapita settlers and the Polynesians on more robust ground, to
highlight the complexity of Oceania’s past. This also allows to question the
future of Lapita studies across the region.


Organisateurs :
- EFEO Taipei Center
- Institute of history and philology, Academia Sinica

La conférence est donnée en anglais.

 conférence