Subject
Lapita Culture, Lapita Migrants, Isotopic Analysis, Teouma, Vanuatu, Tooth Enamel, Strontium Isotopes, Oxygen Isotopes, Carbon Isotopes, Prehistoric Mobility, Immigrants, Terrestrial Diets, Distinctive Burials, First Generation Settlers, Locally Raised Individuals, Colonization, Social Characteristics, Marine Diets, Burial Orientations

Domains
Archéologie, Histoire, Sciences Sociales, Sciences humaines

Description

Teouma, an archaeological site on Efate Island, Vanuatu, features the earliest cemetery yet discovered of the colonizers of Remote Oceania, from the late second millennium B.C. In order to investigate potential migration of seventeen human individuals, we measured isotopes of strontium (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18O), and carbon (δ13C), as well as barium (Ba) and strontium (Sr) concentrations, in tooth enamel from skeletons excavated in the first two field seasons. The majority of individuals cluster with similar isotope and Ba/Sr ratios, consistent with a diet of marine resources supplemented with plants grown on the local basaltic soils. Four outliers, with distinctive 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O, are probably immigrants, three of which were buried in a distinctive position (supine, with the head to the south) with higher Ba/Sr and δ13C, consistent with a terrestrial, nonlocal diet. Among the probable immigrants was a male buried with the crania of three of the locally raised individuals on his chest.

Keywords

Language
English (en-GB)

Creators
Bentley R. Alexander, Buckley R. Hallie , Spriggs Matthew, Bedford Stuart, Ottley Chris J., Nowell Geoff M., Macpherson Colin G., Pearson D. Graham

Contributors

Sources
American Antiquity 72(4):645-656

Relation

Coverage
Teouma, Vanuatu

Name of newspaper