Fiji's Ancient Seafarers Dr. Patrick D. Nunn - Earthwatch Institute

The earliest occupation at Bourewa seems to have been on stilt houses, or on a low sandspit at the mouth of a
brackish-water bay. Shellfish was an important component of Lapita diets at Bourewa, where a large shell
midden – a pile of discarded shells – was formed. Yet traces of taro and yam have also been found in the
sediments at Bourewa, a sure sign that the Lapita people there also practiced horticulture (Horrocks and Nunn
2007). Stone tools are found throughout the site, most from the local area; a major find was a piece of obsidian
(volcanic glass) traced to a source in Papua New Guinea 2,610 miles away and brought to Bourewa around 900
BC.
Many people have speculated as to what made the Lapita people so extraordinary. Most regard the pottery
making and the voyaging as part of a religious movement, perhaps led by a succession of messianic figures,
which was focused on ancestor worship. Whatever the answer, an improved understanding of the Lapita history
of Fiji will not only add information to such speculations, but will also inform the population at large about the
nature of their islands’ earliest human history and the incredible achievements that were involved.
This research project has implications not only for archaeology and history. At the time the Lapita people arrived,
the sea level was around 5.2 feet higher than today and the geography of the area was quite different (Nunn
2005). Not only was there less land, but the Rove Peninsula was on an offshore island and surrounded by less
coral reef than today. Much research will go into reconstructing the ancient environment, the nature and the
ecology of the coral reef that existed in Lapita times. This information will be combined with studies of the shell
midden to understand changing patterns of shellfish consumption through time, something which could be a
result of changing patterns of predation or climate change or both (Allen 2002).
Animal bones (including dog, chicken, pig and rat) are found in the site and allow us insights into Lapita diets
and commensals. Bones of extinct animals may reveal human-associated extinctions (Anderson 2002). Human
bones excavated in 2003 may be of Lapita age, and are currently being analyzed. They show that the former
inhabitants of the Rove Peninsula were taller and larger than most of the present occupants, and that they
suffered particularly from yaws, a tropical infection of the skin, bones and joints.
Geological expertise is also applied to the stone tools found in the area, and much effort is going into finding the
sources of these. A favored rock was greenstone (dacite) which occurs in the mountainous hinterland of the site.
Geological expertise is also being applied to the sand (used as temper) in the Lapita pottery found in this area.
Knowledge of where that sand came from allows us to determine the place where the pottery was manufactured.
In several parts of Fiji, it has been demonstrated using this technique that pottery was exchanged/traded
throughout the archipelago and beyond in Lapita times (Dickinson and Shutler 2000).
Project Objectives and Methods
The goals of this project are to continue to illuminate the early human history of Fiji, by continuing research in
what is clearly a key area – the Rove Peninsula. In the Fiji context, this is providing information that is lacking;
while in a regional context, information about Fiji needs to be placed alongside that from adjoining island groups
for the purpose of regional synthesis.
Education is a key goal, both in terms of local-area education (at community gatherings and in schools), and
country-wide and region-wide through the media. The USP students who work on the project also learn a lot
about Fiji’s early history and give out this information through their own communities, both in Fiji and overseas.
The specific research objectives of this project are outlined below.
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