We present a series of 31 AMS radiocarbon dates on charcoal samples from six sites with eastern Lapita and Polynesian plain ware occupations in the Ha'apai Islands of Tonga. These dates indicate an initial Lapita settlement beginning no earlier than 2850 cal BP, with a rapid transition to a Polynesian plain ware phase by 2650 cal BP at the latest. Comparison of the Ha'apai chronology to radiocarbon dates from elsewhere in Tonga and in Western Polynesia suggests it may have wider application, with only plain ware dates from American Samoa standing as the exception. The Ha'apai results have implications for the resolution of a rapid versus staged model for Lapita colonisation of Oceania. Rather than a Polynesian "express train", Lapita settlement appears as a clinal progression involving a period of no less than 450 years.
The Lapita site at Faleloa on Foa Island in the Ha'apai Group of central Tonga lies near the southeastern end of the belt of Lapita sites spread through island Melanesia and western Polynesia during the millennium 1500–500 BC. Temper sands in Faleloa Lapita sherds closely resemble modern placer sands on beaches of islands within Ha'apai, and document local manufacture without intrusion of tradeware. Other Lapita and Lapitoid (Polynesian Plainware) sherds from nearby islands in Ha'apai contain similar local tempers that differ only in reflecting lesser placer concentrations of ferromagnesian mineral grains. Imported protohistoric sherds from Fiji contain distinctly different temper sand clearly exotic to Tonga. Although suggestions that Lapita pottery was largely tradeware are not supported by available petrographic information, Lapita pottery transport should be tested further by additional study of sand tempers in other Lapita collections using systematic sampling strategies to select sherds for microscopic analysis. The varied geotectonic environment of different island groups within the Lapita region ensures that far‐travelled wares can be identified by temper analysis.
Archaeological research in the Kingdom of Tonga over the past four decades illustrates a widespread distribution of Lapita coloniser sites throughout the archipelago. A 1999 re-excavation and assessment of the Nukuleka (To 2) and Haateiho (To 5) sites on Fanga 'Uta Lagoon on the southern island of Tongatapu, as well as survey of the Lapita-age paleoshoreline of the lagoon, provide new insights on old problems relating to first human settlement. The Tongatapu results are compared to Lapita site data recovered from the Ha' apai island group between 1995 and 1997. Inferences subsequently are made on the broader issues of Tongan chronology, settlement progression, material culture technologies, settlement pattern and economy.
Archaeological sites in the northern Ha'apai Group of central Tonga occur on small islands within the uplifted forearc belt of the Tonga-Kermadec arc-trench system. The present inland positions of occupation sites that probably once occupied coastal settings imply significant expansion of some island shorelines during late Holocene time (ca. 3250 B.P. to present). Geologic processes leading potentially to enlargement ofthe islands include continuing forearc uplift, eustatic or glacio-hydro-isostatic fall in sea level following a mid-Holocene highstand, and progressive accretion of beach ridges to island coasts, with or without changes in relative sea level. Radiometric dates for uplifted coral terraces in Tonga indicate that forearc uplift has been negligible during Holocene time. By contrast, theoretical considerations, regional analysis of shoreline indicators throughout the South Pacific, and limited empirical data from Tonga itself all imply that regional sea level has declined locally by 1-2 m since a mid-Holocene highstand (ca. 6000-3000 B.P.), which was a hydro-isostatic response to transfer of water mass from Pleistocene ice caps to the ocean basins. Emergence of originally coastal sites is thus expected since initial settlement of the islands by Lapita peoples. Accretionary coastal flats composed of multiple beach ridges are 250-500 m wide on favorable leeward shores and the flanks of sand cays, but some presently unknown proportion of this incremental island growth may have occurred prior to the post-mid-Holocene decline in relative sea level. Ash falls from tephra eruptions a t Tongan volcanoes also modified island environments through Quaternary time. Evidence for significant change in the configuration and morphology of islands in Ha'apai during the period of human settlement highlights the need for systematic interdisciplinary archaeological and geological research in the study of Pacific prehistory.
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