Lapita diet and subsistence strategies on Watom Island, Papua New Guinea: New stable isotope evidence from humans and animals

Abstract

Stable isotope ratios (δ(13)C and δ(15)N) were analyzed from the bone collagen of individuals (n = 8) from a Lapita burial ground (ca. 2800-2350 BP) on Watom Island, located off northeast New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago. The aim of this study was to assess the diet and subsistence strategies of humans that lived during the later Lapita period in Near Oceania. To aid in the interpretation of the human diet we analyzed the stable isotope ratios of faunal material from the site (n = 27). We also aim to assess methods of animal husbandry at the site over time from an analysis of the stable isotope ratios (δ(13)C and δ(15)N) of pig bones (n = 22) from different temporal periods (Lapita, post-Lapita, and late prehistoric). The protein diet of the humans consisted of marine organisms from the inshore environment and some deep-water species, most likely marine turtle, in addition to higher trophic level terrestrial foods, likely pig and native animals (e.g., fruit bat, Cuscus and bandicoot). Although the sample sizes were small, females (n = 4) displayed more variable δ(13)C and δ(15)N values compared with males (n = 4), which may be associated with the movement of adult females to the island. The stable isotope analysis of the pig bones indicated that there were few differences between the diets of the pigs from the Lapita and post-Lapita layers, suggesting that the method of pig husbandry was similar between these two periods and was likely relatively free-range.

Multi-isotopic analysis of first Polynesian diet (Talasiu, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga)

“…Different geographical origins have been identified in the raw material of obsidian (north Tonga) and stone artifacts (south and central Tonga and east Fiji) (Reepmeyer et al, 2012;Clark et al, 2014). (Tables 4 and 5, for individual data see SD2): Vanuatu (Valentin et al, 2010, Bismarck Islands (Petchey and Green, 2005;Kinaston et al, 2015), and Fiji (Nunn et al, 2007; show an overlap of the collagen values, except for the female (Sk3.1), highlighting again her different dietary regime (Fig. 5).…”

“…Stable isotope studies, applied to skeletal remains of early Pacific populations, have shown a trend toward a horticultural diet with temporal variation in response to local environmental conditions (Field et al, 2009;Kinaston and Buckley, 2013;Valentin et al, 2010Valentin et al, , 2014Kinaston et al, , 2015Kinaston et al, , 2016. As a consequence, human groups associated with the late-Lapita/immediately post-Lapita period are expected to have stable isotope ratios indicating that fewer marine resources were consumed compared with the first Lapita colonizers.…”

Lapita Archaeology in the Southwest Pacific

“…When the makers of Lapita pottery first crossed the navigational and seafaring divide between Near and Remote Oceania, they took along with them a range of cultivars and tree species and the knowledge of how to propagate, cultivate, and process them. Until recently, direct evidence for plant domestication in early Lapita sites remained sparse, but it is now accumulating (Summerhayes et al 2019), notably with results from pottery residue analysis of probable taro (Colocasia esculenta) processing, adding to data derived from isotopic analyses of human skeletal remains (Bedford 2015: 40;Herrscher et al 2018;Kinaston et al 2015;Valentin et al 2010b), and further supported by the reconstruction of several Proto-Oceanic terms related to food production (Ross et al 2008).…”

Life histories in Fiji as reconstructed from first millennium CE Sigatoka Sand Dune burials using isotopes

“…The proximity of marine coastal and reef resources and a vegetation cover predominantly using a C3 photosynthetic pathway allow the use of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios to distinguish between the contribution of terrestrial and marine resources to human diets. The contrasting dietary patterns between these two types of food have been largely documented in the literature since the early 2000s with a wide range of human isotopic values comprised between -19.7 to -13.5 ‰ and from 7.3 to 16.1 ‰ for δ 13 C and δ 15 N, respectively [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”