A Preliminary Report on Health and Disease in Early Lapita Skeletons, Vanuatu: Possible Biological Costs of Island Colonization

ABSTRACT

The human colonization of Near Oceania has an antiquity of over 40,000 years but colonization of Remote Oceania, including Vanuatu, did not begin until around 3200–3100 BP. Just before this time a distinctive form of dentate-stamped pottery known as the Lapita style appeared in the Bismarck Archipelago northeast of the island of New Guinea. The only direct evidence of health in these Remote Oceanic settlers is their skeletal remains, but until recently only small samples of late Lapita skeletons have been found. Here we report the preliminary findings on some aspects of health of the first large sample (36 individuals) of early Lapita-associated skeletons from Teouma, Vanuatu, dated to ca. 3100–3000 BP. Dental health, trauma and degeneration of joints show they were well adapted to the rigors of island life and lived a physically active life while coping with a significant disease burden. The discovery of skeletal remains of pioneer settlers on islands is extremely rare. The Teouma sample provides insights into the possible biological cost of such a colonization and is applicable to other contexts where human migration into virgin landscapes may have demanded biological adaptation to ensure success.

Keywords:

• Keywords
• Lapita
• skeletons
• health
• colonization
• Vanuatu
• Pacific

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Teouma Archaeological Project is a joint initiative of the Vanuatu National Museum and the Australian National University (ANU) directed by Professor Matthew Spriggs and Dr. Stuart Bedford of ANU and Mr. Ralph Regenvanu, Director of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre until the end of 2006. Funding of the project during 2004 and 2005 was provided by the Australian Research Council (DP 0556874), the Pacific Biological Foundation, the Department of Archaeology and Natural History and School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the ANU, the Snowy Mountains Electricity Commission Foundation, and Mr. Brian Powell. The laboratory research and travel by the senior authors for excavation of the skeletal remains has been funded by The Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund and a University of Otago Research Grant. Mr. Robbie McPhee, graphic illustrator, of the Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago, assisted with the figures. Thanks to Dr. Frédérique Valentin for comments on the manuscript and providing English translations of her reports. Thanks to Roger Green for his advice and support. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. The support of the leaseholder M. Robert Monvoisin and family is acknowledged, as is the support and assistance of the traditional landowners and population of Eratap Village.

Notes

^#Most of the teeth from the sample were loose teeth found in the graves of the burials, although the teeth in the four crania were also recorded.

^aan individual is included if one or more teeth are present;

^ban individual is included if one or more joint surfaces could be observed.

1. A detailed analysis of the pre-burial and post-burial manipulation of the skeletons from Teouma is being carried out by Dr. Frédérique Valentin, CNRS, Paris.

2. Stable isotope analysis on the diet of the Teouma people from the first three field seasons has been conducted and the publication of those results is in preparation.