Lapita Burial Practices: Evidence for Complex Body and Bone Treatment at the Teouma Cemetery, Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific

ABSTRACT

Excavation of the 3,000-year-old Lapita cemetery of Teouma (Efate, Central Vanuatu) has allowed the first detailed investigation of mortuary practices of these initial colonizers of the Vanuatu archipelago. Focusing on one component of funerary practice: the adult corpse and bone treatment of 25 mortuary contexts recovered at the site during excavations in 2004 and 2005, the present study reveals that beyond a complex procedure common for all the deceased, there is marked diversity of funerary behavior. Utilizing current knowledge and practice regarding the method of field anthropology or archaeothanatology, including the chronology of joint disarticulation sequences, we were able to establish the following practices: treatment of corpses by inhumation in a container—pit or wrappers—not immediately filled with sediment, followed by exhumation of the skull and other bones of the upper part of the skeleton, and secondary deposition of bones, including the cranium. The identified variations reflect particular attitudes toward human remains which might be connected to the social position of the deceased and/or individual choice.

Keywords:

• bioarchaeology
• Lapita
• mortuary behavior
• Vanuatu

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 the ANU and Mr. Ralph Regenvanu, Director of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre until the end of 2006. Funding for the project is acknowledged in full in earlier publications. Thanks to Dr. Christophe Sand (Département Archéologie, New Caledonia) for allowing FV to use unpublished data on the site of Lapita, to Maurice Hardy (CNRS UMR 7041 ArScAn) for assistance in the realization of the illustrations, to Dr. Christopher Knüsel (University of Exeter, UK) and Prof. Ian Lilley (University of Queensland, Australia) for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers and editors for their helpful comments. The support of the leaseholder of Teouma, M. Robert Monvoisin, and family is acknowledged, as is the support and assistance of the traditional landowners and population of Eratap Village.

Notes

1. In the same vein, more complete hands were originally present in at least some burials. In three burials (B1, 19, 25), carpals and phalanges are present while corresponding metacarpals are missing.

2. Efate is situated at slightly less than 18 degrees south of the equator, whereas the ‘Lapita Homeland’ of the Bismarck Archipelago from whence these Vanuatu settlers may have come is about 2–5 degrees south in an area of higher temperature and humidity.