Lapita Cemetery Teouma

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The Lapita Cemetery of Teouma (short: Teouma ) is an important archaeological site on Teouma Bay on the island of Éfaté in Vanuatu . The site contains the oldest known cemetery in Polynesia and played an important role in collecting information related to the Lapita culture of the ninth and tenth centuries BC. Chr.

archeology

The site is located approx. 800 m away from Teouma Bay , in the southeast of the island of Efate. In late 2003, 26 burial sites with a total of 36 burials were discovered at the site. The cemetery is estimated to be 3200 to 3000 years old. A common element of these burials is the presence of fragments of reddish clay ware with intricate designs (patterns). The dead were buried in different positions. However, the skulls were removed after the periodontal ligaments were broken down. They were by cone snails replaced rings (cone shell rings), suggesting a Zeremonialkultur.

Isotope analysis

Isotope surveys were carried out on individual bones in order to investigate the characteristics of migration in the Asia- Pacific region during this period. The researchers were able to examine isotopes from 17 different individuals. It was found that four of the individuals had different isotope levels while the remaining 13 were relatively uniform. It has been suggested that these four individuals were immigrants.

Genetic analysis

In 2016, researchers succeeded in extracting the DNA from the temporal bone of three individuals from the Teouma burial site. This was the first successful DNA extraction from ancient samples from the tropics. The remains date from around 3,110 to 2,710 years.

DNA analysis confirmed that all three individuals were female. All of them also belonged to Haplogroup B4a1a1a , the typical Polynesian motif group.

Further analysis of the aDNA showed that the three individuals agree with other samples of the Lapita culture, which are between 2,680 and 2,340 years old and come from Talasiu , Tongatapu , Tonga ; all appear as a clearly differentiated population from today's population.

Compared to modern populations, the ancient Teouma and Talasiu specimens are most closely related to the Amis and Atayal populations of Taiwan , and the Kankanaey (Igorot) populations of the northern Philippines , while having little in common with the Papuans .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b R. Alexander Bentley, Hallie R. Buckley , Matthew Spriggs , Stuart Bedford, Chris J. Ottley, Geoff M. Newell, Colin G. Macpherson, D. Graham Pearson: Lapita Migrants in the Pacific's Oldest Cemetery: Isotope Analysis at Teouma, Vanuatu. In: American Antiquity. 2007 vol. 72, 4: 645-656. (doi = 10.2307 / 25470438)
  2. ↑ a b Richard Stone: Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Congress In: Science , April 21, 2006, vol. 312, New Series 5772: 360-361. (doi = 10.1126 / science.312.5772.360a)
  3. ↑ a b c d P. Skoglund, C. Posth, K. Sirak, M. Spriggs, F. Valentin, S. Bedford, GA Clark, C. Reepmeyer, F. Petchey, D. Fernandes, Q. Fu, E. Harney, M. Lipson, S. Mallick, M. Novak, N. Rohland, K. Stewardson, S. Abdullah, MP Cox, FR Friedlaender, JS Friedlaender, T. Kivisild, G. Koki, P. Kusuma, DA Merriwether, FX. Ricaut, JTS Wee, N. Patterson, J. Krause, R. Pinhasi, D. Reich: Ancient genomics and the peopling of the southwest Pacific. In: Nature , 2016 vol. 538, 7626: 510-513 (doi = 10.1038 / nature19844)
  4. ↑ Origins of Vanuatu and Tonga's first people revealed. In: Australian National University October 4, 2016
  5. Jump up ↑ F. Petchey, M. Spriggs, S. Bedford, F. Valentin, H. Buckley: Direct radiocarbon dating of burials from the Teouma Lapita cemetery, Efate, Vanuatu. In: Journal of Archaeological Science. 2014 vol. 50: 277-242. (doi = 10.1016 / j.jas.2014.07.002)

literature

  • Stuart Bedford & al .: The Teouma Lapita site and the early human settlement of the Pacific Islands. ( [1] ) 2006.
  • Stuart Bedford & al .: The excavation, conservation and reconstruction of Lapita burial pots from the Teouma site, Efate, Central Vanuatu. ( pdf )
  • Susan Hayes & al .: Faces of the Teouma Lapita People: Art, Accuracy and Facial Approximation. In: Leonardo , 2009, Vol. 42, No.3: 284-285. ( [2] )

Web links

Coordinates: 17 ° 47 ′ 8.2 ″  S , 168 ° 23 ′ 10.3 ″  E