| Abstract: |
Between 1990 and the present, survey and test excavations have been successful in docmenting sites with early eastern Lapita ceramics in the Ha'apai islands, kingdom of Tonga. Although the data currently are in a preliminary stage of analysis, they illustrate consistent patterning in site characteristics, site content, and temporal relations. The early eastern Lapita. The early eastern Lapita period of Ha'apai dates between circa 3000 and 2800 bp and is characterized by a variety of vessel forms with numerous dentate stamped and other decorative applications. Sites are small in spatial extent and they are consistently located on a leeward coast sand beach fronting a reef. Early Lapita faunal assemblages illustrate a heavy reliance on natural ressources, seemingly indicative of a "strand looper" type adaptation. Evidence for exchange in ceramics, lithic materials, or exotic trade goods has not been recovered. Ha'apai Lapita sites, as others in Fiji/west Polynesia, do not correlate well with proposed models for western or far western Lapita culture and economy.
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