Morning session - part 1 9:15-10:45
Lipids, Lapita, and Lore
Mathieu Leclerc (1) - Karine Taché (2) - Anne-Julie Bilodeau (3)
Australian National University, School of Archaeology & Anthropology, Canberra, Australia (1) - Canada Chair in Biomolecular Archaeology, Université Laval, Québec, Canada (2) - Historical Sciences, Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada. (3)
Keywords: Pottery, Residue, Vanuatu
Pottery was introduced in Remote Oceania around 3,000 years ago by communities known as Lapita peoples who settled on large island groups from New Guinea to Tonga and Samoa. Despite being the most frequent artefact left by the past societies who inhabited the 4,000 km chain of Oceanic islands, little is known about how the pottery vessels were used, particularly the foods and products that were cooked and stored in them.
We are presenting here the results from the analysis of lipids preserved in archaeological pottery from the Lapita cemetery site of Teouma (2870–2920 BP), in Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific. We compare pots of different forms and decorative styles to assess potential variations in use.
Lapita pottery is often viewed as carrying ideological meaning, particularly through its distinctive dentate-stamped decorations. By analysing the residues in highly decorated pots associated with burials and comparing them to those in undecorated pots, we provide direct evidence for this hypothesis. To refine our interpretation, we compare these results with experimental cooking vessels.
This pilot study lays the groundwork for a new 3-year project integrating lipid analysis with traditional knowledge from Vanuatu communities, among the few in the Pacific where traditional pottery manufacture has continued into the 21st century.
