Investigating the raw materials used for Lapita and post-Lapita pottery manufacturing: a chemical characterisation of ceramic collections from Vanuatu
Date
2016
Authors
Leclerc, Mathieu
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Abstract
The Lapita pottery displaying dentate stamped decorations is at
the core of our actual understanding of the human colonisation of
Oceania about 3000 years ago. One of the ways to extract
information about these past societies is by characterising the
ceramic collections and examining the chemical compositions of
the various vessels. This project examines the compositional
similarities and dissimilarities of early pottery assemblages in
Vanuatu. Connecting the technological styles with contextual
cultural information, such as decorations or vessel forms, lead
to a better understanding of the technological choices faced
during pottery production. These decisions are taken following
the culturally accepted rules embodied in the production process
and consequently, this study allows a better understanding of
significant parts of the socio-political and economic aspects of
Lapita and post-Lapita societies.
Results show that the vast majority of the Lapita and post-Lapita
ceramic vessels analysed were produced locally. The homogeneity
of the dentate-stamped decorations across Lapita sites reveals
that ideas were transferred more than objects and that the
ideological signification of these vessels was more important
than their economic value.
It is also evident from the results that the compositional
variability observed in earlier Lapita ceramic collection is much
more significant than what is observed from the more recent
assemblages. This variability of technological styles for Lapita
pots is generally seen as a consequence resulting from mobile
settlement patterns. However, the important natural variability
of the raw materials used to produce pottery demonstrates that
this mobility is generally restricted to a relatively small-scale
since not much movement or geographical distance would be
required to produce compositional profiles corresponding to the
results. From a political economy perspective, the significant
variability of Lapita technological styles demonstrates that
there wasn’t any apparent control or imposed limitations over
access to the raw materials used to produce pottery and that
there was no specialised production. It also suggests that a
technological exploratory phase probably followed the arrival of
Lapita potters on previously unoccupied islands with unfamiliar
raw materials.
The important decrease in varieties of technological styles
between Lapita and immediately post-Lapita assemblages combined
with the almost exclusive usage of local materials by post-Lapita
potters support the idea that a general regionalisation process
was occurring at the time when dentate stamped pottery stopped
being produced. The almost systematic absence of decoration and
the technological homogeneity in immediately post-Lapita ceramic
collections are in such contrast with Lapita decorations and the
fracture between both so clean that it should be seen as a
strategy to differentiate the subsequent cultural production from
the former Lapita political, economic and religious structures.
Overall, the combined modification of both the decorative and
technological style between Lapita and immediately post-Lapita
indicates that some major social transformation occurred, as has
been already suggested by others.
In terms of methodological contribution, this study shows that
LA-ICP-MS represents an excellent analytical technique to gather
bulk compositional profiles of ceramic assemblages and that it
represents a viable alternative to petrography.
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Keywords
Lapita, Post-Lapita, Vanuatu, Archaeology, Raw materials, Chemical characterisation, Chemical characterization, Pottery, Ceramics, Technological style, LA-ICP-MS
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