TY - JOUR
T1 - Lapita migrants in the pacific's oldest cemetery
T2 - Isotopic analysis at teouma, vanuatu
AU - Bentley, R. Alexander
AU - Buckley, Hallie R.
AU - Spriggs, Matthew
AU - Bedford, Stuart
AU - Ottley, Chris J.
AU - Nowell, Geoff M.
AU - Macpherson, Colin G.
AU - Pearson, D. Graham
PY - 2007/10
Y1 - 2007/10
N2 - Teouma, an archaeological site on Efate Island, Vanuatu, features the earliest cemetery yet discovered of the colonizers of Remote Oceania, from the late second millennium B. C. In order to investigate potential migration of seventeen human individuals, we measured isotopes of strontium ( 87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18O), and carbon (δ13C), as well as barium (Ba) and strontium (Sr) concentrations, in tooth enamel from skeletons excavated in the first two field seasons. The majority of individuals cluster with similar isotope and Ba/Sr ratios, consistent with a diet of marine resources supplemented with plants grown on the local basaltic soils. Four outliers, with distinctive 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O, are probably immigrants, three of which were buried in a distinctive position (supine, with the head to the south) with higher Ba/Sr and δ13C, consistent with a terrestrial, nonlocal diet. Among the probable immigrants was a male buried with the crania of three of the locally raised individuals on his chest.
AB - Teouma, an archaeological site on Efate Island, Vanuatu, features the earliest cemetery yet discovered of the colonizers of Remote Oceania, from the late second millennium B. C. In order to investigate potential migration of seventeen human individuals, we measured isotopes of strontium ( 87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18O), and carbon (δ13C), as well as barium (Ba) and strontium (Sr) concentrations, in tooth enamel from skeletons excavated in the first two field seasons. The majority of individuals cluster with similar isotope and Ba/Sr ratios, consistent with a diet of marine resources supplemented with plants grown on the local basaltic soils. Four outliers, with distinctive 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O, are probably immigrants, three of which were buried in a distinctive position (supine, with the head to the south) with higher Ba/Sr and δ13C, consistent with a terrestrial, nonlocal diet. Among the probable immigrants was a male buried with the crania of three of the locally raised individuals on his chest.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=36749102017&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2307/25470438
DO - 10.2307/25470438
M3 - Article
SN - 0002-7316
VL - 72
SP - 645
EP - 656
JO - American Antiquity
JF - American Antiquity
IS - 4
ER -