Owner of jewel box.
Posted on 04/22/2008 2:59:43 PM PDT by blam
Fiji jewellery box find stuns archeologists
22 APR 2008
Archeologists have discovered a 3000-year-old pot in Fiji containing jewellery believed to have been made by the South Pacific’s original settlers – the Lapita people.
The discovery was made by an excavation party from the Fiji-based University of the South Pacific and the Fiji Museum at Bourewa in Natadola on the Coral Coast.
The dig at Bourewa, which is the earliest human settlement in Fiji, unearthed the pot and a thick piece of “exquisitely decorated pottery”.
The Lapita people were the first colonists of Pacific Island groups, including the eastern Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
The descendants of the Lapita people, who disappeared as a distinct cultural group around 550 BC, live in these countries today.
Fiji Museum's Sepeti Matararaba found the jewellery made of shells. "As Sepeti continued excavating, he found in the middle of these two rows an upturned pot," says USP’s School of Geography's Professor Patrick Nunn.
"It was filled with shell jewellery. Nine shell rings of different sizes, four shell bracelets, six straight units with drill-holes."
Another researcher also found a pot.
Professor Nunn said when she got it out she was initially disappointed because it seemed to have no decoration on it.
Then she turned it over.
"She saw the most extraordinary find ever made in Fiji," Professor Nunn said.
Cut into it was the eyes and nose Lapita motif, made of very fine dots and all in-filled with lime.
Excavations involved more than 70 people, including 38 students from the University of the South Pacific.
The project was directed by Professor Nunn from the School of Geography at the University of the South Pacific, supported by Roselyn Kumar from the University and Matararaba.
Researchers from universities in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, USA and UK were also involved.
Somebody has to start a fund to provide cameras to archaeologists.
Yeah... but then we would probably be getting a whole bunch of pics from Coprilite Archaeologists.
Bad boy! Go sit in the corner!
Let the punishment fit the crime...hang him.
That’s what they call “Fiji Ugly.”
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Thanks Blam. |
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The piece of obsidian found by Professor Nunn’s team at Bourewa in southwest Viti Levu (Fiji) in July 2005. This obsidian – a type of volcanic glass – is not found in Fiji. This particular piece has been sourced to the Kutao Bao mine in Papua New Guinea, nearly 4500 kilometres away, from where it was carried to Bourewa by some of the first people in Fiji, probably around 1000 BC
The head of ‘Mana’, the Lapita-era woman from Naitabale on Moturiki Island in central Fiji, discovered during USP-led research in 2002. Head reconstruction was carried at Kyoto University in Japan. The head is now on display at USP.
A tall, heavy set people.
That cartoon is probably more accurate than we realize. Well, except for the time machine part.
Who writes this stuff?
Nice post!
Thanks!
I can’t find it.
Whoah!
What tha ........??????
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