Much of the recent debate over the Lapita has been focused on the origins of the culture. The Lapita culture has long been associated with Austronesian speakers, but a search for a place where the master seafarers came from has been fruitless.
Recent cave research has determined that the Lapita were not the first humans to live on many of the islands of the Pacific, and in fact some sites in Near Oceania and Australia are dated to 40,000 years ago. But the cultural resonance of the Lapita face, whether it indeed represents a turtle in some of its reincarnations, is in itself reminiscent of the lure of the Lapita culture.
Sources
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Clark G, and Murray T. 2006. Decay characteristics of the eastern Lapita design system. Archaeology in Oceania 41:107-117.
Kirch PV. 1987. Lapita and Oceanic cultural origins: Excavations in the Mussau Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, 1985. Journal of Field Archaeology 14(2):163-180.
Terrell JE. 2004. The ‘sleeping giant’ hypothesis and New Guinea’s place in the prehistory of Greater Near Oceania. World Archaeology 36(4):601-609.
Terrell JE, and Schechter EM. 2007. Deciphering the Lapita Code: the Aitape Ceramic Sequence and Late Survival of the 'Lapita face'. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 17(01):59-85.
Valentin F, Buckley HR, Herrscher E, Kinaston R, Bedford S, Spriggs M, Hawkins S, and Neal K. 2010. Lapita subsistence strategies and food consumption patterns in the community of Teouma (Efate, Vanuatu). Journal of Archaeological Science 37(8):1820-1829.
