Teouma is an early Lapita culture cemetery, located on the south coast of the island of Efate in Vanuatu. The cemetery was buried more than two feet below the modern surface, and preserved beneath a post-Lapita period shell midden and natural sedimentation. The site is close to the coastal inlet of Teouma Bay, and on the eastern bank of a stream fringed by mangrove trees.
The first Lapita use of the cemetery at Teouma began during the early Lapita phase, ~3100 years before the present (BP); and it was abandoned no later than 2500 BP. The cemetery contains at least 48 burials; the village where these early residents lived has not yet been identified. A shell midden associated with a post-Lapita village overlies and buried the cemetery.
Stable isotope analysis of the human remains at Teouma suggests that the people relied on a mixed economy, using both marine animals (fish, shellfish) and domesticated meat (pigs and chickens), that they must have introduced to the island. In addition, at least four individuals buried in Teouma cemetery were not born on the island; these may represent members of the first wave of Lapita colonization.
Obsidian Patterns at Teouma
Artifacts collected during the excavations included a large number of Lapita pottery sherds, and stone tools and flakes, made of chert, basalt, quartz, and 56 pieces of obsidian, a volcanic glass highly prized by flintknappers world wide for its color and ease of working. The chert, quartz and basalt are most likely of local origin; the obsidian is not local to Vanuatu and had to have been brought with the Lapita colonizers, or traded to them from another place in the region.
Obsidian outcrops have been identified in the Admiralty Islands, West New Britain, Fergusson Island in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands, and the Banks Islands in Vanuatu. Obsidian found in context on Lapita sites throughout Melanesia reflect and refine the previously established massive colonization efforts of the Lapita sailors.
Lapita researcher Christian Reepmeyer used this information to identify the origin of the raw material used by the residents of Teouma to make stone tools as West New Britain, some 1700 nautical miles (2700 km) northwest of Efate. Nearly 90% of the obsidian found at Teouma was from one of five known sources on West New Britain; the remain 10% was from Banks Island sources. The West New Britain obsidian was likely brought to Efate by the original Lapita colonization force; the Banks Islands obsidian likely represents trade.
Most of the obsidian was debitage--the byproduct of stone tool production. Most of the pieces were small with very little cortex was left on the tools. Two formal gravers with alternating retouch along one end were identified.
Teouma was discovered during quarrying activities in 2003, and was excavated between 2004-2006 by the Vanuatu National Museum and the Australian National University, led by Matthew Spriggs, Stuart Bedford, and Ralph Regenvanu. Approximately 275 square meters were excavated over the course of three field seasons.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to the Lapita Culture and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Bentley RA, Buckley HR, Spriggs M, Bedford S, Ottley CJ, Nowell GM, Macpherson CG, and Pearson DG. 2007. Lapita Migrants in The Pacific's Oldest Cemetery: Isotopic Analysis at Teouma, Vanuatu. American Antiquity 72(4):645-656.
Reepmeyer C, Spriggs M, Bedford S, and Ambrose W. 2010. Provenance and Technology of Lithic Artifacts from the Teouma Lapita Site, Vanuatu. Asian Perspectives 49(1):205-225.
Summerhayes GR. 2009. Obsidian network patterns in Melanesia: Sources, characterisation and distribution. IPPA Bulletin 29:109-123.
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.
