Abstract

Walpole Island, the southernmost island of Melanesia, is a spectacular raised limestone formation 135 km south of the Loyalty Islands within the New Caledonian archipelago. Occupied by enormous numbers of seabirds when the first westerners landed, this rocky spot was mined for guano. Workers frequently reported archaeological finds that indicated prehistoric occupation and an early collection of artefacts was sent to the Australian Museum in Sydney. Over the last 30 years, research on the archaeological heritage of the island has been carried out through the study of museum collections and excavations. This paper reports the results of recent stratigraphic excavations, and synthesizes current archaeological knowledge about the human occupation of Walpole spanning at least 2,500 years.

 
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Bibliographic Data

Short Form
Sand, 2004, Rec. Aust. Mus., Suppl. 29: 109–122
Author
Christophe Sand
Year
2004
Title
Walpole, a "Mystery Island" in southeast New Caledonia? In A Pacific Odyssey: Archaeology and Anthropology in the Western Pacific. Papers in Honour of Jim Specht
Serial Title
Records of the Australian Museum, Supplement
Volume
29
Start Page
109
End Page
122
DOI
10.3853/j.0812-7387.29.2004.1407
Language
en
Date Published
19 May 2004
Cover Date
19 May 2004
ISBN
ISBN 0-9750476-2-0 (printed), ISBN 0-9750476-3-9 (online)
ISSN (print)
0812-7387
CODEN
RAMSEZ
Publisher
The Australian Museum
Place Published
Sydney, Australia
Subjects
ANTHROPOLOGY
Digitized
19 May 2004
Available Online
19 May 2004
Reference Number
1407
EndNote
1407.enw
Title Page
1407.pdf
File size: 11kB
Complete Work
1407_complete.pdf
File size: 1709kB