Archaeological Studies of the Middle and Late Holocene, Papua New Guinea. Part III. The Lagenda Lapita site (FCR/FCS), Talasea area
Abstract
The FCR/FCS site has played a major role in defining the history of Lapita pottery in the Bismarck Archipelago region of Island Melanesia, but hitherto few details have been published about the site. As the site has been largely destroyed, information about it is dependent on surface collections only. The pottery includes a range of dentate-stamped and incised designs comparable with other Lapita sites of the region, particularly in the Arawe Islands of south New Britain. It lacks several features of form and decoration present in the surface collections of FEA on Boduna Island in the Talasea area and those excavated in Area B of the ECA site on Eloaua Island, Mussau group. The start and end dates for pottery use can only be defined by comparisons with other sites. These suggest a starting date of about 3300–3000 cal. bp and an end-date no later than 2900–2600 cal. bp, though several sherds may be of slightly later date.
