Complexities and diversity in archaeologies of Island Melanesia

Abstract

It has been over 20 years since Spriggs’ (1997) synthesis The Island Melanesians was published. In the ensuing two decades, a massive and accelerating amount of archaeological fieldwork, analysis, and publication has taken place in the region (see Kirch 2017:55–183 for a recently updated synthesis). There have since been a number of synthetic works highlighting the archaeology of specific archipelagos in Island Melanesia, including Vanuatu (Bedford 2006; Bedford and Spriggs 2014), the Solomon Islands (Walter and Sheppard 2017) and Fiji (Burley 2013; Clark and Anderson 2009). There have also been periodic volumes covering the archaeology of the Lapita Cultural Complex, which is a phenomenon primarily located in Island Melanesia, though also in the neighbouring Polynesian archipelagos of Tonga and to a lesser extent Samoa (e.g. Bedford et al. 2007; Sand and Bedford 2010; Sand et al. 2015). As more sites are discovered, the notion of what Lapita is, where it is located and how to interpret possibly related findings remains a matter of vibrant debate.