A Transformed Landscape? The Plant Macrofossil Analysis of a Post-Lapita Site, Melapong, East Efate, Vanuatu

Natasha B. Lyall1*, Anna Florin1,2, and Stuart Bedford1,3

1School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University, Australia; 2ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Futures, Australian National University, Australia; 3Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany; *u7117815@anu.edu.au

The peopling of the islands of Remote Oceania demonstrates both the maritime skill of Lapita peoples, and the complexity of their foodways, which were transported and adapted to these new environments. The ‘transported landscape’ (Green 1973), a suite of domesticated plants and animals taken to Remote Oceania by the Lapita peoples, has been argued to have allowed for the development of gardens, supplementing the exploitation of local flora and fauna and allowing for continued settlement following local declines in marine and faunal resources. However, whilst there is good evidence for the transport of domestic animals with human movements into Remote Oceania, the plant aspect of the proposed ‘transported landscape’ and the subsequent development of horticulture on these islands, is less well understood. Archaeobotanical studies (particularly analysis of plant macrofossils) have not been readily applied in this region of the Pacific, leading to a lower-resolution understanding of human-plant interactions during early settlement. Recently, archaeological excavations have been undertaken on Efate, Vanuatu at Melapong, a 4.6m high midden mound site, dating to the immediately post-Lapita Erueti Phase (2620-2770 yrs cal. BP). Bulk-sediment flotation of a 1x1m section of the mound has returned a rich charred plant macrofossil assemblage. This paper will present on the plant macrofossil material from Melapong, providing new evidence for the use of fruits, nuts, and underground storage organs, and the establishment and transformation of foodways in Vanuatu during its early settlement.