The Earliest Human Settlement in the Fiji Islands

Abstract

In December 2003, with funding from the University of the South Pacific, a 17-person team led by the three authors conducted research into the early human occupation of the beach and the adjoining coastal flat at Rove, a few kilometres northwest of Natadola in the southwest part of Viti Levu Island. The site at Rove was not selected randomly. In the preceding 18 months, it had been visited twice by Roselyn Kumar who had recovered three pieces of Lapita pottery from the shore flat at low tide. The Lapita era is the earliest in the human history of Fiji (and many other western Pacific island groups), and is often recognized by the distinctively-decorated (so-called dentate-stamped) pottery that was made during that time. The three pieces of Lapita pottery from Rove were described by Kumar et al. (2004a) and were sufficient to make the area worth excavating. Yet the excavations we carried out in December 2003 at Rove were a little disappointing. There was certainly a Lapita settlement at Rove, and it was located on a tiny island off the main island at the time, but the radiocarbon dates showed that it was probably established only quite late in the Lapita history of Fiji, perhaps around 700 BC.