Lapita is the name given to an archaeological culture, known above all from its distinctive pottery, which was decorated with stamped geometric patterns made with a tool with teeth. It appeared in the Bismarck Archipelago, off New Guinea, and spread rapidly east through Melanesia to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. The Lapita people were skilled seafarers and traders who carried pigs, chickens, dogs and root crops by canoe to islands never before inhabited. Their language was an Austronesian one, and they are considered the ancestors of the Polynesians, whose later settlement of the Pacific started from Tonga and Samoa. The name comes from a site on New Caledonia.
Before and after
- from 16th century BCE to 5th century BCEVedic period
- 16th century BCEVedas
- from 16th century BCE to 3rd century BCEMumun pottery period
- from 16th century BCE to 1st century BCENok culture
- from c. 1,500 BCE to 500 BCELapita
- c. 1,500 BCERigveda
- c. 1,500 BCEOrigins of Zoroastrianism
- c. 1,460 BCEEruption of Taupo
- c. 1,400 BCEOlmecas
More in Evolution & life
- from 30th century BCE to 18th century BCEMari
- from c. 2,600s BCE to 2,200s BCEBell beaker culture
- from c. 1,200 BCE to 450 BCEHallstatt culture
- from c. 1,200 BCE to 800 BCEUrnfield culture
- from 450 BCE to 15 CELa Tène culture
- from c. 100 CE to 700 CEMoche culture
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 15th century BCE.