Prehistoric Study on Evolutionary Processes of the Lapita People to Polynesians in the South Pacific

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Aiming to elucidate the population and life of the Lapita people who were the ancestoral group of native inhabitants in the South Pacific area including Polynesians, we intended to advance interdisciplinary researches from the viewpoints of biological anthropology, prehistory, archaeology, ecological anthropology, human genetics, chronology, earth sciences and so on. We carried out several kinds of field work on the Ha'apai islands in Tonga Kingdom, the Savai'i island in Samoa and theMoturiki island in Fiji, collected scientific data related on each investigator's discipline, and analyzed those data in each laboratory vigorously. At the same time, some of us visited several museums and the institutions concerned which are situated in Polynesia and the western coast of South America, and investigated the museum materials to make clearer ancient long-voyaging activities by the Lapita people and ancestral Polynesians. Special mention should be put on the following points. First, our prehi … More story and archaeology group explored a very promising archaeological site on the Moturiki island in Fiji, and excavated lots of Lapita-designed pottery sherds and a human skeletal remains with the Lapita potteries. The skeleton (named 'Mana') was very well preserved especially with the skull, and found to be one of the most intact Lapita-associated skeletons thus fur unearthed. This skeleton was thoroughly investigated in Japan from an anthropological perspective, and based on the investigations, we were successful in its making-face reconstruction firstly in the world. As a result, the anthropological characters of the Lapita people became more detailed, and it was found that they were quite Asiatic in some aspects as well as quite similar to the present Polynesians. Second, our somatometric research demonstrated that Polynesians were very big in their feet and the biggest-foot group, and it was inferred that the character was inherited from the ancestral Lapita people. Third, we materialized test excavations twice on the Savai'i Island in Samoa, collecting of very detailed data at Kauai Island in Tonga to reconstruct ancient fishing activities, and sampling of blood for more than 100 individuals in Tongatapu, Tonga. Of these research results, the making-face reconstruction of the Lapita people should be evaluated as the most important success. Less