Emergence of the Lapita cultural complex in the Bismarck Archipelago
- Date
- c. 1500–1300 BCE
- Category
- Social & demographic
- Region
- Bismarck Archipelago (near New Guinea)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
Around 1500–1300 BCE the distinctive Lapita cultural complex crystallised in the Bismarck Archipelago, off the northeast coast of New Guinea, as the easternmost frontier of the Austronesian expansion met the older populations of Near Oceania.
Lapita is defined archaeologically by its elaborate dentate-stamped earthenware, low-fired pottery whose surfaces were impressed with toothed tools to form intricate geometric and anthropomorphic designs, alongside plainware for daily use. The Lapita 'toolkit' also included shell ornaments, polished stone adzes, obsidian tools traded over long distances, and a transported assemblage of domesticated pigs, dogs, chickens and root and tree crops. United by sophisticated outrigger and double-hulled sailing canoes, Lapita communities formed a far-flung maritime network across the southwest Pacific. This cultural foundation, blending Austronesian seafaring traditions with local Melanesian adaptations, would within a few centuries propel humanity's first colonisation of the previously uninhabited islands of Remote Oceania, making the Lapita the direct ancestors of later Polynesian and many Melanesian and Micronesian peoples.
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Empires active in c. 1500–1300 BCE
- New Kingdom of Egypt1550 BCE – 1077 BCE
- Hittite Empire1650 BCE – 1178 BCE
- Shang Dynasty1600 BCE – 1046 BCE
- Mitanni1500 BCE – 1300 BCE
- Elamite Kingdom2700 BCE – 539 BCE
Related social & demographic events
- Indo-Aryan Migration into South Asiac. 1500 BCE
- Early Bantu Expansion from the Cameroon–Nigeria Highlandsc. 1000 BCE
- Plague of Athens430–426 BCE
- Anatomically modern Homo sapiens appears in Africac. 300,000 years ago
- Antonine Plague165-180 CE
- Rise of the Yamnaya Culture and Steppe Pastoralismc. 3300 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
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