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The Pacific's earliest painted pottery: an added layer of intrigue to the Lapita debate and beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Stuart Bedford
Stuart Bedford*
Affiliation:
*Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Asian and Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia (Email: stuart.bedford@anu.edu.au)
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Extract

Lapita pottery, the herald of the settlement of the wider island Pacific, turns out to have been painted with lime and clay, to give a red and white finish over the decorated surface. The find of a pot in Vanuatu, its sherds in different states of deterioration showed why painted Lapita has previously gone unrecognised. The author suggests that it was widespread from 1000 BC and reminds us that pottery was painted in China 7000 years ago.

Keywords

painted potteryLapitaVanuatutaphonomy

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Type
Research
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Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 309 , 1 September 2006 , pp. 544 - 557
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

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