Powerful scientific technology has helped University of Otago
researchers to show that some of the likely ancestors of
Polynesians were eating fruit bats and chickens in Vanuatu
3000 years ago.
Otago University scientists used stable isotope ratio methods
to study 3000-year-old skeletons, and to cast new light on
the diet and lives of the enigmatic Lapita people, the likely
ancestors of Polynesians.
A key part of the study involved analysing stable isotope
ratios of three elements - carbon, nitrogen and sulphur - in
the bone collagen of 49 adults buried at the Teouma
archaeological site on Vanuatu's Efate Island, research
This site was the oldest known cemetery in the Pacific.
''This is a powerful analytic tool,'' study lead author Dr
Rebecca Kinaston said of the isotope research.
''It definitely tells you information that you could never
gain from any other archaeological resource,'' she said.
She was ''very happy'' and grateful that she could do the
isotope analysis work involving ''such an important site''.
The findings, just published in the international journal
PLOS ONE, suggest that the early Lapita settlers of Vanuatu
ate reef fish, marine turtles, fruit bats, free-range pigs
And the settlers were not primarily relying on growing crops
for human food and animal fodder.
Dr Kinaston and colleague Associate Prof Hallie Buckley, at
the Otago anatomy department, undertook the research in
collaboration with the Vanuatu National Museum and
researchers from France and Australia.
This was the most detailed analysis of Lapita diet to be
undertaken and helped clear up a long-running debate about
how the Lapita settlers sustained themselves during their
eastward drive across the Pacific, Dr Kinaston said.