The beginning of southern Melanesian prehistory: The St Maurice-Vatcha Lapita site, New Caledonia

The peopling of the Western Pacific south of the Solomon Islands started wi th the spread of Austronesian populations more than 3000 years ago. The ini tial colonization of Remote Oceania is archaeologically linked to the Lapit a Cultural Complex, identified at more than 1000 major sites from Island Pa pua-New Guinea to Western Polynesia by a distinctive type of dentate-stampe d decorated pottery and associated items. Until the last decade, Lapita sit es of New Caledonia, the southernmost archipelago of Melanesia, had been po orly studied, leading to unsatisfactory conclusions about the characteristi cs and the length of the founding cultural complex. New excavations underta ken at the most southerly Lapita site of the Pacific, the St Maurice-Vatcha site on the Isle of Pines, shed new light on the matter. Although one of t he first Lapita sites identified int he region and excavated by different t eams over the years, its stratigraphy, chronology, and artifacts were not w ell understood. The new excavations have led to a precise understanding of the stratigraphy, and a large set of new C-14 dates have firmly established Lapita chronology. The study of the archaeological material helps to test the proposal of a 'Southern Lapita Province', characterizing the earliest s ites of southern Melanesia.