'Lapita' is a name taken from the pottery used by early island settlers of Melanesia and western Polynesia. Around 1500 BC, the Lapita population and culture rapidly expanded over 2500 mls (4000 km) into the Pacific. It is thought that Lapita colonists came from Island South-East Asia. Their red-slipped pottery is distinctive and intricately designed but bears some similarities to pottery found in Island South-East Asia.
Lapita populations also used the volcanic rock, obsidian, from Melanesia, and they made a vast range of shell ornaments and fish hooks. They brought with them cultivated plants and domesticated animals, and were highly skilled navigators.
Colonization was probably achieved by return voyaging, and there seems to have been much interaction between various Lapita island communities.
The Lapita people were the ancestors of the Polynesians, who continued the colonization of the Pacific from 1000 BC to AD 1000. Lapita people also featured heavily in the genetic and cultural heritage of the Melanesian island populations east of Papua New Guinea.
