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An isotopic analysis of Late Lapita and State Period diets in Tonga

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Abstract

Tonga is a Polynesian island chain that was initially colonized by the Lapita culture about 2700 years ago. Its inhabitants went on to found the Tongan State about 700 years ago. Our project uses carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses to investigate and compare the diets of Lapita and Tongan State individuals. Sampled burial locations include the Talasiu shell midden cemetery dating to the Late Lapita period as well as four burial mounds on Tongatapu, Tonga, thought to date to the Tongan State period (700–100 BP) and two isolated burials. New bone collagen δ13C and δ15N results were obtained from 65 individuals and analyzed along with previously published carbon and nitrogen stable isotope results. Fifteen new radiocarbon dates on bone from five locations within Tongatapu are also reported. We show that low to moderate diagenesis in our samples tends to increase δ13C but does not have a directional bias for δ15N. Isotopic data that pass diagenesis checks strongly support a substantial marine component within the Late Lapita diet in Tonga, which is similar to the early Lapita diet at Teouma but differs from other Late Lapita data. Stable isotope and radiocarbon evidence indicate that Tongan State individuals had a more strongly terrestrial diet, and that elite and non-elite diets were similar during the Tongan State. We also show that the transition to a more terrestrial diet may have happened near the start of the Tongan State period.

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Data availability

All relevant human data is included in the article or Supplementary Material. Faunal isotope data is provided in Herrscher et al. (2018).

Notes

  1. Petchey et al. (2011) actually report 1458 ± 3 BP, but it is clear from the context that 1458 ± 30 BP was intended.

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Acknowledgments

Project investigations contributed to the development of the World Heritage nomination file for the Lapaha-Talasiu area requested by the Government of Tonga (Ministry of Tourism, Culture Division) and to the capacity of the Lapaha community to manage and record archaeological burial sites. We thank the Lapaha Community and Nobles (His Serene Highness Prince Kalaniuvalu Fotofili, Her Serene Highness Princess Marcella Taumoepeau Tupou Kalaniuvalu Fotofili, and Her Royal Highness Mele Siu’ilikutapu Kalaniuvalu Fotofili) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Government of Tonga). The Tongan Ministry of Internal Affairs granted permission for export and analysis of human remains for this project. Many of the ARCH8040 collagen extractions were performed by the students listed in supplemental Appendix 4. This research including archaeological excavation and isotopic analysis was funded by the MAEDI and CNRS for Frédérique Valentin and an Australian Research Council grant to Geoffrey Clark (FT0990591). All data that support the findings of this study are available in the online supplementary material published with this article or, for faunal comparisons, in Herrscher et al. (2018).

Funding

Australian Research Council grant was given to Geoffrey Clark (FT0990591); MAEDI and CNRS support was provided for Frédérique Valentin .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, 2601, Australia

    Jack N. Fenner & Geoffrey Clark

  2. Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, Minist Culture, LAMPEA, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Estelle Herrscher

  3. UMR 7041-ArScAn-Ethnologie Préhistorique, CNRS, Nanterre, France

    Frédérique Valentin

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  1. Jack N. Fenner
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  2. Estelle Herrscher
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  3. Frédérique Valentin
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  4. Geoffrey Clark
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Correspondence to Jack N. Fenner.

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Fenner, J.N., Herrscher, E., Valentin, F. et al. An isotopic analysis of Late Lapita and State Period diets in Tonga. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 13, 22 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01267-z

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