Shards of Lapita pottery, terra cotta, ca. 1000 AD, Solomon Islands.The Lapita culture is famous for

Shards of Lapita pottery, terra cotta, ca. 1000 AD, Solomon Islands.

The Lapita culture is famous for its very refined ceramics. The designs on these shards were made using a stippling technique and this specific style is believed to be at the root of Polynesian aesthetics. The Lapitas spread throughout the Pacific and colonized previously uninhabited islands in Melanesia and Polynesia. Modern Polynesian peoples are the descendants of the Lapitas, who changed their way of life after their establishment on new islands: the Lapita culture then evolved and became the ‘Hawaiki’, the Ancestral Polynesian Society. The newly isolated Polynesians slowly abandoned the Lapita style and started to produce plainware ceramics: this major change is a clear rupture between the former Lapita culture and the new Hawaiki.

Courtesy of teara.govt.nz.