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Several studies of the biological affinities of the people show that this community was the result of multiple contacts with a variety of different people in the immediate area and further afield, as is also shown by the material culture. The highly uneven distribution of these ornaments, found with some women and babies as well as men, suggests that status in this small-scale society was inherited. The excavation of a burial mound provide both abundant evidence of the people themselves during the last millennium and a rich inventory of shell ornaments, which show strong parallels with Santa Cruz collections in museums around the world.

A few archaeological items of European material culture reflect this early contact. The authors draw on the accounts from Quiros’ voyage in AD 1606 to sketch a picture of the island society at that time. Taumako was also the scene of early contact with European voyagers.

Taumako is the home of the famous Tepuke sailing canoe and the excavations revealed evidence of a high level of interaction with other Pacific communities, both near and far. The project was part of a wider interdisciplinary investigation of the Southeast Solomon and Santa Cruz Islands.The authors describe a 3,000-year sequence of continuity and change on Taumako, based on four excavations. This lavishly illustrated volume describes the results of archaeological research carried out on the Polynesian Outlier of Taumako in the Santa Cruz Group (Temotu Province) of Solomon Islands in 1977–1978.

EF Commander 2023.08 download the new version