Tracking the Dynamics of human Colonisation and Adaptation in Central Vanuatu: Preliminary Results From Excavation and Survey at Pangpang, East Efate

ABSTRACT In October 2022 an extensive archaeological landscape was identified by staff of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre at Pangpang on the east coast of Efate Island in central Vanuatu. It included midden deposits on the banks of the Pangpang River near the sea at Forari Bay where Lapita and Early Erueti‐style pottery sherds were recovered. Later Mangaasi‐style pottery was found nearby and further inland across much of the wider landscape. This is the only location on Efate where the full pottery sequence, and hence 1600 years of occupation dating from first arrival, has been identified in a restricted location. Later survey of former settlements across the valley indicates that the region was heavily populated before European contact. Survey and excavations in 2023 confirmed that the wider Pangpang landscape has the potential for tracking the dynamics of first human arrival and subsequent adaptation in Central Vanuatu over three millennia.