Lapita culture

Lapita culture appears on the timeline as a people or culture of New Guinea and Melanesia (Oceania) from c. 1600 to 500 BCE, a span of 1,100 years. Its people spoke Austronesian languages (Malay, Javanese, Cham, Tagalog, Malagasy, Polynesian, Maori).

Austronesian voyagers known for dentate-stamped pottery spread from the Bismarck Archipelago to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa between about 1350 and 850 BCE, the first people to settle Remote Oceania.

See Lapita culture on the interactive timeline

Facts

Dates

c. 1600 to 500 BCE

Duration

1,100 years

Type

People or culture

Region

New Guinea and Melanesia, Oceania

Language family

Austronesian

Became

• Island Melanesian societies c. 500 BCE to the present
• Fijian chiefdoms c. 500 BCE to 1874 CE
• Ancestral Polynesian society c. 850 BCE to 1000 CE

Events in Oceania during its time

• 1500 BCE Seafarers settle the Marianas
• 1500 BCE Dingoes reach Australia
• 1000 BCE Lapita voyagers settle Vanuatu and Fiji
• 850 BCE First settlers reach Tonga

Elsewhere in the world at the same time

• Minoan civilization c. 3100 to 1450 BCE, Europe
• Carthage c. 814 to 146 BCE, North and West Africa
• Shang dynasty c. 1600 to 1046 BCE, East Asia
• Roman Republic 509 to 27 BCE, Europe
• New Kingdom of Egypt c. 1550 to 1069 BCE, North and West Africa
• Greek city-states c. 800 to 338 BCE, Europe
• Neo-Assyrian Empire 911 to 609 BCE, Middle East
• Old Babylonian Empire 1894 to 1595 BCE, Middle East
• Hittite Empire (New Kingdom) c. 1400 to 1180 BCE, Middle East
• Achaemenid Empire 550 to 330 BCE, Middle East

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