From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 3, September 2000.

The mystery of where the Tongan people came from 3000 years ago, continues to intrigue scholars from around the world. Helping to trace the origin of our ancestors, their way of life, and their migration from Tonga to the rest of Polynesia, a group of Japanese scholars visited Tonga in mid-August in preparation for a two-year research program, which they hoped to start in August 2001.

The leader of the group, Dr Kazumichi Katayama, a professor of Physical Anthropology, Department of Morphology and Evolution, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, said that the current theory was that the first settlers of the South Pacific were the Lapita people, and so their origins should have been from somewhere in the East or South-east Asia. He said that Tonga was the first place they settled around 3000 years ago. From Tonga these Lapita people migrated to the rest of Western Polynesia and also eastward to Eastern Polynesia.

Lapita pottery

The linking of the ancient Tongans to East and South east Asia was based on linguistic evidences and on pottery that had been found in abundance in Tonga, and some in Samoa and the Lau Group.

Kazumichi has carried out research in the Cook Islands since 1985 and has recently published a book of vocabulary on the Cook Islands language. He said that no Lapita pottery had been found in Eastern Polynesia and it supported the theory that ancient Tongan, Lapita people brought the Lapita pottery with them from Asia, and because they did not have the necessary material for making pottery, they then developed the ‘umu cooking method. So when they moved to Eastern Polynesia they did not take with them any pottery, and that is why no Lapita pottery can be found in Eastern Polynesia.

Blood samples

The Japanese research group was divided into three—an Archaeology Team, an Anthropology Team and a third team to collect blood and nail samples.

Kazumichi said that the most worthwhile result expected from this project was for them to be able to collect biological and cultural data on the past Lapita people through the anthropology and archaeological analyses of human skeletal remains and artefacts, which could be obtained by stratigraphical excavation.

This research project is the second to be carried out in Tonga by the Kyoto University, the first was 40 years ago by Ishige, who is now 60.