Lapita and its Transformations in Near Oceania: Archaeological Investigations in the Mussau Islands, Papua New Guinea, 1985-88

A preface affords an author or editor a privileged space wherein, side-steppingthe narrow scholarly constraints of academic rhetoric, he may self-reflexively comment on the work he has created. The Mussau Project has filled—albeit intermittently—the hours and days of a decade and a half of my life. I take the opportunity thus presented to share a few of what, for me, were some of the more emotionally charged and remark­ able moments, particularly the experiences of fieldwork in the remote, often physically challenging, but always exquisitely beautiful Mussau Islands. Unforgettable is my memory of first sight of Eloaua’s uplifted coral lime­ stone cliffs and forested plateau, seen through a gray dawn from the rail of the Dick Smith Explorer. I recall the curious mix of emotions and thoughts racing through me as the ship pulled closer up the Malle Chan­ nel. How would we be greeted; with reserve and hesi­ tation, even suspicion, perhaps, regarding our unusual work? Would Eloaua’s sites prove to be productive, yielding the sorts of materials we sought so as to an­ swer a host of questions and competing hypotheses? Seemingly mundane problems loomed large for the mo­ ment: would we get all of our gear across the reef safely? What sort of lodgings might be found? Would our chloroquine supply prove an adequate defense against the infamously virulent malaria of New Ireland Province? Except for the latter (I myself came down with malaria at the end of the 1985 season), in the event it turned out I need not have worried, for we were warmly received from the first hour, and subsequent weeks and months of fieldwork based out of Eloaua Village were among some of the most enjoyable I have ever experienced in the Pacific. And, as this volume at­ tests, the archaeological record proved rich beyond expectations.