Aftr a six-year analysis of skulls discovered at a 3,000-year-old Vanuatu cemetery, researchers from the Australian National University may have uncovered a clue that will lead to learning more about the origins of Polynesian people, according to ABC News. Matthew Spriggs, who was a part of the team that conducted the excavation from 2004 to 2010, claims that the excavation lead to the discovery of approximately 68 graves, although they only found seven heads.
"The heads were removed as part of burial rituals and were taken away and put elsewhere," Spriggs told ABC News. "But luckily for us, some of them were brought back in the cemetery and put on the chests of other bodies, or between their legs, or in pots sitting on top of other bodies."
This discovery helps scientists understand the Polynesian migration from South-East Asia through Melanesia and into Polynesia. During this migration, little to no mixing occurred in the early generations with the Melanesian populations located in Papua New Guinea or with the Solomons, who resided in the region for the preceding 50,000 years.
For years, scientists have tried to understand how the Nation spread itself so far over the ocean, with populations seen in south New Zealand, islands to the North, and all the way from Easter Island to the Hebrides, according to The Guardian.
The latest findings shed light on the fact that most of the skulls in the Vanuatu graveyard are connected to the western Pacific's Melanesian ethnic group but the oldest skill, which is approximately 3,000 years old, was more aligned with modern Polynesisn and Asian populations. This evidence identifies these skulls as originating from the ancient Lapita culture, which has already been connected to modern Polynesian settlers.
Further examination of DNA obtained from the skulls of the Vanuatu skeletons could reveal even more information on Polynesian ancestry, according to Archaeology Magazine.
The findings were published in the Nov. 24 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
