2012 was the last year of a major 5-year ARC-funded archaeology project in Vanuatu co-directed with Stuart Bedford in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.  Professor Spriggs' fieldwork participation involved a graduate field school on Santo Island, investigating a late Lapita site (c.2700 BP), the discovery on Aneityum, the southernmost inhabited island in Vanuatu, of the elusive Lapita site he missed by 15 metres in 1983, and the difficult task of investigating the archaeology of 'natural' sites on Tanna associated with very old oral traditions.

The year finished with Professor Spriggs witnessing the living "megalithic" culture in northern Vanuatu at the opening of a new men's house on Pentecost Island and reflecting on how much of the archaeological record DOESN'T survive, at the traditional wedding of his brother-in-law. That brought in the New Year, he came home, and he is to tell us about it.

» Canberra Archaeological Society

Enquiries: Helen Cooke (helen.cooke@anu.edu.au)