3,000 Years Ago
p. 75 · Read in the full issue
They Were There
Pieces of charcoal found with pot tery unearthed in Fiji by Miss Elizabeth Shaw, Relieving Director of the Fiji Museum, have been radio carbon dated in Japan to about 1,290 BC. This means that Fiji was inhabited about 3,250 years ago — hundreds of years earlier than was
previously thought.
A Fiji Government release on the dating of the charcoal does not state exactly where the material was found, but it quotes Miss Shaw as saying that this is the earliest date so far established for human occu pation in Fiji, and, as far as she knows, in any of the Pacific Islands.
Meanwhile, the "New Zealand Herald" has reported that a pot at least 2,500 years old has been re constructed from fragments found near the Sigatoka River of Viti Levu by two New Zealanders, Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Birks, who did archaeolo gical work in Fiji in 1965 and 1966.