Hidden past

Tonga

WOULD you believe that Tonga pu might have had a small in dustries centre on the site of the present one at Ma’ufanga as early as the sth century A.D.?

Among a number of remarkable find

ings during archaeological exploration of

the area last February by Australian archaeologist Dirk H.R. Spenneman and a team of local workers were evidences of storage pits, north of the present Gol den Passions (Tonga) Ltd, dating from that time. Exploration was also made near the site of the present sewerage treatment complex and near Royal Brewery and Tonga Industrial Gases.

Analysis of the findings, since conducted by Spenneman at the Australian Nation al University in Canberra, indicate that the pits were possibly used for the fer mentation of breadfruit, bananas, and the like.

Two enormous earth ovens were unco vered, each containing 800-l,oookgs of oven stones, compared to the 30-50 kgs used in a typical family umu. Moreover, the clay walls of the two ovens show a thick layer of burnt brick-red soil, sug

gesting that they were used regularly

and for quite some time. Shards of un decorated pottery from the late Lapita era which date from the 3rd-sth centur ies A.D. were found as well, yet, remark ably, no structural evidence for. houses or house mounds were uncovered, de

spite large-scale excavations.

Spennemann believes that ovens were likely built for the household of a high ranking chief and “may well prove to form a keystone in the future under standing of the genesis of Tonga’s chief ly system. Dating to the sth and 6th cen turies A.D. they are so far the earliest archaeological evidence for any social differentiation”.

The single most outstanding feature

encountered during the exploration,

according to Spenneman, was a ritual burial in an earth oven. This was found near today’s sewerage tanks. The burial differed from the norm “in every single aspect”. The body, that of a man be tween 30-45 years of age, had been buried in soil rather than coral sand, the head pointing west rather than east; the body was found in a slumped position (suggesting that it had not been wrapped in mats), the skull of another person a youth age 14-18, sex unknown be tween its knees. A second umu had been built over the belly of the dead man.

The skeletal remains are awaiting furth

er specialist analysis, Spennemann said.