usually as modifier A prehistoric Oceanic culture centred on Melanesia, dated to about c.1500–500 BC. It is characterized by pottery distinctively stamped with a toothed instrument.
Example sentencesExamples
- The Lapita left no archaeological evidence of their presence in New Zealand, Holdaway argues, simply because their visits to such southern latitudes were so transient.
- The Lapita and later Polynesian people carried the rats everywhere they traveled, according to Matisoo-Smith.
- Most scholars attribute the resurgence in settlement to a people they call the Lapita, after an archaeological site in New Caledonia.