The Archaeology of the New Hebrides

Record summary

A. B. Deacon’s archaeological and ethnographic work in the New Hebrides, especially on Malekula and neighboring islands, investigated pottery, settlement, mortuary practices, and cultural variation. His studies are identifiable leads for examining how early Pacific archaeology used ethnographic analogy and culture-history models to explain island societies. Deacon’s records helped establish that Vanuatu’s material traditions could be studied through local sequences rather than requiring vanished external civilizations. His interpretations and terminology should be checked against later radiocarbon dating, Indigenous research, and revised understandings of Lapita and post-Lapita settlement.