Lapita Migrants in the Pacific's Oldest Cemetery: Isotopic Analysis at Teouma, Vanuatu

Teouma, an archaeological site on Efate Island, Vanuatu, features the earliest cemetery yet discovered of the colonizers of Remote Oceania, from the late second millennium B.C. In order to investigate potential migration of seventeen human individuals, we measured isotopes of strontium ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr), oxygen (δ 18 O), and carbon (δ 13 C), as well as barium (Ba) and strontium (Sr) concentrations, in tooth enamel from skeletons excavated in the...