We are pleased to report that we were someplace with a fast wi-fi connection for a few days, so we were able to start working on a project that we have been wanting to do for a long time. A few months ago we added the “where we have been” page. Over the last few days, we have added coordinates to each of the locations, along with dates of the blog posts so you can easily go back and read about a certain location. We have started working on linking the coordinates to a map on Google Earth. And, last but not least, we have gone through a lot of the old postings and updated the “categories” sections, so now when you click on a category there will be lots of posts. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to complete any of the projects, but we will work on them some more when we get to another good internet connection. We would love some feedback to let us know what you think of the additions. We are pleased to announce we just recieved our 500th comment!
Kosmos Travel Log
Kosmos is Greek for world. It is the name of our boat, and the scope of our travel ambitions.
Vanuatu in the news!
Headless skeletons hold Pacific colonization key
By Rob Taylor Tue Oct 30, 1:07 AM ET
CANBERRA (Reuters) – A 3,000-year-old burial site in Vanuatu containing 60 headless skeletons and skulls in pots is helping end the mystery over colonization of the Pacific and the first Polynesians, archaeologists said on Tuesday.
The remains have enabled scientists to reconstruct the lives and habits of the seafaring Lapita people, who settled Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa from Melanesian islands scattered to the west.
“We’ve got the archaeological record, but until now the actual people have been missing from the story,” researcher Stuart Bedford, from the Australian National University, told Reuters.
The remains were found in 2003 at an archaeological dig on Efate Island, in the tiny South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, in a cemetery in use by the Lapita at the time of Egypt’s Pharaohs.
The Lapita are believed to be ancestral Polynesians, moving east from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands over thousands of miles of ocean, taking with them their crops and animals.
The burial site at Teouma, on the southern coast of Efate, was first uncovered by bulldozers clearing land for a shrimp farm, and was excavated by scientists from Britain, New Zealand and Australia.
The skeletons were buried with ornate ceramic pots, some in carefully laid south-facing graves, and in one case three heads were laid on the dead person’s chest, the researchers wrote in an October article for the journal American Antiquity.
None of the remains had an attached skull and the heads may have been removed after burial, the researchers said, with the grouping of three skulls possibly due to mystical significance the islanders had for the number.
Bedford said chemical analysis of their teeth revealed vital information about the origins, diets and burial practices of the Lapita.
At least four of the 60 had migrated from distant coastal locations, possibly as far as Southeast Asia.
“Although they traveled long distances by sea, they nonetheless were farmers as much as they were fisher folk,” said Alex Bentley, from Durham University, who led the team.