National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Headless Skeletons Reveal Secrets of Ancient Islanders


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A skull rests in an ancient pot, crushed by the weight of time and topsoil, on the South Pacific island of Éfaté, part of the country of Vanuatu.

Teeth recently taken from a mass burial site on the island have revealed clues to the lives of the Lapita people, ancestors of today's Polynesians and Melanesians.

Photograph courtesy Stuart Bedford, the Australian National University