ABSTRACT
In the Oxenham and Tayles (2006) volume there was only one chapter covering health and disease in the Pacific region (Buckley, 2006). In the last ten years, the bioarchaeology of early colonisers in the Pacific Islands has seen enormous progress with the discovery and re-excavation of cemetery sites from this period of initial human discovery and settlement. Of particular note is the unearthing of the Teouma site in Vanuatu that has yielded the largest sample of Lapita-associated skeletons ever discovered (see Sand and Bedford, 2010). Hallie Buckley and colleagues have applied multi-disciplinary methods to assessing diet, health and disease in the Teouma sample and much of this research is synthesised and integrated into a broader context in various chapters of this volume. While specific to the Pacific, the discovery and rigorous analysis of colonising peoples anywhere in the world is extremely rare and is therefore potentially of interest to scholars working outside of the immediate region.
