The conservation of Lapita pottery, ignore it at your peril

The local Department of Archaeology of New Caledonia has been studying excavation site WK0013 since 1992 (Sand and Ouetcho 1992; Sand 1995; Sand, Ouetcho and Bole 1996). The different sites of Lapita are located on the west coast of Grande Terre, near KonC. Most of these sites have disappeared in part due to sea erosion, especially over the last 100 years. In October 1995, an unexpected extension of the construction of a commercial shrimp pool at the border of the only well preserved Lapita site, listed as WKOO13A, destroyed part of the insitu layers. Every effort was made to save as much of the pottery and other material as possible (Sand 1996).