Rethinking Tongan Lapita chronology in Ha'apai

We report two recently received AMS radiocarbon dates from the Polynesian plainware site of Holopeka on Lifuka Island, northern Ha'apai, Tonga. The dates (2800 ± 90 and 2590 ± 60 BP) fall within the long accepted temporal interval for the early eastern Lapita period in Tonga. Possible explanations for these dates are provided with the preferred alternative being the disappearance of decorated ceramics as early as two centuries after first colonization. These dates are commensurate with plainware chronologies elsewhere in western Polynesia.