Provenience analysis of pottery from Fijian hillforts: preliminary implications for exchange within the archipelago

Surface finds of pottery from hillforts in the Yasawas Islands were examined by neutron activation analysis (NAA) and by petrographic analysis. The NAA results show that pottery from the Yasawas falls into at least three distinct compositional groups. Petrographic comparison and a pilot study by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP‐MS) shows pottery from the lower Singatoka valley to have a composition similar to a group of Yasawas pottery, indicating exchange between the two areas. The evidence for pottery exchange is consistent with dialect similarity evidence that Western Fiji evolved as a separate sphere of interaction from the rest of Fiji.