usually as modifierA prehistoric Oceanic culture centred on Melanesia, dated to about c.1500–500 BC. It is characterized by pottery distinctively stamped with a toothed instrument.
The Lapita left no archaeological evidence of their presence in New Zealand, Holdaway argues, simply because their visits to such southern latitudes were so transient.
The Lapita and later Polynesian people carried the rats everywhere they traveled, according to Matisoo-Smith.
Most scholars attribute the resurgence in settlement to a people they call the Lapita, after an archaeological site in New Caledonia.