July/August 2024 Issue

When Europeans arrived in Tonga in the 18th century, they described an urban landscape with monumental architecture. Until recently, it was unclear just how old this building practice was. New lidar scanning and fieldwork on the island of Tongatapu revealed a network of roads and thousands of ancient earthen mounds that served as foundations of houses and public buildings dating to as early as A.D. 300. These may be the remnants of the first city founded anywhere in the South Pacific.

Although pottery-making technology existed among some ancient cultures of Oceania, it was long believed that Aboriginal peoples of Australia didn’t produce their own ceramics prior to European settlement. Excavations on Jiigurru, or Lizard Island, located 20 miles off the coast of northern Queensland, have uncovered ceramic sherds made from local clay that are 2,000 to 3,000 years old. This is the earliest example of pottery found in Australia and demonstrates that knowledge of ceramics in the region is far older than previously thought.

The 2,200-year-old Wuwangdun tomb, near modern Huainan, is believed to be the largest and most luxurious tomb ever found in the ancient Chu State. The 370-acre complex was surrounded by a moat and had a cruciform burial chamber at its center. The tomb contained more than 1,000 objects, including weapons, lacquered wood, bronze vessels, and musical instruments. The burial likely belonged to a Chu ruler during the tumultuous Warring States period, when various Chinese powers vied for supremacy.