Reconstructed vessels catalog

This everted rim jar has simple notching along the flat rim, and is otherwise undecorated.

This relatively thin-walled, well-fired globular jar has a narrow lip decorated with simple notches across the lip (motif M77-1-3), made by impressing with a flat tool. Many of the very small sherds from site EKQ appear to come from jars such as this.

This sherd is from a small bowl with a carinated profile. The rounded lip is undecorated. The exterior decoration, made with a combination of coarse dentate stamping and incised lines, begins with motif TFG3761, a combination of slanting incised lines and stamped circles. Below this the carination is notched with motif M77-1-3. Below the carination is stamped motif JP-H1-1, followed by stamped circles (A417). The decoration is quite crudely executed.

This is the upper neck and rim of a large jar, almost certainly carinated based on comparison with other known Lapita vessel forms. It has an unusual compound rim, with a flaring “ledge” that sticks out at a right angle some 2.5 cm from the neck, while the neck continues up vertically another 1.8 cm higher than the ledge. The upper rim has a row of stamped circles (motif A417) along the lip, and motif GS624 on the outer face of this upper rim. The upper side of the ledge carries zone marker RZ4D-4R-1 and motif FOH101, consisting of stamped triangles. The lip of the flaring ledge has the stamped circle motif A417. The bottom of the ledge is undecorated, but immediately below the ledge the exterior of the neck has two rows of A417 stamped circles, followed by zone marker RZ4D-5R-2. Below this only fragments of the main motifs remain, primarily TFG281, a variant of the “labyrinth” design executed in fine dentate stamping.

This is a simple, restricted bowl lacking any decoration. The paste, color, and degree of low firing are similar to ECA-V-193, although these are very different vessel forms.

This quite thick-walled vessel is the partial side of a flat-bottomed dish that has broken at the junction with the base. The wide, flat lip is decorated with motif PK265, while the inside of the rim has a RZ4D zone marker. On the outside, below a void area is a band of motif A2, followed by a RZ4D-4R-2 zone marker. The main motif (PK140) is a repeating, complex anthropomorphic face design, with oval eyes formed by dentate-stamped arcs framing small stamped circles, and with the nose and outline of the face formed by the zone marker technique. Small stamped circles are also incorporated into the design. The space between the repeated faces is filled in with a crisscross geometric design.

This large, thick-walled cylinder stand is one of the most impressive pieces of ceramic art from Talepakemalai. The lack of any decoration on the lip suggests that it was intended to support a flat-bottomed dish. In profile, the slightly everted rim then tapers down to a narrower neck, then expands again and doubtless had a somewhat flaring base. There are two prominent raised bands around the middle section. The decoration between the rim and the first of these raised bands begins with motif A39 flanked top and bottom with RZ4D-5R-2 zone markers. Below this is the very elaborated main motif (PK73), consisting of a nested, double anthropomorphic face design. The smaller, inner face has dentate-stamped eyes, with the nose and face outlined with the zone marker technique. There is a kind of headdress of dentate-stamped triangular points that may represent feathers. This smaller face is nested within a larger, more stylized, curvilinear face motif in which the eyes are represented by a “star-burst” dentate design; this encompassing face likewise has a slightly more elaborate headdress again indicated by dentate-stamped spikes. Below this double-face, nested main motif is a zone marker (RZ4D-5R-2), followed by motifs A39 and M76-1 (situated on the upper raised band), then another zone marker (RZ4D-3-2), and a row of stamped circles (A417), and then another zone marker (RZ4D-4-2). Below this is a void, than another zone marker (RZ4D-4-2), followed by another row of stamped circles (A417), and a repeat of M76-1 on the second raised band. Below this lower raised band is motif A499. Another complex motif (PK141) covered the expanding cylinder stand surface below this, part only a small part of this has survived. This motif, which may have also incorporated a face design, combined dentate-stamping with lime-filled cutout grooves.

This consists of the rim and neck of a large, plain ware jar with everted rim. Decoration is limited to a series of simple notches along the lip edge.

This flat bottom dish with unusually flaring sides has a burnished, undecorated interior surface. The lip is decorated with a row of stamped circles (motif A417) on the inside, and motif PK43, the “double beaked-bird” design on the outside of the lip. This is the same lip design seen on other vessels such as ECA-V-025 and -027. On the exterior, the decoration is executed in extremely fine, needle-point like dentate stamping, beginning with zone marker RZ4D-4R-2, below which is the main motif PK208, a variant of the zigzag design. The base of the rim is decorated with PK207, another variant of the “double beaked-bird” design. This vessel exhibits a high degree of skill and precision in the execution of the decoration.

This flat bottom dish is very similar in decoration to ECA-V-062, and indeed these may be parts of the same vessel, although it is not possible to verify this for certain. On the interior, there is a row of zone marking just below the lip, and the lip itself is also decorated with zone marking. The main motif (recorded as TFG2695) on the exterior involves concentric circular zone marking around a raised appliqué nubbin, the whole set within a rectangular frame also defined by zone marking.