Stuart Bedford is currently an ARC Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. He has been involved in archaeological research for more than twenty five years both in the Pacific and Europe. The primary focus of the last ten years research has been Vanuatu. Under the auspices of The Australian National University-Vanuatu Cultural Centre Archaeological Project, Bedford began fieldwork for his PhD dissertation in 1995 on the islands of Erromango in the south and Malekula in the north, with Efate being added from 1996. The fieldwork involved the excavation of some of the better preserved archaeological sites in the Pacific which produced a wealth of cultural remains, particularly pottery, which enabled the establishment of finely detailed pottery sequences.

The research has overwhelmingly established that the islands were initially settled some 3000 years ago by Lapita colonists with the typically distinctive dentate-stamped pottery. However, whatever connections or symbolic significance Lapita dentate-stamped ceramics represented, they were short-lived. Rather abruptly the post-Lapita ceramic sequences demonstrate quite divergent trajectories. These redefined ceramic sequences from Vanuatu have also enabled a re-appraisal of the ceramic assemblages of the western Pacific. The results challenge the previously widely accepted theory that there was synchronous ceramic change across the region which implied regular and sustained interaction.

Author's Pandanus publications

• Terra Australis 23: Pieces of the Vanuatu Puzzle: Archaeology of the North, South and Centre