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Taumako is the largest of the Duff Islands, in the nation of Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. This island has steep sides and rises to a height of above sea level. It is composed of basaltic lavas and Pyroclastic rock like the other islands in the Duffs. The Namu burial ground is of significant archaeological interest.
Later archaeological sites dating from AD 1,000 through to the 19th century contain a diverse range of personal ornaments, many of which are similar to those present in ethnographic collections from Santa Cruz displayed in numerous museums around the world. Several of these ornaments can now be shown to be present throughout the 3,000 years of their prehistory. Amongst these are the famous Tridacna shell breast pendants.Leach, B.F. and Davidson, J.M. 2008. The Archaeology of Taumako: a Polynesian Outlier in the Eastern Solomon Islands. Monograph. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Special Publication. 691 pp.Davidson, J.M. and Leach, B.F. 1991. Bird-man amulets and Tridacna shell discs from Taumako, Solomon Islands. pp. 478-483 In: Pawley, A. (ed.) Man and a Half: Essays in Pacific Anthropology and Ethnobiology in Honour of Ralph Bulmer. The Polynesian Society, Auckland. Memoir 48. Several specimens have imprints of fine loom woven cloth, representing the first unequivocal evidence for the presence of the loom in prehistoric Oceania.Leach, B.F. and Davidson, J.M. 2008. The Archaeology of Taumako: a Polynesian Outlier in the Eastern Solomon Islands. Monograph. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Special Publication. 691 pp., page 190 The backstrap loom has an unusual distribution in the Pacific region, including amongst the Atayal people of Taiwan, the islands of Yap in Micronesia, the Polynesian atholl of Kapingamarangi, and the Santa Cruz area in the Solomons.
Throughout the Duff Islands' prehistory there is clear archaeological evidence of contact with other Pacific Island peoples from as far afield as the Fiji-Samoa area. This is evident from stone adzes in these islands made from a form of basalt only found in the stone quarries of Tutuila in American Samoa.Campbell, H.J. Geological report on nine adzes from the Solomon Islands. pp. 427-431. In: Leach, B.F. and Davidson, J.M. 2008. The Archaeology of Taumako: a Polynesian Outlier in the Eastern Solomon Islands. Monograph. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Special Publication. Most evidence of contact, however, is predictably from closer to Taumako, especially the nearby Santa Cruz region. These wide-ranging external contacts have resulted in a population of people which shows a profound mixture of Melanesians and Polynesians physical features.Leach, B.F. and Davidson, J.M. 2008. The Archaeology of Taumako: a Polynesian Outlier in the Eastern Solomon Islands. Monograph. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Special Publication. 691 pp., page 245
Life in the Duff Islands during the prehistoric period was far from idyllic with a high incidence of the infectious disease yaws.Houghton, P. The people of Namu. pp. 325-352 In: Leach, B.F. and Davidson, J.M. 2008. The Archaeology of Taumako: a Polynesian Outlier in the Eastern Solomon Islands. Monograph. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Special Publication. This affected children as well as adults and in later life was often debilitating (ibid.: 229). There is also archaeological evidence of inter-personal hostility with deaths being caused by spear wounds.Buckley, H.R. 2000. A possible fatal wounding in the prehistoric Pacific Islands. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 10(2): 135-141. Some of this may have resulted from warfare between different groups, either locally or with arrivals from further afield.
In 1969, Tevake, a local navigator, accompanied David Henry Lewis on his ketch Isbjorn from Taumako using traditional navigation techniques by studying wave patterns and made landfall at Fenualoa, having navigated for without being able to view the stars, due to cloud cover.
Starting in 1996 the Vaka Taumako project of Pacific Traditions Society has been working to assist Taumako people to perpetuate the ancient Polynesian seafaring techniques of the people of Taumako. Vaka Taumako Project website Vaka Taumako Facebook Page Since 2017 these efforts have been led by Vaka Valo Association of Taumako.
The islands were settled at least as early as 900 BC, by people who made pottery known as Lapita. Archaeological research has shown that this pottery was made using local clay and sand from the island. These Lapita people spread far and wide from the coastal area of Papua New Guinea to the islands of Tonga and Samoa; that is, throughout islands known as both Melanesia and Polynesia. Consequently, the people of Taumako experienced wide-ranging influences, and could be said to have been both Melanesian and Polynesian throughout their long history.
In the 1999 census there were around 511 people living on the Duff Islands. The way of life is traditional by subsistence gardening and fishing.
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