Carved in the early 1800s, about 2,700 years after the first landfall
Landfall Five
Landfall in Tonga
In the 800s BC
A Tongan goddess figure, ‘otua fefine, carved in whale ivory in the early 1800s, about 2,700 years after the first landfall. Ha‘apai Islands. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via The Met Open Access.
The questionHow do we know when people first stepped ashore in Polynesia?
On the island of Tongatapu, in Tonga, lies the village of Nukuleka. Archaeologists believe it was the first place in Polynesia where people settled. Small coral tools from the site have let them date that landing more exactly than almost any other event of its age.
The first village in Polynesia
Tonga was the first part of Polynesia that Lapita voyagers reached, and then Samoa.1 Lapita sites in Samoa date from about 750 BC.2 The archaeologist David Burley and his colleagues argue that the very first settlement in Tonga was at Nukuleka, on the lagoon of Tongatapu. From there, later Lapita people spread around the lagoon, then north through the rest of Tonga, and on to Samoa.1
Why radiocarbon was not enough
Most dates for the Lapita come from radiocarbon. But radiocarbon has known problems for an event like this. Wood can be far older than the fire it was burned in. Shells and sea creatures take in carbon from the ocean, which throws their dates out. And every radiocarbon result has to be converted into calendar years, which adds more uncertainty.1 Radiocarbon dates could show that Nukuleka was early, but not exactly when people arrived.1 Radiocarbon dates had put the first Lapita sites in Tonga at about 950 BC.2 The coral dates below narrow that to the 800s BC, and these pages use the coral date wherever they give Tonga’s first landfall.1
Clocks made of coral
Lapita people used pieces of branching coral as files, to rub and shape other things. These coral files are found at Lapita sites all over Oceania.1 Coral can be dated by measuring uranium and thorium in it, far more precisely than radiocarbon allows.1
The team dated sixteen coral files from Nukuleka. Three showed signs of having changed in the ground, so they were set aside, leaving thirteen. The oldest, from the deepest layer of the mound, dates to 2,838 years before present, give or take 8. Taken together, the dates place the first landing in a window just sixteen years wide, 2,830 to 2,846 years before present, and trace the village through the next 250 years.1
How sure can we be?
The coral dates fix when people lived at Nukuleka. That Nukuleka was the very first village in Polynesia is a further step: Burley’s team rests it on four lines of evidence, beginning with the site’s early radiocarbon dates.1 Like any claim to be first, it holds only until an older site is found.
Key words
- Founder colony
- The first settlement in a new land, from which the rest of it was settled.
- Coral file
- A tool made of branching coral, used like sandpaper to rub and shape other things.
- Uranium-thorium dating
- A way of dating coral by measuring the uranium and thorium in it.
- Stratum (plural strata)
- A layer of earth in an excavation. Deeper layers are usually older.
- BP
- “Before present”: years counted back from a fixed year. For radiocarbon dates the fixed year is 1950.
Check yourself
Try to answer in your head, then open each one.
Where is Nukuleka?
On the island of Tongatapu, in Tonga.
What were the coral files dated with, and why not radiocarbon?
With uranium-thorium dating. Radiocarbon could not date the landing precisely enough.
How wide is the window for the first landfall?
Sixteen years: 2,830 to 2,846 years before present.
In the chart, why is one date from a shallow layer older than the dates below it?
That layer is earth that was moved from the old village to build a burial mound, so older things are mixed into it.
Go deeper
- The long pause what happened after Tonga and Samoa
- Counting the days another way of fixing a date exactly
Sources for this page
Every number on this page comes from one of these. How we check.
Last reviewed 13 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
- Burley, D., Weisler, M. I. and Zhao, J. (2012). High precision U/Th dating of first Polynesian settlement. PLoS ONE 7 (11), e48769. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3492438/Used for: Nukuleka on Tongatapu as the founding settlement of Polynesia; uranium-thorium dates on 13 coral files put first landfall at 2830 to 2846 BP, a window of 16 years, and trace the site over the next 250 years. Checked 13 November 2026.
- McNiven, I. J., David, B., Richards, T., Aplin, K., Asmussen, B., Mialanes, J., Leavesley, M., Faulkner, P. and Ulm, S. (2011). New direction in human colonisation of the Pacific: Lapita settlement of south coast New Guinea. Australian Archaeology 72, 1–6. researchonline.jcu.edu.au/17433/1/mcniven_etal_2011.pdfUsed for: Lapita pottery arose in the Bismarck Archipelago about 3300 cal BP; first dates for the Reef and Santa Cruz Islands (3200), Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji (3000), Tonga (2900) and Samoa (2700 cal BP); a colonisation 4,500 km long; Lapita sites on the south coast of New Guinea, 2900 to 2500 cal BP. Checked 13 November 2026.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ‘Otua fefine (deity figure). Ha‘apai Islands, Tonga; whale ivory, early 19th century. Collection record 313658, Open Access (CC0). www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/313658Used for: A Tongan goddess figure in whale ivory, 13.3 cm high. Checked 13 November 2026.