Professor Peter Joseph Sheppard

BA (Wat), MA, PhD (Tor)

Professor

In: Anthropology » Social Sciences » Faculty of Arts

Research | Current

Archaeology: Melanesia, Solomon Islands
Processes of social transformation
Geoarchaeology

My current research focuses on the archaeology of the Solomon Islands where I have worked for the last 25 years. I have worked extensively on establishing the foundation prehistory of the Western Solomons which has included research on all the major islands of the Western Province. This research has been funded by grants from the Marsden Fund and the National Geographic Society. Most recently I have turned my attention to research in the Eastern Solomons which has included work on Santa Ana and in 2012 on Santa Cruz in Temotu Province. On Santa Cruz I have revisited and excavated the early Lapita site of Nanggu which has been considered to be the oldest site of human occupation in Remote Oceania which is the area south and east of the main Solomon Islands.. This new work is revising our understanding of the process of settlement of Remote Oceania. I have also recently collborated on two Marsden projects with geophysicists at the University of Auckland and Victoria on using dated archaeological samples to improve our understanding of changes in the geomagentic field in the Western Pacific during the Late Holocene.

Postgraduate supervision

I supervise PhD students in the archaeology of Island Melanesia and archaeological science.

Distinctions/Honours

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London

Areas of expertise

Archaeology, Archaeological Science, Western Pacific, Solomon Islands

Selected publications and creative works (Research Outputs)

Matisoo-Smith, E., Næss Å, Pawley, A., Sand, C., & Sheppard, P. (2018). Ancient DNA and its contribution to understanding the human history of the Pacific Islands. Archaeology in Oceania, 53 (3), 205-219. 10.1002/arco.5165
WHITE, P. E. T. E. R., & SHEPPARD, P. E. T. E. R. (2018). Archaeology in Oceania is an international journal. Archaeology in Oceania, 53 (2), 77-77. 10.1002/arco.5153
Torrence, R., Kononenko, N., Sheppard, P., Allen, M. S., Bedford, S., Kirch, P., & Spriggs, M. (2018). Tattooing tools and the Lapita cultural complex. Archaeology in Oceania, 53 (1), 58-73. 10.1002/arco.5139
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Melinda Allen
Weisler, M. I., Bolhar, R., Ma, J., St Pierre, E., Sheppard, P., Walter, R. K., ... Kirch, P. V. (2016). Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113 (29), 8150-8155. 10.1073/pnas.1608130113
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/34296
Sheppard, P. J. (2016). The Lithic Assemblage. In D. Lubell (Ed.) Holocene Prehistory in the Télidjène Basin, Eastern Algeria: Capsian Occupations at Kef Zoura D and Aïn Misteheyia (pp. 41-94). Oxford: Archaeopress. Related URL.
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/29173
Kononenko, N., Torrence, R., & Sheppard, P. J. (2016). Detecting early tattooing in the Pacific region through experimental usewear and residue analyses of obsidian tools. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 8, 147-163. 10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.05.041
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/34299
Earle, T., & Spriggs, M. (2015). Political Economy in Prehistory. Current Anthropology, 56 (4), 515-544. 10.1086/682284
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/26999
Sheppard, P., Chiu, S., & Walter, R. (2015). Re-dating Lapita movement into Remote Oceania. Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 6 (1), 26-36.
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/27775