Polynesian tattooing traditions as social signaling across the archipelagos (c. 500 BCE–1769 CE)

1. Lapita stamping linked to later tattoo aesthetics

   Jan 1, 1000 BCELabels: Lapita ceramics, Comblike tools

   • Met Museum

2. Early settlement of West Polynesia intensifies

   Jan 1, 900 BCELabels: Fiji, Tonga, Samoa

   • Britannica
   • Met Museum

3. Tongan settlement dated to late 9th century BCE

   Jan 1, 838 BCELabels: Nukuleka, Tongatapu

   • Live Science

4. Lapita-era tattooing tools in Near Oceania

   Jan 1, 500 BCELabels: Obsidian flakes, Near Oceania

   • ANU Repository
   • Met Museum

5. End of the Lapita ceramic horizon

   Jan 1, 500 BCELabels: Lapita complex

   • Britannica

6. Fijian women’s veiqia signals maturity and marriageability

   Jan 1, 100 BCELabels: Veiqia, Fiji

   • Veiqia

7. Māori tā moko develops as rank and identity code

   Jan 1, 1200Labels: T moko, M ori

   • T moko

8. Marquesan “wrapping in images” tattooing described

   Jan 1, 1500Labels: Marquesas, Full-body tattooing

   • Oxford Academic

9. Cook’s Endeavour reaches Tahiti (European first-contact context)

   Apr 13, 1769Labels: HMS Endeavour, Tahiti

   • Cook Index

10. Cook records ‘tattow’ as indelible skin marking

    Jul 1, 1769Labels: James Cook, Tattow

    • Tattoo History

11. Cook’s first voyage departs Society Islands era

    Dec 31, 1769Labels: Cook voyage, Society Islands

    • NLA Cook Guide
    • NMA Exhibit

12. Banks and Parkinson document tattooed heads in New Zealand

    Jan 1, 1770Labels: Banks, Preserved heads

    • Te Ara