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The history of Tonga is recorded since the ninth century BC, when seafarers associated with the Lapita diaspora first settled the islands which now make up the Kingdom of Tonga. [1] Along with Fiji and Samoa, the area served as a gateway into the rest of the Pacific region known as Polynesia . [ 2 ]
Around 2850 BP, the Lapita people reached Tonga, and carbon dating places their landfall first in Tongatapu and then in Haʻapai soon after. [3] The newcomers were already well adapted to the resource-scarce island life and settled in small communities of a few households [3] on beaches just above high tide line that faced open lagoons or reefs.
Queen Salote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900-1965 (ISBN 1-86940-205-7) Latukefu, S. (1974), Church and State in Tonga, ANU Press, Canberra; Campbell, Ian C; Island Kingdom: Tonga Ancient and Modern, 2001, ISBN 0-908812-96-5 "Brief history of the Kingdom of Tonga", on the website of the Tongan Parliament
Scholars still debate exactly when Tonga was first settled, but thorium dating confirms that settlers had arrived in the earliest known inhabited town, Nukuleka, by 888 BC, ± 8 years. [19] Tonga's precontact history was shared via oral history, which was passed down from generation to generation.
The seven main Polynesian cultures are Aotearoa, Hawaiʻi, Rapa Nui, Marquesas, Samoa, Tahiti, and Tonga. The early settlement history of Hawaiʻi is a topic of continuing debate. [5] Estimates for the date of first settlement of the Hawai'ian islands range from the 3rd century C.E. to between 940 and 1130 C.E. [5] [6] [7]
Although the exact timing of when each island group was settled is debated, it is widely accepted that the island groups in the geographic center of the region (i.e. the Cook Islands, Society Islands, Marquesas Islands, etc.) were settled initially between 1000 and 1150 AD, [33] [34] and ending with more far flung island groups such as Hawaii ...
In 2007, Burley led an archaeological team conducting digs at a site in Nukuleka, and uncovered pieces of Lapita pottery which they estimated to be about 2,900 years old. . Burley stated: "Tonga was the first group of islands in Polynesia to be settled by the Lapita people...and Nukuleka was their first settlement in Tonga
Niua is a division of the Kingdom of Tonga, namely the northernmost group of islands.It consists of three islands (Niuafoʻou, Niuatoputapu and Tafahi) which together have an area of 71.69 km 2 and a population of 1,150.