Mana is the name given to a complete human skeleton discovered in Moturiki,

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

, belonging to a

Lapita The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their distinct material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. The Lapita people are believed to have originated fro ...

woman that lived in approximately 800 BCE. Being the best preserved Lapita-age skeleton ever found and the oldest skeleton discovered in Fiji, she has been heavily studied, including undergoing

forensic facial reconstruction Forensic facial reconstruction (or forensic facial approximation) is the process of recreating the face of an individual (whose identity is often not known) from their skeletal remains through an amalgamation of artistry, anthropology, osteolog ...

using computer modeling.

Discovery and naming

Mana was discovered in 2002 in the Naitabale archaelogical site on the island of Moturiki in

, by a team of research team from the

University of the South Pacific The University of the South Pacific (USP) is a public research university with locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania. Established in 1968, the university is organised as an intergovernmental organisation and is owned by the gov ...

and the

Fiji Museum The Fiji Museum is a museum in Suva, Fiji, located in the capital city's botanical gardens, Thurston Gardens. Background The museum is a statutory body and is under the administration of the Fiji Museum Act and the Preservation of Objects of A ...

. Naitabale is thought to have been a

settlement in the past. She was buried more than 1.5 metres below the ground surface and she was covered by undisturbed layers of

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

and

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

that contained Lapita pottery. A large shell of the '' Rochia nilotica'' species had been placed under her neck and another one between her knees, with several smaller shells also present within the grave. The discoverer of the skeleton was Chris Suri, a Solomonese student from the

and part of the research team. He named the skeleton Mana, which means "the truth" in Lau, his native language.

Characteristics

Mana's skeleton was tranfered to the

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

in Japan to be further studied. She was estimated to have been 161 to 164 centimeters in height and having died between the ages of 40 and 60 years old. Her body was tall, muscular and tough, while she was probably right handed. She was adapted to heavy

mastication Chewing or mastication is the process by which food is comminution, crushed and ground by the teeth. It is the first step in the process of digestion, allowing a greater surface area for digestive enzymes to break down the foods. During the mast ...

, and strenuous physical activity involving the neck, arms and feet, similar to other Lapita-age skeletons. She most probably gave birth to at least one child. The roots of her teeth were stained brown, perhaps from chewing roots of

kava Kava or kava kava (''Piper methysticum'': Latin 'pepper' and Latinized Ancient Greek, Greek 'intoxicating') is a plant in the Piperaceae, pepper family, native to the Pacific Islands. The name ''kava'' is from Tongan language, Tongan and Marqu ...

, a mildly narcotic drug.{{Cite news , date=2005-08-11 , title=3,000-year-old woman's 'face' revealed , url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-08-11/3000-year-old-womans-face-revealed/2079020 , access-date=2025-04-14 , work=ABC News , language=en-AU While at the Kyoto University she underwent

using computer modeling. Her skull is the only one of a Lapita-era skeleton that has been so well preserved that it was possible to faithfully reconstruct the head. Her facial features had characteristics associated with Polynesian, Fijian and Asian ancestry, however she does not clearly align with any one of these groups. In order for her age to be determined her bones and some of the shells that were found in her grave were tranfered to the

Nagoya University , abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It was established in 1939 as the last of the nine Imperial Universities in the then Empire of Japan, and is now a Designated National Universit ...

in Japan and the

University of Waikato The University of Waikato (), established in 1964, is a Public university, public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in nume ...

in New Zealand. There they underwent

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...

, with the results estimating that she in lived in 800 BCE or earlier. No

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

could be recovered from her skeleton.

Repatriation and reburial

In December 2003, Mana's skeleton was returned from Japan to Moturiki in Fiji. Upon its return, her remains were placed inside a coffin and she was formally re-buried in the Naitabale archaelogical site where she was discovered.

References

Human remains (archaeological) 9th-century BC women History of Fiji Fijian women People from Moturiki 2002 archaeological discoveries Repatriated human remains