Taumako

[1]Later archaeological sites dating from AD 1,000 through to the 19th century contain a diverse range of personal ornaments, many of which are similar to those present in ethnographic collections from Santa Cruz displayed in numerous museums around the world.

[4] The backstrap loom has an unusual distribution in the Pacific region, including amongst the Atayal people of Taiwan, the islands of Yap in Micronesia, the Polynesian atholl of Kapingamarangi, and the Santa Cruz area in the Solomons.

These wide-ranging external contacts have resulted in a population of people which shows a profound mixture of Melanesian and Polynesian physical features.

[6] Life in the Duff Islands during the prehistoric period was far from idyllic with a high incidence of the infectious disease yaws.

[9] Studies of David Lewis and Marianne (Mimi) George identified that traditional Polynesian navigational techniques were still preserved in these islands.

[10] The people of Taumako built one of the oldest documented proa sailing canoes, called Te Puke and known to westerners as Tepukei or TePuke or other spellings.

[10] In 1969, Tevake accompanied David Henry Lewis on his ketch Isbjorn from Taumako using traditional navigation techniques by studying wave patterns and made landfall at Fenualoa, having navigated for 50 miles (80 km) without being able to view the stars, due to cloud cover.

Contact with outsiders comes by battery-powered marine radio and the scheduled (but rarely happening) monthly inter-island ship from Honiara.

[citation needed] The Namu burial ground is of significant archaeological interest, with the human remains offering insights into the diet and other aspects of life on the island.