Tanamu 1 presents a cross-section of some of the major time periods represented in the Caution Bay archaeological landscape, and as such provides a useful starting point for the detailed publication of the results of excavations by which to eventually bridge the space between site-specific and landscape-scale patterns and trends. Across three broad phases of occupation, the site provides a window onto the extent and shape of pre-ceramic occupation in the c. 1700 years leading up to the emergence of the Lapita cultural complex in the Bismarck Archipelago c. 3300 cal BP (e.g., Denham et al. 2012), the nature of the terminal Lapita period which ends at 2600–2550 cal BP at Caution Bay (David et al. 2019), and the past 2750 years leading into the ethnographic present. In this volume we have presented detailed data and analyses of the ceramics, stone and shell artefacts, and vertebrate and invertebrate animal remains, and all have yielded their own particular insights. While conclusions about the long-range cultural history of both Tanamu 1 and Caution Bay can be drawn from the data presented here, we also see this as an opportunity to isolate and frame research issues to be pursued in subsequent volumes of the Caution Bay archaeological project
