Tonga the cradle of Polynesia, say archaeologists

A sleepy fishing village in Tonga has been identified as the oldest settlement in Polynesia.

The finding, reported in the journal Nature, contradicts common wisdom, which located the original Polynesian settlement in Fiji.

Nature says archaeologists have found pottery fragments in Nukuleka, just east of the Tongan capital, Nuku'alofa, that are 2900 years old, 50 years older than previously known examples of Polynesian pottery.