Jomon sherds from Aomori, Japan, not Mele, Efate

The presence of Japanese Jomon sherds from Aomori in an artefact collection from Vanuatu has been attributed alternately to Jomon voyaging or to adventitious mingling of artefacts of different proveniences. The paleoshoreline history of Efate indicates that the site where the Jomon sherds were purportedly collected was submerged during Jomon time, making introduction of the sherds into Vanuatu by Jomon voyagers implausible. The anomalous sherds were probably taken directly from Japan to Paris, and inadvertently introduced there into the Vanuatu collection.