Erromango
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Erromango Nelocompne |
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|---|---|
| Island | |
Erromango Island
|
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 Location within Vanuatu |
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| Coordinates: 18°48′50″S 169°07′22″E / 18.81389°S 169.12278°ECoordinates: 18°48′50″S 169°07′22″E / 18.81389°S 169.12278°E | |
| Country | Vanuatu |
| Province | Tafea Province |
| Area | |
| • Total | 891.9 km2 (344.4 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 886 m (2,907 ft) |
| Population (2009) | |
| • Total | 1,959 |
| • Density | 2.2/km2 (5.7/sq mi) |
| Time zone | VUT (UTC+11) |
Erromango is the fourth largest island in the Vanuatu archipelago. With a land area of 891.9 square kilometres (344.4 sq mi) it is the largest island in Tafea Province, the southernmost of Vanuatu's six administrative regions.
The endonym for Erromango in Erromangan is Nelocompne. There are several accounts of how 'Erromango' came into common usage: firstly, an oral history from the Potnarvin area tells of how Captain James Cook was given a yam during his visit in August 1774, and was told in the (now-extinct) Sorug language armai n'go, armai n'go ('this food is good'), and mistakenly assumed this to be the name of the island. A second account is related by the naturalist Georg Forster, who accompanied Cook. He writes that he learned the name 'Irromanga' from a man named Fannòko, while visiting the neighbouring island of Tanna five days later. Cook himself does not name the island in his account of his visit, but writes later that he got the name, which he spells as 'Erromango', from Forster.
Erromango was first settled by humans around 3,000 years ago, as part of the Lapita migration out of south-east Asia into island Melanesia. The Lapita people brought with them domestic animals such as pigs and chickens and food plants such as yam and breadfruit.
Two sites on Erromango, Ifo and Ponamla, have yielded significant archaeological evidence of habitation by Lapita and post-Lapita peoples, including pottery sherds, adzes, marine shell artefacts and cooking stones.
Erromango contains numerous caves that provided refuge from tribal warfare and cyclones. Human use of these caves has been dated to 2,800-2,400 years before present. Some of the caves contain rock art and petroglyphs that have been identified with clan motifs and traditional stories. Caves were also used as burial sites.
Captain James Cook was the first European to land on Erromango, landing near present-day Potnarvin in the north-east on 4 August 1774. Cook and his landing party were set upon by a group of local men, and in the scuffle that followed, several of Cook's men were injured and a number of Erromangans killed. Following this incident, Cook gave the name 'Traitor's head' to the peninsula adjacent to Potnarvin.
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Wikipedia