page_title: Archaeology of Samoa
section_title: Vailele
hierarchical_section_title: Archaeology of Samoa / Key sites / Upolu / Vailele
caption_attribution_description: English: A large mound south of the Laupule stream, Vailele, Samoa 1957. Gagana Samoa: Le tia tele latalata i le vai Laupule i Vailele, Upolu, 1957.
context_page_description: Archaeology of Samoa began with the first systematic survey of archaeological remains on Savai'i island by Jack Golson in 1957. Since then, surveys and studies in the rest of Samoa have uncovered major findings of settlements, stone and earth mounds including star mounds, Lapita pottery remains and pre-historic artifacts.
  An important part of archaeology in Samoa and Oceania involves finding the answer to the origins of Polynesians, ongoing research which is being undertaken in conjunction with other fields including linguistics and genetics.
  The oldest date so far from pre-historic remains in Samoa has been calculated by New Zealand scientists to a likely true age of circa 3,000 BP from a Lapita site at Mulifanua during the 1970s.
context_section_description: A large mound, Laupule, at Vailele village on Upolu is comparable to the Pulemelei Mound on Savai'i. In the 1940s, New Zealand anthropologist Derek Freeman, a schoolteacher in Samoa from April 1940 to November 1943, studied earthmounds lying near the Tausala stream which enters the sea between Fagali'i and Vailele. The mounds mainly lay three-quarters of a mile inland at an elevation of 200 ft above sea level. Of the eight mounds in the area, 7 were truncated, rectangular pyramids constructed of earth. The eighth was conical, truncated and made of earth and stone. The largest Laupule, measured 346 ft × 314 ft at the base with a height of 40 ft. Three smaller mounds were situated close to it. All lay on the west side of the Tausala stream. On the other side of the stream were three mounds which all came under the name Tapuitea (evening star). The largest measured 384 ft (which made it longer than the main Laupule mound), with a width of 235 ft and height of 15 ft. According to oral tradition, the Laupule mound was associated with a figure called Tupuivao in the 17th century.
caption: Large mound south of Laupule stream in Vailele, 1957
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