POLYNESIAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND COLONIZATION

Polynesian archaeology is undergoing a renaissance with spirited debates on a number of fundamental issues such as dating human colonization of islands and archipelagos, determining the causes of landscape change (whether human-induced, climate affected, or some manner of both), defining the temporal and geographical limits of long-distance interaction spheres, the causes and consequences of sociopolitical change, and the nature of Ancestral Polynesian Culture. None of these topics engender a discipline-wide consensus, least of which is the date for the colonization of any Polynesian archipelago. </p

Pacific Islands ichthyoarchaeology: implications for the development of prehistoric fishing studies and global sustainability

The Pacific Islands—consisting of culturally diverse Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia—is the ideal region to investigate the development of prehistoric fishing studies, as nowhere else on Earth is there such environmental contrasts among island types and their marine environments. We review the ichthyoarchaeological literature for the Pacific and assess developments in recovery methods, reference collections, taxonomic identifications, quantification, taphonomy and site-formation processes, ethnoarchaeology, approaches to diet and subsistence reconstructions, sustainability, and the importance of applied zooarchaeology for fisheries management and conservation. Ichthyoarchaeologists are beginning to work more closely with resource managers, fisheries biologists, policy makers, and indigenous communities to produce holistic studies of conservation management, resource sustainability, and assessments of human impacts on marine ecosystems over centuries to millennial time scales

Archaeological Survey and Test Excavations on Ebon Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands

Commissioned report. Report prepared for the Historic Preservation Office, Republic of the Marshall Island

The Mangarevan Sequence and Dating of the Geographic Expansion into Southeast Polynesia

A recently published archaeological sequence supported by information from six sites excavated in the Mangarevan group in 1959 is summarized in the context of additional data and current interpretations of the prehistory of southeastern Polynesia. The known part of the Mangareva sequence covers the period from ca. A.D. 1200 to the time of early nineteenth-century contact with Europeans, with its dating enhanced by four new radiocarbon age determinations plus four previous ones, all on samples collected in 1959. More recent information from archaeological investigations on nearby Pitcairn and Henderson islands, showing they formed part of a long-term interaction sphere with Mangareva, indicate that while the early part of the Mangareva sequence from ca. A.D. 800-1200 remains undocumented, buried cultural deposits for this interval probably exist within Rikitea village on the main island of Mangareva. An A.D. 700-800 settlement for the Mangareva group is consistent with a similar age and origin for the first inhabitants of Easter Island, as aspects of the thirteenthcentury assemblages from both places are comparable. A similar age is also supported by several dates for an initial colonization of Henderson Island in this period. Recent linguistic reworking of the early subgrouping of Eastern Polynesian suggests Easter Island, Original Mangarevan, and probably the extinct Polynesian languages of Henderson and Pitcairn were the first in the region, placing the age of that subgroup around A.D. 700-800. A major secondary contact with Marquesall speakers who may have settled in Mangareva at A.D. 1100-1300, seems to have been the basis for changing it into a Marquesic language, of a form then taken to Rapa. The archaeology, biological relationships, and linguistic history of the region now provides a robust and consistent outline for the geographic expansion into Southeast Polynesia. KEYWORDS: culture-historical sequence, Mangareva group, Southeast Polynesia, geographical expansion, radiocarbon dating

Atolls as settlement landscapes: Ujae, Marshall Islands

Volume: 460Start Page: 1End Page: 5

Henderson Island prehistory: colonization and extinction on a remote Polynesian island

Situated at the extreme margin of the Indo‐West Pacific biotic province, the four islands of the isolated Pitcairn Group hold interest for biogeographers and archaeologists alike. Human settlement may have been as early as the 8th century AD for the uplifted limestone island of Henderson, the most pristine island of its kind. An archaeological survey of the Pitcairn Islands is provided, while Henderson is examined in detail. Recent extensive excavations provide a record of change during 600 years of human occupation. Adaptation to the ecologically‐marginal conditions is documented by artefacts, more than 150000 vertebrate bones, molluscs and subfossil plant remains recovered from stratigraphic contexts. The effects of prehistoric human occupation on the pristine environment are revealed by Polynesian plant and animal introductions, bird extinctions and range reductions, possible over‐predation of marine molluscs, exploitation of sea turtles, and large‐scale burning for swidden agriculture. The origin of human colonists is documented by analysing imported artefacts by geochemical characterization (x‐ray fluorescence analysis). The human abandonment of Henderson, by the seventeenth century, is viewed in the context of prehistoric regional dynamics

Pacific Archaeology as Long‐Term History (Kirch's On the Road of the Winds)

There is arguably no better place than Oceania to practice a comparative “historical science” such as archaeology. The Pacific encompasses more than 100 million km2 of ocean, thousands of islands of all shapes and sizes, and enormous biotic diversity. Human colonization began here some 40,000 years ago in the archipelagoes of the southwestern Pacific and as recently as under a millennium ago at the far eastern margins of the “Great Ocean,” in New Zealand. Patrick Kirch is a long‐standing expert in the area with more than 30 years’ experience in field research and the author of over a dozen books and monographs and more than 150 articles

The settlement of marginal polynesia: New evidence from henderson Island

The settlement of Polynesia was rapid and extensive, implying purposeful exploration and successful colonization strategies. By A.c. 1000, most inhabitable islands were occupied and inter-island voyaging was a vital link sustaining small populations on ecologically-marginal landfalls—islands that pushed the capabilities of Polynesian colonization to their limits. Several islands throughout Polynesia evidence prehistoric occupation yet were not inhabited at European contact. Henderson Island, se Polynesia, with its extreme environmental conditionstypifies such so-called“mystery islands.” The results of a recent multidisciplinary study are summarized, which include an island-wide survey, test excavations, and the recovery of the largest artifact, faunal, and floral assemblages from this part of Polynesia. These data provide new evidence for ascertaining the role of inter-island voyaging in sustaining isolated populations, and how human colonists altered insular landscapes and caused faunal extinctions. It is argued that Henderson Island prehistory is most profitably examined within the context of regional dynamics