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"Micronesia Civilization."
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The Archaeology of Micronesia
This was the first book-length archaeological study of Micronesia, a collection of island groups in the Western Pacific Ocean. Drawing on a wide range of archaeological, anthropological and historical sources, the author explores the various ways that the societies of these islands have been interpreted since European navigators first arrived there in the sixteenth century. Considering the process of initial colonisation on the island groups of Marianas, Carolines, Marshalls and Kiribati, he examines the histories of these islands and explores how the neighbouring areas are drawn together through notions of fusion, fluidity and flux. The author places this region within the broader arena of pacific island studies and addresses contemporary debates such as origins, processes of colonisation, social organisation, environmental change and the interpretation of material culture. This book will be essential reading for any scholar with an interest in the archaeology of the Pacific.
eBook
Ethnographic parallels and the denial of history
An ever more Pacific-looking past of Britain and other parts of Europe is being constructed by archaeologists. Melanesian anthropology is being continually mined for supposed ethnographic parallels to elucidate the European Neolithic with its 'Big Man' societies and 'dividual' individuals. Although this Melanesian turn in European archaeology is fuelled by a detailed poring over of the minutiae of Pacific and other Third and Fourth World ethnographies, it manages to ignore totally the results of the archaeology of these ethnography-rich regions. This paper discusses the long-term commentary provided by archaeology on the short-term vision provided by the ethnography of Melanesia. It questions the appropriateness of much of the use of analogy by archaeologists in the face of population declines in much of Melanesia in the recent past by something like 90 per cent of pre-contact figures and in the face of evidence that the classic 'Big Man' style of leadership in that region is arguably as modern a creation as the Welfare State, and is a social form possible only under conditions of colonialist pacification.
Journal Article
The Teouma Lapita site and the early human settlement of the Pacific Islands
The Teouma site, on Efate in central Vanuatu, was uncovered during quarrying in 2003 and has proved to be one of the most significant discoveries to date for the colonisation of Remote Oceania. Not only did it bring to light a fine assemblage of the famously diagnostic Lapita ceramics, but a cemetery of more than 25 individuals along with the pots. The skeletons offer an opportunity to investigate the origins of the ‘Lapita people’ who first appeared in the Bismarck archipelago around 3300 years ago and rapidly moved through island Melanesia and Western Polynesia over the next few centuries.
Journal Article
A 3000-Year Culture Sequence from Palau, Western Micronesia
In western Micronesia archaeological sites containing material-culture remains spanning millennia are rare. This paper reports one from Ulong Island in Palau, which is radiocarbon dated to 3000 cal. B.P. The pottery sequence was divided into three assemblages, each distinguished by distinct vessel forms and by the type and proportion of nonplastic temper inclusions. An abrupt transformation of the ceramic assemblage is tentatively dated to around 2400 cal. B.P., coincident with substantial landscape alteration on the main island where pottery was manufactured, indicating that anthropogenic activity may have constrained the raw materials available to prehistoric potters. There is a discontinuity in the sequence from 2000-1000 B.P. that might represent an hiatus in site use. Critical consideration of paleoenvironmental data pointing to human arrival at 4500-4300 cal. B.P. suggests, instead, that climatic events may be responsible for the observed palaeoecological changes. If so, then sites dating to 3300-3000 cal. B.P., such as Ulong, could well be among the oldest in western Micronesia.
Journal Article
Ongoing Archaeological Research on Fais Island, Micronesia
The third season of archaeological research was carried out on Fais Island in the Caroline Islands at the end of 2005. A deep cultural deposit (more than 3.3 meters) was excavated along the southern coastal deposit from which a number of potsherds, shell artifacts, bone artifacts, and various kinds of natural remains were found. The constant recovery of artifactual remains supports the previous supposition that the island was continuously inhabited since the time of the first colonization. Pigs and dogs (and possibly chickens) have definitely existed on the island since about A.D. 400 afterward. Two charcoal samples obtained from the earliest cultural deposit were securely dated as A.D. 230-410 (Beta-21306) and A.D. 240-420 (Beta-213061). These are the earliest dates obtained for the coral islands in the central Caroline Islands. The continuous appearance of potsherds and natural food remains throughout the culture sequence indicates that Fais was permanently settled for the last 1700 years and was not just occupied for a short period of time. On the basis of introduced pottery and domesticated animals, maintaining cultural contacts with high islands could have been a significant way to survive on such small coral islands with limited resources.
Journal Article
New Radiocarbon Ages of Colonization Sites in East Polynesia
The archaeological chronology of initial human colonization in East Polynesia has relied substantially upon radiocarbon dating results from a small number of sites in the central region, notably Motu Paeao cemetery (Maupiti) and Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia (Huahine) in the Society Islands, and Hane (Ua Huka) and Ha'atuatua (Nuku Hiva) in the Marquesas Islands. Recent field research and new radiocarbon dates showed that Ha'atuatua and Motu Paeao were occupied significantly later than had been suggested by earlier results. We now report the results of new radiocarbon dating on the remaining two sites. Leaving aside questionable results on bone and wood samples, six shell samples from Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia indicate occupation in the period A.D. 1050-1450. Five shell and five charcoal samples from Hane indicate that occupation did not begin earlier than about A.D. 1000. Taken together with other recent research on the chronology of initial colonization in East Polynesia we suggest that habitation did not begin until A.D. 900 or later.
Journal Article
Examining Prehistoric Migration Patterns in the Palauan Archipelago: A Computer Simulated Analysis of Drift Voyaging
A number of recent genetic, linguistic, and archaeological studies have attempted to ascertain the origin of settlers to the Palauan archipelago, but it remains a complex and debated issue. To provide additional insight into colonization strategies and settlement patterns, we conducted computer simulations of drift voyages to the Palauan archipelago based on historically recorded winds and currents. Drift voyages were considered here as drifting before the wind when lost, a strategy documented for Pacific Islanders. The simulations suggest that peoples drifting before the wind from the southern Philippines would have had the most success in landfall. This finding supports the current hypothesis of human colonization to the islands of Palau.
Journal Article
Dating the first New Zealanders: the chronology of Wairau Bar
The first colonization of New Zealand is a much debated issue. The lack of appropriate absolute dating has meant chronology has been poorly understood. New 14C dating of materials from archaic Polynesian graves and occupation levels provides important precision and understanding of early exploitation on New Zealand.
Journal Article
Landscapes of War: Rules and Conventions of Conflict in Ancient Hawai'i (And Elsewhere)
A comparison of the rich ethnohistoric record of prehistoric conflict in Hawai'i with evidence of warfare in other culture areas suggests some basic similarities in cause and effect shared by many complex hegemonic polities. Three types of archaeological remains in Hawai'i indicate that human sacrifice and monumental-scale ritual construction were integral parts of pre-Contact (A.D. 1778) conquest warfare. The Hawaiians, however, invested much less labor in long-term responses to possible threats to civilian security than many cultures, suggesting that wartime expectations were very different even if the scale and intensity of combat was similar. These differences are perceived to be a reflection of distinct historical traditions of wartime ethics in Polynesia, unique rules of conflict adapted to the geographic isolation of the Hawaiian people and the environmental diversity that defines the archipelago.
Journal Article