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Palaeoenvironmental evidence for human colonization of remote Oceanic islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Patrick V. Kirch  and
Joanna Ellison
Patrick V. Kirch
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720, USA
Joanna Ellison
Affiliation:
Department of Biogeography & Geomorphology, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
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Extract

Not every first footstep on a virgin shore leaves enduring trace, nor every first human settlement an enduring deposit that chances to survive, and then chances to be observed archaeologically. Good environmental evidence from Mangaia Island, central East Polynesia, gives — it is contended — a fairer picture of the human invasion of remote Oceania than the short and sceptical chronology recently published in ANTIQUITY.

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Papers
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Antiquity , Volume 68 , Issue 259 , June 1994 , pp. 310 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1994

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