Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T20:16:03.070Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New Evidence from the East Polynesian Gateway: Substantive and Methodological Results from Aitutaki, Southern Cook Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Melinda S Allen  and
Rod Wallace
Melinda S Allen*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
Rod Wallace
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
*
Corresponding author. Email: ms.alien@auckland.ac.nz.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

East Polynesia was the geographic terminus of prehistoric human expansion across the globe and the southern Cook Islands, the first archipelago west of Samoa, a gateway to this region. Fourteen new radiocarbon dates from one of the oldest human settlements in this archipelago, the Ureia site (AIT-10) on Aitutaki Island, now indicate occupation from cal AD 1225–1430 (1σ), nearly 300 yr later than previously suggested. Although now among the most securely dated central East Polynesian sites, the new age estimate for Ureia places it outside the settlement period of either the long or short chronology models. The new dates have, however, led to a comfortable fit with the Ureia biological evidence, which suggests not a virgin landscape, but a highly a modified fauna and flora. The results also provide the first systematic demonstration of inbuilt age in tropical Pacific trees, a finding that may explain widely divergent 14C results from several early East Polynesian sites and has implications for the dating of both island colonization and subsequent intra-island dispersals.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , 2007 , pp. 1163 - 1179
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Allen, MS. 1992. Dynamic landscapes and human subsistence: archaeological investigations on Aitutaki Island, southern Cook Islands [PhD dissertation]. Seattle: University of Washington.Google Scholar
Allen, MS. 1994. The chronology of coastal morphogenesis and human settlement on Aitutaki, southern Cook Islands, Polynesia. Radiocarbon 36(3):59–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, MS. 1998. Holocene sea-level change on Aitutaki, Cook Islands: landscape change and human response. Journal of Coastal Research 14(3):10–22.Google Scholar
Allen, MS. 2004. Revisiting and revising Marquesan culture history: new archaeological investigations at Anaho Bay, Nuku Hiva Island. Journal of the Polynesian Society 113(2): 143–96; 113(3):224–5 (errata).Google Scholar
Allen, MS. 2007. Three millennia of human and sea turtle interactions in Remote Oceania. Coral Reefs doi: 10.1007/s00338-007-0234-x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, MS, Johnson, KTM. 1997. Tracking ancient patterns of interaction: recent geochemical studies in the southern Cook Islands. In: Weisler, MI, editor. Prehistoric Long-Distance Interaction in Oceania: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Society Monograph 21. p 111–33.Google Scholar
Allen, MS, Steadman, DW. 1990. Excavations at the Ureia site, Aitutaki, southern Cook Islands: preliminary results. Archaeology in Oceania 25:24–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, AJ. 1995. Current approaches in East Polynesian colonization research. Journal of the Polynesian Society 104:110–32.Google Scholar
Anderson, AJ. 2005. Subpolar settlement in South Polynesia. Antiquity 79(306):791–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, AJ, Sinoto, Y. 2002. New radiocarbon ages of colonization sites in East Polynesia. Asian Perspectives 41(2):242–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, AJ, Smith, I. 1996. The transient village in southern New Zealand. World Archaeology 27(3): 359–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, AJ, Conte, E, Clark, G, Sinoto, Y, Petchey, F. 1999. Renewed excavations at Motu Paeao, Maupiti Island, French Polynesia: preliminary results. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 21:47–66.Google Scholar
Athens, SJ. 1997. Hawaiian native lowland vegetation in prehistory. In: Kirch, PV, Hunt, TL, editors. Historical Ecology in the Pacific Islands. New Haven: Yale University Press. p 248–70.Google Scholar
Bellwood, P. 1978. Archaeological Research in the Cook Islands. Pacific Anthropological Records 27. Honolulu: Bernice P Bishop Museum. 214 p.Google Scholar
Bolt, R. 2005. Peva: the archaeology of a valley on Rurutu, Austral Islands [PhD dissertation]. Honolulu: University of Hawaii.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2001. Development of the radiocarbon program. Radiocarbon 43(2A):355–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, FBH. 1935. Flora of Southeastern Polynesia. III. Dicotyledons. Bernice P Bishop Museum Bulletin 130. Honolulu: BP Bishop Museum. 386 p.Google Scholar
Conte, E, Anderson, A. 2003. Radiocarbon ages for two sites on Ua Huka, Marquesas. Asian Perspectives 42(3):155–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, WR. 2003. Impact of mid-Holocene hydro-isostatic highstand in regional sea level on habitability of islands in Pacific Oceania. Journal of Coastal Research 19(3):489–502.Google Scholar
Flenley, JR. 1993. The palaeoecology of Easter Island and its ecological disaster. In: Fischer, SR, editor. Easter Island Studies: Contributions to the History of Rapanui in Memory of William T. Mulloy. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 27–45.Google Scholar
Fosberg, FR. 1975. Vascular plants of Aitutaki. In: Stoddart, DR, Gibbs, PE, editors. Almost-Atoll of Aitutaki: Reef Studies in the Cook Islands, South Pacific. Atoll Research Bulletin 190. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. p 73–84.Google Scholar
Franklin, J, Merlin, M. 1992. Species-environment patterns of forest vegetation on the uplifted reef limestone of Atiu, Mangaia, Ma'uke, and Miti'aro, Cook Islands. Journal of Vegetation Science 3(3):3–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graves, MW, Addison, DJ. 1995. The Polynesian settlement of the Hawaiian Archipelago: integrating models and methods in archaeological interpretation. World Archaeology 26(3):380–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haberle, S, Atkin, G. 2005. Needles in a haystack: searching for sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) in the fossil pollen record. In: Ballard, C, Brown, P, Bourke, RM, Harwood, T, editors. The Sweet Potato in Oceania: A Reappraisal. Ethnology Monographs 19, Oceania Monograph 56. Sydney: University of Sydney. p 25–33.Google Scholar
Henderson, CP, Hancock, IR. 1989. A Guide to the Useful Plants of the Solomon Islands. Honiara: Ministry of Agriculture and Land Research Department. 465 p.Google Scholar
Holdaway, RN, Jacomb, C. 2000. Rapid extinction of the moas (Aves: Dinornithiformes): model, test, and implications. Science 287(5461):2250–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughen, KA, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Beck, JW, Bertrand, CJH, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Cutler, KB, Damon, PE, Edwards, RL, Fairbanks, RG, Friedrich, M, Guilderson, TP, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, Manning, S, Bronk Ramsey, C, Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW, Remmele, S, Southon, JR, Stuiver, M, Talamo, S, Taylor, FW, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2004. Marine04 marine radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3): 1059–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, TL, Lipo, CP. 2006. Late colonization of Easter Island. Science 311(5767):1603–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Irwin, G. 1992. The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 248 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennett, D, Anderson, A, Prebble, M, Southon, J. 2006. Prehistoric human impacts on Rapa, French Polynesia. Antiquity 80(308):340–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, PV. 2000. On the Roads of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. Berkeley: University of California Press. 446 p.Google Scholar
Kirch, PV, Ellison, J. 1994. Palaeoenvironmental evidence for human colonization of remote Oceanic islands. Antiquity 68(259):310–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, PV, Yen, DE. 1982. Tikopia: The Prehistory and Ecology of a Polynesian Outlier. Bernice P Bishop Museum Bulletin 238. Honolulu: BP Bishop Museum. 396 p.Google Scholar
Kirch, PV, Flenley, JR, Steadman, DW, Lamont, F, Dawson, S. 1992. Ancient environmental degradation. National Geographic Research & Exploration 8(2):166–79.Google Scholar
Kirch, PV, Steadman, DW, Butler, VL, Hather, J, Weisler, MI. 1995. Prehistory and human ecology in Eastern Polynesia: excavations at Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia. Archaeology in Oceania 30:47–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, PV, Coil, J, Weisler, MI, Conte, E, Anderson, AJ. 2004. Radiocarbon dating and site chronology. In: Conte, E, Kirch, PV, editors. Archaeological Investigations in the Mangareva Islands (Gambier Archipelago), French Polynesia. Contribution No. 62, Archaeological Research Facility. Berkeley: University of California. p 94–105.Google Scholar
McCormac, FG, Hogg, AG, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Higham, TFG, Reimer, PJ. 2004. SHCal04 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–11.0 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3): 1087–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFadgen, BG, Knox, FB, Cole, TRL. 1994. Radiocarbon calibration curve variations and their implications for the interpretation of New Zealand prehistory. Radiocarbon 36(2):221–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkes, A. 1994. Holocene environments and vegetational change on four Polynesian islands [PhD dissertation]. Hull: University of Hull.Google Scholar
Parkes, A. 1997. Environmental change and the impact of Polynesian colonization: sedimentary records from central Polynesia. In: Kirch, PV, Hunt, TL, editors. Historical Ecology in the Pacific Islands. New Haven: Yale University Press. p 166–99.Google Scholar
Rolett, BV, Conte, E. 1995. Renewed investigation of the Ha'atuatua Dune (Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands): a key site in Polynesian prehistory. Journal of the Polynesian Society 104:195–228.Google Scholar
Schiffer, MB. 1986. Radiocarbon dating and the “old wood” problem: the case of the Hohokam chronology. Journal of Archaeological Science 13(3):13–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spriggs, M, Anderson, A. 1993. Late colonization of East Polynesia. Antiquity 67(255):200–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steadman, DW. 1991. Extinct and extirpated birds from Aitutaki and Atiu, southern Cook Islands. Pacific Science 45(4):325–47.Google Scholar
Steadman, DW. 2006. Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 480 p.Google Scholar
Steadman, DW, Kirch, PV. 1990. Prehistoric extinction of birds on Mangaia, Cook Islands, Polynesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 87(24):9605–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steadman, DW, Pregill, GK, Burley, DV. 2002. Rapid prehistoric extinction of iguanas and birds in Polynesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 99(6):3673–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoddart, DR, Gibbs, PE, editors. 1975. Almost-Atoll of Aitutaki: Reef Studies in the Cook Islands, South Pacific. Atoll Research Bulletin 190. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. 158 p.Google Scholar
Traditional Tree Initiative. URL: http://www.agroforestry.net/tti/index.html. Accessed May 2007.Google Scholar
Walter, A, Sam, C. 2002. Fruits of Oceania [translated by P Ferrar from Fruits d'Océanie]. Canberra: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research Monograph No. 85.Google Scholar
Walter, R. 1998. Anai'o: The Archaeology of a Fourteenth Century Polynesian Community in the Cook Islands. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph 22. Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Association.Google Scholar