Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station

01 Jun, 05 AM - 01 Jul, 05 AM

This subtask will delineate the pre-Polynesian environmental parameters, the commensal plant and animal species that the colonizing Polynesians introduced, the timing of Polynesian settlement, and the concomitant changes to the environment that were effected via early stage agricultural and ritual production. This task depends upon sampling subsurface depositional contexts containing stratigraphic records of island biota and zooarchaeological assemblages, leveraging the ongoing work of Kirch and Kahn on three of the four designated study islands. This work has demonstrated that data for the pre-Polynesian periods can be obtained from sampling coastal flats utilizing transect coring and test excavations to expose buried cultural deposits. We will leverage Kahn's and Kirch's ongoing sampling at 10 sites on Moorea and Maupiti that contain deposits dating to pre-Polynesian (c. 3000 BP) and Polynesian (c. 1100 BP) contexts rich in botanical and invertebrate faunal remains. More extensive excavations at four coastal deposits can be expected to yield zooarchaeological and paleobotanical assemblages sufficient to characterize the food webs present at the time of Polynesian colonization and in the decades immediately following. Similarly, we will enlarge our excavations at the key Onemea site on Mangareva (which has already yielded important assemblages of now expirpated avifauna) and other coastal contexts on Taravai Island dating to initial settlement and known to be rich in marine and terrestrial fauna deposits. This subtask will also expand paleo-ecological and archaeological fieldwork to Raiatea Island, focusing on pollen coring, coastal transects, augering, and archaeological excavation along the coastal plain at a minimum of ten locales. The expansion of this work to Raiatea will add important data for an island of mid-geological age along with age-progressive archipelago.

Visit #34473 @Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station

Approved

Under Project # 28411 | Research

Socio-Ecosystem Dynamics of Human-Natural Networks on Model

faculty - University of California, Berkeley

Reservation Members(s)

Summer Moore Jun 1 - Jul 1, 2014 (31 days)
Kelsey Frenkiel Jun 1 - Jul 1, 2014 (31 days)
Jennifer Kahn Jun 1 - Jul 1, 2014 (31 days)

Reserve Resources(s) | Create Invoice

Hillside bungalow F (highest) 4 Jun 1 - Jul 1, 2014