New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Index  >  Vol 25 Weisler 2

 

NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY ISSN 0110~540X ABSTRACT

 

Contraction of the Southeast Polynesian

Interaction Sphere and Resource

Depression on Temoe Atoll

 

Marshall I. Weisler1

 

ABSTRACT

The southeast Polynesian interaction sphere, involving most frequently islands in

Mangareva and the Pitcairn group, was active for at least five centuries beginning

about AD 1000. By western contact in the early seventeenth century, all islands in the

Pitcairn group were abandoned, signalling a contraction of the sphere. Systematic

survey and excavations were conducted on Temoe Atoll, the next closest island to the

main Mangareva group, to determine the spatial and temporal boundaries of that

contraction. The excavations in five late prehistoric habitation sites are described, and

provide the first subsistence remains from the atoll. These consist of 21,590 bones of

fish, bird, turtle, Pacific rat and human as well as 25 kg of shell midden, mostly

Turbo gastropods. Reconstructed weights of parrotfish (Scaridae), by far the most

common fish taxon, illustrate a decline in size during late prehistory, pointing to

exploitation depression. The x-ray fluorescence analysis of volcanic artefacts

documents ties with the main Mangareva group, suggesting that the reduced

interaction sphere lasted until the early nineteenth century when Temoe was finally

abandoned.

 

Key words: POLYNESIA, MANGAREVA, PREHISTORIC INTERACTION,

RADIOCARBON DATING, X-RAY FLUORESCENCE, FAUNA, RESOURCE

DECLINE, TEMOE ATOLL.

 

 

1School of Social Science, The Michie Building, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld

4072 Australia. Email: m.weisler@uq.edu.au (formerly Department of Anthropology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand)

 

Ó Copyright New Zealand Archaeological Association.

Paper Purchase:

 

VOLUME / PAPER INDEX, SEARCH NZJA INDEX