Archaeology in Oceania最新文献

Birds fulfilled an essential role in ancient Polynesian cultures. They were prized for their bones and colourful feathers, fat, and protein; their cultural importance is further highlighted in Polynesian oral histories. This research investigates the dynamics of human-bird interactions over time in the Marquesas Archipelago as known from archaeology, oral histories, ethnohistorical records, and museum collections. I analyse the range of avian taxa represented across the various datasets and their cultural uses. The results demonstrate that while some species are represented across one or more datasets, understanding the full extent of species’ cultural roles and use requires more than one thread of analysis, particularly for those taxa with limited or no archaeological signature. Two forms of managed resource use emerge from this study. One is tapu (prohibition of use), and the second is the conservative use of birds as a resource such as restricted feather collecting. Red feathers, represented in museum objects and historical accounts, highlight multiple taxa being used for specific adornment types. The combined analyses provide insights into the loss and persistence of species, as well as aspects of Marquesan cultural management.

Shellfish remains are ubiquitous to coastal archaeological sites in the Marquesas but have seldom been the focus of dedicated investigations into their contribution to past diet and daily life. On the island of Ua Huka, in the northern group of the archipelago, people have consumed a variety of shellfish since their arrival on the island around the early 12th century AD. By analysing assemblages from five coastal sites spanning from the early settlement until the 18th century and using an archaeomalacological approach (precise taxonomic identification, coupled quantification methods, observation of taphonomic processes, biometry), we attempt to recount the exploitation processes of this resource, from the initial gathering stage to the final discarding of the shell. We further explore inter-site and temporal variability in prey choice. Coupled with ethnographic accounts from European observers and insightful testimonies from current inhabitants of the island regarding present-day practices, we highlight the persistence of choices regarding species selection, breakage patterns and cooking processes on an island that has seen major subsistence changes since European contact.

We discuss new data from Colonization Phase and Early Expansion/Development Phase assemblages in the pre-contact Society Islands. We focus on analysis of marine faunal remains and fishing gear to infer diachronic shifts in subsistence practices at two well-dated coastal sites. Both Colonization Phase (AD 950–1200) and Early Expansion Phase (AD 1200–1450) faunal assemblages are dominated by fish and mollusks as opposed to animal domesticates. Colonization Phase assemblages see higher capture of Scombrids and higher capture of marine mammals and turtle. Early Expansion fishhook assemblages and faunal remains document a movement towards increased capture of reef fish as well as the adoption of local styles and locally specific fishing practices. Overall, the diachronic trend in the Society Island diets is towards a decrease in turtle, marine mammal, and wild bird remains and an increase in terrestrial domesticated species roughly two hundred years after colonization, similar to patterns seen elsewhere in Eastern Polynesia.

Mass capture of small fishes with a variety of nets, traps, and weirs was widely practiced and economically important across East Polynesia at western contact. Archaeological research, however, has suggested these technologies were less important during the early settlement period and gained prominence over time. Several explanations have been proposed, including resource depression, changes in marine environments, and/or social and economic reorientations. In the Marquesas Islands, pelagic and offshore fishes were historically well represented in early assemblages relative to most Polynesian islands. Here we report on fishbone assemblages from Nuku Hiva Island that were recovered with fine mesh screens, identified using a wide range of skeletal elements, and analysed with morphometric methods. The Hakaea Beach results demonstrate that mass capture of small fishes was especially important at this locality and sustained over three early, successive occupations. These patterns may reflect the nature of the local fisheries, preferential use of high-return capture strategies in this reef-limited setting, and/or purposeful avoidance of ciguatera-prone fishes and a preference for less vulnerable fishes. Overall, our findings highlight geographic variation in early Marquesan fisheries and provide archaeological evidence that mass capture technologies had an important place in the maritime toolkits of the earliest East Polynesian fishers.

Rituals and feasting ceremonies at Polynesian marae depict culturally complex relationships between humans and animals that cannot be explained by subsistence alone. In Central-East Polynesia, this topic still requires the elaboration of a “ritual zooarchaeology” framework. Using sea turtle assemblages from three sacred sites on Fakahina atoll (Tuamotu), this study offers a preliminary approach to faunal deposits from ritual contexts. Following systematic excavations of marae on Fakahina, analysis aimed to determine whether faunal deposits could be linked with intentional feasting and offering behaviours. To detect how ritual actions were organised through space, skeletal and taphonomic variables were examined for both overall sites and “sub-assemblages” within sites based on the spatial associations of fauna with site features.

At certain site features, derived quantitative units such as %MAU and recovery rate could identify potential offering behaviours through the intentional sorting of culturally significant body parts. The taphonomic signatures of site features could also identify open or closed deposition environments, assisting with the identification of disturbed features as either exposed platforms or enclosed cists. In addition to highlighting previously undocumented complexity in the use of site features, an overall comparison of turtle remains from the three sites shows the potential of these methods to explore variation in ritual practices.

Pig and dog were highly valued animals in pre-contact Polynesia. In this paper, I focus on pig and dog use in the resource rich, and hierarchically complex, pre-contact Society Island chiefdoms. Utilizing ethnohistoric data and human-centred use-webs data, I provide a preliminary study of the diverse ways that pigs and dogs were used in pre-contact Mā‘ohi life across 13 use categories. Ethnohistoric analyses indicate that pigs, and to some extent dogs, were intimately associated with elite ceremonial use, yet pigs were commonly associated with war and fertility rituals, while dogs were commonly associated with peacekeeping events. Preliminary comparison of pig and dog frequencies at eight excavated archaeological sites suggests pig bones far outnumber dog bones. There is also differential recovery of pig and dog bone in terms of site function and site status, with high status temples dating to the Centralization Phase having the highest incidence of both species. It is highly likely that the advent of the ‘Oro war cult led to intensified pig husbandry, given this animal's robust associations with ritual use, moral notions of chiefly power and cosmology. Why dog husbandry was less intensified in the Society Islands, and why this animal was perhaps accessed largely through long-distance trade relationships, is an ongoing question.

Presented here are the results of archaeoparasitological analysis of habitation layers at Shag River Mouth, Otago coast. Two types of helminth eggs were identified: The first type is Toxocara canis, associated with the introduced kurī dog (Canis familiaris), which could have adversely affected local people and their dogs. The other type very closely resembles that of Stringopotaenia psittacea, associated with the critically endangered endemic kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus) parrot. The results represent the first South Island archaeo parasitological identifications. There was no starch or associated material in the samples, such as introduced Polynesian crops and indigenous starchy Māori food plants. This lack is consistent with the interpretation of the site as that of a transient village focused on big game hunting.

Previous archaeological evidence and published analysis has suggested that ochre was first used in the Sydney Basin around 9000 years ago, and that the Parramatta region may not have been occupied by First Nations peoples before ∼14 ka. We present new evidence which firmly places both events before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Multiple ochre fragments, two with microscopically visible evidence of anthropogenic grinding, were recovered from the George Street Gatehouse site within the Parramatta Sand Body (PSB) at Parramatta. The ground ochre was associated with a pit feature buried within the PSB and dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) between ∼35 and 30 ka. This find is the earliest evidence for ochre processing in the Sydney Basin by some 25000 years. A previous model for the region had proposed that occupation prior to and during the LGM was focussed on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River corridor as a refugium, with only equivocal evidence of occupation prior to ∼14 ka at Parramatta (Williams et al., 2021). We propose that the Parramatta River could also have acted as a refugium for people moving through and occupying the now-drowned Pleistocene coastal zone; and that those people used ochre in their symbolic expressions.

Curracurrang 1 (1CU5) is a rockshelter site located in the Royal National Park (RNP) on the coast south of Sydney. Excavated from 1962 to 1966, the site's rich Holocene cultural deposit has become important for understanding regional Late Holocene developments in Australian lithic and shell technologies. Our comprehensive analysis of 1CU5's faunal remains is presented here, accompanied by new AMS radiocarbon dates and a reinterpretation of the site's occupation sequence. Much of the midden deposit spans from about 2500 BP to approximately 1850 AD, rather than only the last ∼1500 years as originally believed based on less comprehensive dating. A wide range of terrestrial and marine fauna were exploited at 1CU5, with the relative importance of the latter group increasing within the last ∼1500 years. Greater fish consumption during the later period may relate to use of novel hook and line fishing technology using hooks made from shellfish, but concurrent increases in seals, seabirds and marine invertebrates suggest a broader increased reliance on marine resources. By comparison, the earlier period, which coincides with the manufacture of backed microliths, displays relatively greater reliance on terrestrial marsupials. Taxonomic representation suggests occupation of the shelter from winter through spring, and potentially into summer. Analysis of the 1CU5 fauna marks an important contribution to the understanding of Late Holocene economies at the interface of the greater Sydney and NSW South Coast cultural and biogeographic regions.