A 3000-Year Culture Sequence from Palau, Western Micronesia

Abstract

In western Micronesia archaeological sites containing material-culture remains spanning millennia are rare. This paper reports one from Ulong Island in Palau, which is radiocarbon dated to 3000 cal. B.P. The pottery sequence was divided into three assemblages, each distinguished by distinct vessel forms and by the type and proportion of nonplastic temper inclusions. An abrupt transformation of the ceramic assemblage is tentatively dated to around 2400 cal. B.P., coincident with substantial landscape alteration on the main island where pottery was manufactured, indicating that anthropogenic activity may have constrained the raw materials available to prehistoric potters. There is a discontinuity in the sequence from 2000-1000 B.P. that might represent an hiatus in site use. Critical consideration of paleoenvironmental data pointing to human arrival at 4500-4300 cal. B.P. suggests, instead, that climatic events may be responsible for the observed palaeoecological changes. If so, then sites dating to 3300-3000 cal. B.P., such as Ulong, could well be among the oldest in western Micronesia.

Post-Lapita ceramic change in Fiji

“…In Palau, the earliest ceramics were tempered with calcareous and volcanic sands, which were no longer readily available on Babeldoab after anthropogenic upland erosion, island subsidence and the ensuing expansion of mangroves over 80% of the coastline. As an alternative to increasingly scarce beach sand tempers (Clark 2005) potters instead turned to 'grog' (prefired clay).…”

Oral tradition and archaeology: Palau’s earth architecture

“…In the past decade, Palau's archaeological history has been largely rewritten due to archaeological mitigation for the Compact Road (Athens and Ward 2005;Liston 2007aListon , 2010aTuggle 2010) and academic research (Fitzpatrick 2003;Clark 2005;Clark et al 2006). These recent investigations on Babeldaob recognised the vast extent of modified terrain, identified a large number of previously undocumented earthworks, and radiometrically dated the era of significant terrace construction and use to ca.…”

The rat and the octopus: initial human colonization and the prehistoric introduction of domestic animals to Remote Oceania

“…Further, while Rattus exulans certainly accompanied Lapita migrations, either or both as a stowaway or because it was a useful emergency food, there is a growing list of cases where it seems to arrive later. In a 3,000 year long sequence from Palau, no bone of Rattus exulans is apparent (Clark 2005), but it occurs about 1000 BP in an 1,800 year long sequence at Utrok Atoll, in the Marshall Islands (Weisler 2001). Rattus exulans also arrived quite late in the Marianas, about 1,200-1,000 years ago (Steadman 1999) (White et al 2000).…”

“…A third species, Rattus tanezumi, has an exclusively north Pacific distribution in Micronesia. Probable Rattus tanezumi appears at about 1000 BP in Palau (Clark 2005;Masse et al 2006). As it is difficult to distinguish osteologically from Rattus rattus, some uncertainty exists about whether identifications of the latter at 1700 BP on Fais in Micronesia, or on Nukuoro, might actually be R. tanezumi, or indeed whether all of these finds need closer consideration.…”