Geoarchaeology of Tonga: Geotectonic and geomorphic controls

Dickinson, William R.; Burley, David V.

doi:10.1002/gea.20164

Cited by 38 publications

(49 citation statements)

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“…Differences in soil fertility/quality do not seem to be the only force influencing food choices of these early Pacific populations. While the Watom, Uripiv and Teouma sites have fertile metamorphic and volcanic soils, the limestone soils of Tongatapu have been enriched by falls of airborne volcanic ash (Dickinson and Burley, 2007).…”

Section: Dietary Pattern At Talasiu and Environmental Conditions: Drimentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-isotopic analysis of first Polynesian diet (Talasiu, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga)

Herrscher¹,

Fenner²,

Valentin³

et al. 2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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A B S T R A C TBoth archaeological and isotopic data document dietary changes over the first five centuries of Western Pacific island settlement, a time period beginning with the Lapita expansion about 3000 years ago. This change is marked by a decrease in marine food intake and an increase in vegetal food intake occurring in the Late Lapita/ immediately post-Lapita populations. The recent discovery of human burials at Talasiu (~2700-2600 cal. BP) in the Kingdom of Tonga opens new opportunities to assess this matter. We characterize the nature of the food items consumed by the Talasiu humans (n = 21) using collagen and apatite carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. We conducted an intra-Pacific comparison to examine the use of marine resources and the contribution of horticultural products and to look at the homogeneity of dietary practices within the Tongan group. Isotope results indicate a mixed diet of terrestrial and marine resources including a differential contribution of more specific marine foods (e.g., non-reef fish/inshore fish and shellfish). The Talasiu dietary pattern appears closer to that of the early Lapita population of Teouma than to other Late Lapita populations suggesting a different pattern of dietary change at the eastern end of the Lapita distribution. The slower rate of change may be due to the small size of both the island and the population, and also the additional potential role of social or cultural factors.

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Section: Dietary Pattern At Talasiu and Environmental Conditions: Drimentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-isotopic analysis of first Polynesian diet (Talasiu, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga)

Herrscher¹,

Fenner²,

Valentin³

et al. 2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…The main island of 'Uta Vava'u forms the northern edge of an uplifted limestone platform, including several embayments and the brackish water Lake Ano. The limestone platform of Vava'u slopes southward, where its subsidence has produced numerous smaller islands (Dickinson and Burley 2007). Several swamps were examined in Vava'u, including the two discussed here -Ngofe Marsh and Avai'o'vuna Swamp -for their potential to provide palaeoecological data on pre-settlement forests and subsequent vegetation change associated with settlement by Lapita and later cultures (Figure 3).…”

Section: Vava'u Island Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Haberle¹,

Stevenson²,

Prebble³

2010

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terra australis 32Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for South-East Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. Copyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2009. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Among saltbush greyer than seaweed we boardwalk the yeasting waves of the old golden-perch pond. List of volumes in Terra AustralisRabbit dung dots a lake bottom dry since their coming -only once, last century, after seven inches of rain a farmer had to rescue his sheep by boat.The roo bounces down-slope, a brown branch crackling.The professor's eye, noting the local runoff and what the westerlies do, observes seas that rush in and out of a continent's middle, salt lakes spreading and emptying, hills pimpling up and down with cartoon-like speed, or gullying themselves into extinction, rainforests and deserts zipping back and forth like Tom and Jerry. A human mouse plague swiftly swarms, perhaps soon gone.Impermanent planet. Impermanent surface. All under air and water. The lunette is a wave, a dumper of sand, a collapsing tower in the mad rabbit years when its top blew off and old bones winked through, with a vault's worth of fine stone cores.Once so simply mislaid in sand, now so obligingly sluiced out to the un-subincised world that smiles at stone knives. terra australis 32Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes v You might as well offer your table knife to a carpenter.Cane grass and the Dreamtime's stone fight the eroding rivulets together. In today's rare downpour each lost core, or blunted scraper crowns some tiny eroding hillock, plops its anchor in the dissolving silts.The bettong whose skin took off the stone tool's edge has vanished -sacrifice to future fertility.Through the softening soil Homo sapiens's skeleton bumps up like a carp's back.Waits for the wind to shave it off in pieces.A D-section and a ti...

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“…(Bellwood, 1997;Kirch, 2000Kirch, , 2010Spriggs, 2007), generally at sites that today are broad sandy beaches but once had been small offshore islets, sand berms or spits, narrow beach fringes, and strand-like swampy settings around the end of a mid-Holocene highstand of sea level about 1.5e2 m above the present level (Carson, 2008a(Carson, , 2008bDickinson and Burley, 2007;Gosden and Webb, 1994;Kirch, 1997;Nunn, 2005Nunn, , 2007Wickler, 2001). These findings suggest an ancient preference for coastal habitats that no longer exist today, masked not only by sea-level fall but also by several centuries of coastal progradation, accumulated sediments, and other transformations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Palaeohabitat of first settlement sites 1500–1000 B.C. in Guam, Mariana islands, western Pacific

Carson

2011

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Geoarchaeology of Tonga: Geotectonic and geomorphic controls

Cited by 38 publications

References 54 publications

Multi-isotopic analysis of first Polynesian diet (Talasiu, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga)

Multi-isotopic analysis of first Polynesian diet (Talasiu, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga)

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Palaeohabitat of first settlement sites 1500–1000 B.C. in Guam, Mariana islands, western Pacific

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