A. Morrison, Timothy M. Rieth, R. DiNapoli, E. Cochrane
{"title":"The Sāmoa Archaeological Geospatial Database: Initial description and application to settlement pattern studies in the Sāmoan Islands.","authors":"A. Morrison, Timothy M. Rieth, R. DiNapoli, E. Cochrane","doi":"10.15286/JPS.127.1.35-54","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15286/JPS.127.1.35-54","url":null,"abstract":"Clusters of associated features—such as house foundations and other domestic features, or related defensive features—were regarded as single settlement units and therefore assigned one site number. Discrete and comparatively isolated structural remains (e.g., terraces, tia ‘ave [star mounds], paths, and walls) were given individual site numbers. Furthermore, to single out members of different site categories, specialized sites were assigned individual site numbers even if found in close spatial association with other features. These site categories are tia ‘ave and basalt quarries. In some cases, ditches and other features that are in proximity to and were probably functionally related to tia ‘ave have been grouped with the tia ‘ave [typo in original corrected] (p.10)","PeriodicalId":45869,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Polynesian Society","volume":"99 1","pages":"35-54"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75417225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Samoa's hidden past: LiDAR confirms inland settlement and suggests larger populations in pre-contact Samoa","authors":"G. Jackmond, Dionne Fonotī, Matiu Matāvai Tautunu","doi":"10.15286/JPS.127.1.73-90","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15286/JPS.127.1.73-90","url":null,"abstract":"This communication presents results from LiDAR-guided field research in 2017 which revealed the existence of continuous indigenous population zones stretching from the coast to three or more kilometres inland across the district of Palauli East, Savai'i. The findings amplify archaeological evidence of a small number of inland settlements (recorded in the 1970s and earlier) on the main islands of 'Upolu and Savai'i as well as recent studies of the small islands of the Manu'a group and Manono. They build the case that in centuries prior to the 19th century inland settlement was far more extensive and villages were not, as had been widely assumed, mainly located on the coast. The findings also support contentions that Sāmoa may have had a much larger population in previous centuries than that indicated by missionary estimates of the mid-19th century.","PeriodicalId":45869,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Polynesian Society","volume":"11 1","pages":"73-90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75260845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using unsupervised classification techniques and the hypsometric index to identify anthropogenic landscapes throughout American Samoa","authors":"Stephanie S. Day","doi":"10.15286/JPS.127.1.55-72","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15286/JPS.127.1.55-72","url":null,"abstract":"Aerial LiDAR data offers a valuable tool in locating ancient anthropogenic landscapes around the world. This technology is particularly ideal in places where thick vegetation obscures the ground surface, reducing the utility of satellite imagery. On the islands of American Samoa, many interior anthropogenic landscapes remain unsurveyed, largely because the terrain makes it difficult and there is only general knowledge of where the anthropogenic modification may have existed. Aerial LiDAR flown in 2012 is proving to be a valuable tool in locating these prehistoric anthropogenic areas, yet improvements can be made on the methodology. This paper provides an unsupervised classification method to identify anthropogenic landscapes based on slope and hypsometric index: a topographic measure of roughness. Areas of American Samoa with known anthropogenic modifications were used to develop the classification techniques, which were then extended to areas where anthropogenic landscapes are undocumented and unexplored. The findings presented here suggest that interior anthropogenic patterns may be strongly dependent on island topography.","PeriodicalId":45869,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Polynesian Society","volume":"1 1","pages":"55-72"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89899541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring the intersection of settlement, subsistence and population in Manuā.","authors":"Seth Quintus","doi":"10.15286/JPS.127.1.15-34","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15286/JPS.127.1.15-34","url":null,"abstract":"The archaeology of Sāmoa has been structured around the investigation of settlement patterns and systems since the 1960s, and such investigations have been variously used to explore questions of temporal change relating to, among other things, political structure and subsistence. This same intellectual structure is applied here to the evaluation of variation between the geographically close islands of Ofu and Olosega, extending previous approaches by considering population estimates. These analyses, which include a calculation of carrying capacity and population estimates based on settlement patterns, suggest that Olosega supported a higher population density than Ofu, perhaps because of investments in tree cropping on the former. Variation in settlement distribution, subsistence strategies and population density has important implications for population resiliency and vulnerability in small-island societies.","PeriodicalId":45869,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Polynesian Society","volume":"16 1","pages":"15-34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78109409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Sand, David Baret, Jacques Bolé, André Ouetcho, M. Sahib
{"title":"Sāmoan settlement pattern and star mounds of Manono Island","authors":"C. Sand, David Baret, Jacques Bolé, André Ouetcho, M. Sahib","doi":"10.15286/JPS.127.1.91-110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15286/JPS.127.1.91-110","url":null,"abstract":"The small island of Manono, positioned between 'Upolu and Savai'i in the Samoan Archipelago, is known in oral traditions of West Polynesia as having had an important political role during the immediate pre-Christian period. An archaeological programme carried out between 2012 and 2015 has mainly concentrated on the mapping of parts of the northern half of the island, around Salua Village. This has allowed us to study in detail a portion of the slope as well as the central plateau of Manono, known to preserve a star mound first mapped in the 1960s during the large-scale programme organised under the direction of R.C. Green and J.M. Davidson. Our mapping of the 9ha fortified ridge has identified another 13 star mounds of different shapes and types, representing the largest concentration of this specifically Samoan layout known to date in this part of the archipelago. These are associated with another two structures of distinctively Tongan typology, referred to as 'sia heu lupe'. Initially we present the general settlement pattern of the northern part of Manono Island. This is followed by a review of the main characteristics of the 14 mapped star mounds and data on their chronology. The diversity of size, height and number of arms is addressed, showing significant differences in work expenditure between individual platforms. This variability is best illustrated by the identification of three star mounds that lack central fill and are only recognised as wild pigeon-snaring structures by the presence of raised branches/arms. Finally, the Manono settlement pattern data are positioned in relation to the larger study of the pre-Christian history of Samoa.","PeriodicalId":45869,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Polynesian Society","volume":"51 1","pages":"91-110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80956940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
P. Herda, Billie Lythberg, A. Mills, M. Taumoefolau
{"title":"What's in a name?: Reconstructing nomenclature of prestige and persuasion in late 18th-century Tongan material culture.","authors":"P. Herda, Billie Lythberg, A. Mills, M. Taumoefolau","doi":"10.15286/JPS.126.4.443-468","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15286/JPS.126.4.443-468","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is a study in the productivity of working across the disciplinary boundaries of material culture studies, historical linguistics and museology to restore the significance of historic names and terminological classifications for prestigious Tongan objects within the wider context of Western Polynesia. The authors trace the nomenclature of radial feather headdresses (palā tavake) both within Tonga as well as through linguistic cognates from elsewhere in Western Polynesia. Aspects of Tongan naming practices of other prestige items are considered, such as ‘akau tau ‘clubs’ and kie hingoa ‘named mats’, as is the Tongan practice of the poetical device of heliaki. We argue for a deeper understanding of objects of Tongan material culture and the historical and social environment that created them by closely “reading” prestige objects from Tonga’s past.","PeriodicalId":45869,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Polynesian Society","volume":"1961 1","pages":"443-468"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2017-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91228789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding Aotearoa's past through the recovery and conservation of a 15th-century canoe and its fibrework from Papanui Inlet, Otago Peninsula","authors":"Dilys Johns, S. Briden, Rachel Wesley, G. Irwin","doi":"10.15286/JPS.126.4.469-494","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15286/JPS.126.4.469-494","url":null,"abstract":"When Tasman and Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1642 and 1769 respectively they both sighted double-hulled canoes ('waka') on New Zealand's coast. However, over the next 100 or so years these canoes disappeared. Fortuitously the recent rescue and conservation of a waterlogged 'waka' and fibrework assemblage on the shores of Papanui Inlet has allowed rare insight into the lives of its inhabitants nearly 550 years ago, when New Zealand's seminal migrants established themselves in the remote south of New Zealand. These discoveries reinforce traditional stories around early Maori occupation of Te Waipounamu and offer additional clarification of 'iwi' 'tribal' activities in their local environment many generations ago. Conservation of these 'taoka' 'treasures' on Otakou Marae has provided easy, continuous access for descendants of the 'waka' to their 'taoka' throughout the process and aided the development of constructive relationships for 'iwi' and conservation and archaeological agencies. Here we discuss recent fieldwork with an emphasis on conservation, cross-cultural engagement and the assemblage recovered to date, followed by comparison of the waka reported here with another discovered within the Te Runanga o Otakou 'rohe' 'territory' over 120 years ago by Elsdon Best. Imminent investigations to excavate cultural material from Papanui Inlet's actively degrading coastline are scheduled for January 2018, and the resulting environmental and archaeological information from this research will be discussed fully elsewhere.","PeriodicalId":45869,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Polynesian Society","volume":"40 1","pages":"469-494"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2017-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88456332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Te Laa o Lata of Taumako: Gauging the performance of an ancient Polynesian sail","authors":"M. George","doi":"10.15286/JPS.126.4.377-416","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15286/JPS.126.4.377-416","url":null,"abstract":"Voyaging canoes were the vehicles of ancient Pacific exploration, settlement and interactions. However, we know little about the ocean-going performance of those vessels. This account of Taumako (Duff Islands) voyaging technology draws on 20 years of collaborative research initiated by Koloso Kaveia, the late paramount chief of Taumako, during which a new generation learned to build and sail voyaging canoes using only ancient materials, methods, designs and tool types. Recent researchers have tested models of bifurcate tipped sail shapes in wind tunnels. The shapes they used, which appear similar to what Taumakoans call Te Laa o Lata, demonstrated outstanding efficiency compared to others. But one researcher noticed that a more flexibly tipped model performed better than a rigid model. Historical, cultural, technical and operational information about the proportions and the built-in flexibility and plasticity of the design, materials and rig of real Te Laa o Lata suggest that there is much more to learn about their performance. If a model of Te Laa o Lata is to be tested in a wind tunnel it must be shape-shifting and proportionally correct. It also should be rigged to allow it to align and adjust itself in the ways that it actually does at sea. Furthermore, the role of the mostly submarine hull and buoyant outrigger on sail and vessel performance should be measured in a tow tank. But since Taumakoans are still building and sailing Vaka o Lata (ancient Polynesian voyaging vessels) using centuries-old designs, materials and methods, it is still possible to measure the aerodynamic performance of Te Laa o Lata and the hydrodynamic performance of the overall vessel at sea, as well as to more fully understand how the vessel works and how it is sailed under various conditions and for various purposes.","PeriodicalId":45869,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Polynesian Society","volume":"274 1","pages":"377-416"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76321511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the \"margins\" of empire? Toward a history of Hawaiian labour and settlement in the Pacific Northwest.","authors":"N. Calnitsky","doi":"10.15286/JPS.126.4.417-442","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15286/JPS.126.4.417-442","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45869,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Polynesian Society","volume":"64 1","pages":"417-442"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74594619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}