Patrick V. Kirch

Phylogeny and ancient DNA of Sus provides insights into neolithic expansion in Island Southeast Asia and Oceania

Human settlement of Oceania marked the culmination of a global colonization process that began when humans first left Africa at least 90,000 years ago. The precise origins and dispersal routes of the Austronesian peoples and the associated Lapita culture remain contentious, and numerous disparate models of dispersal (based primarily on linguistic, genetic, and archeological data) have been proposed. Here, through the use of mtDNA from 781 modern and ancient Sus specimens, we provide evidence for an early human-mediated translocation of the Sulawesi warty pig (Sus celebensis) to Flores and Timor and two later separate human-mediated dispersals of domestic pig (Sus scrofa) through Island Southeast Asia into Oceania. Of the later dispersal routes, one is unequivocally associated with the Neolithic (Lapita) and later Polynesian migrations and links modern and archeological Javan, Sumatran, Wallacean, and Oceanic pigs with mainland Southeast Asian S. scrofa. Archeological and genetic evidence shows these pigs were certainly introduced to islands east of the Wallace Line, including New Guinea, and that so-called “wild” pigs within this region are most likely feral descendants of domestic pigs introduced by early agriculturalists. The other later pig dispersal links mainland East Asian pigs to western Micronesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. These results provide important data with which to test current models for human dispersal in the region.

The Evolution of Polynesian Chiefdoms.

Preface 1. Introduction Part I. Foundation: 2. Polynesian societies and ecosystems 3. Ancestral Polynesia Part II. Process: 4. Dispersal, colonization, and adaptation 5. The demographic factor 6. Changing environments 7. Development and intensification of production 8. Competition and conflict Part III. Transformation: 9. Tonga 10. Hawaii 11. Easter Island 12. Epilogue Glossary of Polynesian terms References Index.

Palaeoenvironmental evidence for human colonization of remote Oceanic islands

Not every first footstep on a virgin shore leaves enduring trace, nor every first human settlement an enduring deposit that chances to survive, and then chances to be observed archaeologically. Good environmental evidence from Mangaia Island, central East Polynesia, gives - it is contended - a fairer picture of the human invasion of remote Oceania than the short and sceptical chronology recently published in ANTIQUITY.

Lapita sites of the Bismarck Archipelago

The Lapita question The prehistory of the western Pacific has, for the last 30 years, been dominated by the problem of the origins of the present Polynesian and Melanesian cultures (Terrell 1988). In 1961 Golson drew attention to the distribution of highly decorated Lapita pottery, now known to date from between 3500 BP and 2000 BP, which crossed the present-day division between Melanesia and Polynesia. Furthermore, sites with Lapita pottery represented the first evidence of occupation on Tonga and Samoa, the most westerly Polynesian islands from which it was thought that the rest of Polynesia was colonized. Lapita pottery came to be associated with a movement of people from Melanesia to Polynesia and was seen to represent the founding group ancestral to later Polynesian groups.

Investigating the Global Dispersal of Chickens in Prehistory Using Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Signatures

Data from morphology, linguistics, history, and archaeology have all been used to trace the dispersal of chickens from Asian domestication centers to their current global distribution. Each provides a unique perspective which can aid in the reconstruction of prehistory. This study expands on previous investigations by adding a temporal component from ancient DNA and, in some cases, direct dating of bones of individual chickens from a variety of sites in Europe, the Pacific, and the Americas. The results from the ancient DNA analyses of forty-eight archaeologically derived chicken bones provide support for archaeological hypotheses about the prehistoric human transport of chickens. Haplogroup E mtDNA signatures have been amplified from directly dated samples originating in Europe at 1000 B.P. and in the Pacific at 3000 B.P. indicating multiple prehistoric dispersals from a single Asian centre. These two dispersal pathways converged in the Americas where chickens were introduced both by Polynesians and later by Europeans. The results of this study also highlight the inappropriate application of the small stretch of D-loop, traditionally amplified for use in phylogenetic studies, to understanding discrete episodes of chicken translocation in the past. The results of this study lead to the proposal of four hypotheses which will require further scrutiny and rigorous future testing.

New archaeological insights into food and status: a case study from pre-contact Hawaii

Social differentiation and hierarchy were more highly developed in protohistoric Hawaii than in any other Polynesian culture. In this paper we draw upon both ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence in order to examine the correlations between social status and consumption of ‘luxury’ foods. We examine the concept of ‘luxury food’ from an indigenous, emic perspective, finding that in protohistoric Hawaii the concept most closely correlates to fatty or greasy flesh foods, which were prized both by elites and for ceremonial use (ritual presentation). The zooarchaeological record of four household clusters in Kahikinui, Maui, is then examined in order to test and refine predictions from the ethnohistoric record. While our data confirm differential access to and consumption of prestige flesh foods by elite households, the archaeological data also add new insights. In particular, a pattern of consumption of the indigenous Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) by commoner households is a finding not indicated ethnographically.

Second millenniumB.C. arboriculture in Melanesia: Archaeological evidence from the Mussau Islands

The Malayo-Oceanic tropics have long been regarded as a center for plant domestication, but archaeology has as yet contributed little direct evidence of the processes of domestication in prehistory. Recent excavations of Lapita culture sites in the Mussau Islands dating to 1600–500 B.C. have yielded the first significant assemblage of preserved seeds and other floral remains representing 20+ taxa. Nearly all of these are tree crops of widespread importance in Malayo-Oceanic cultivation systems. These materials confirm that the Lapita culture, responsible for the initial human settlement of much of the southwestern Pacific, included developed arboriculture in its economic system.

Island societies : archaeological approaches to evolution and transformation

1. Introduction: the archaeology of island societies Patrick V. Kirch 2. Landscape, land use and political transformation in southern Melanesia Matthew Spriggs 3. Conceptual and substantive issues in Fijian prehistory Terry L. Hunt 4. Exchange systems and inter-island contact in the transformation of an island society: the Tikopia case Patrick V. Kirch 5. The role of competition and cooperation in the evolution of island societies George J. Gumerman 6. Some basic components of the Ancestral Polynesian settlement system: building blocks for more complex Polynesian societies R. C. Green 7. Social evolution in ancient Hawaii Robert J. Hommon 8. The socio-political structure of the southern coastal area of Easter Island: AD 1300-1864 Christopher M. Stevenson 9. Turtles, priests and the afterworld: a study in the iconographic interpretation of Polynesian petroglyphs Barry Rolett References Index.

The Evolution of Sociopolitical Complexity in Prehistoric Hawaii: An Assessment of the Archaeological Evidence

The sociopolitical system of late prehistoric Hawaii was among the most complex of any Oceanic chiefdom, as indexed by such characteristics as scale, rate of energy extraction, degree of functional specialization, and political hierarchy. Various anthropologists and archaeologists have advanced models of how this complex sociopolitical system developed out of an earlier Ancestral Polynesian society. Recent advances in Hawaiian archaeology have now begun to provide a wealth of data on the course of prehistoric change in the archipelago over some 1500 years and, thus, provide evidence which can be used to test alternative models of the evolution of sociopolitical complexity. This paper reviews the major alternative models that have been put forward and provides a synopsis of the archaeological evidence relevant to their testing.

Monumental architecture and power in Polynesian chiefdoms: A comparison of Tonga and Hawaii

Abstract Polynesia, with its rich ethnohistoric as well as archaeological materials pertaining to settlement landscapes, provides excellent opportunities for studying the role of monumental architecture in complex chiefdom societies. In this paper, the complex, highly stratified societies of Tonga and Hawaii are compared with respect to the forms, size ranges, spatial distribution, and function of monuments. While the specific forms and cultural associations of Tongan and Hawaiian monuments are seen to differ, there are also many similarities in monument hierarchy, size ranges, territorial distribution, and functions in these two Polynesian chiefdoms.