A radiocarbon chronology for Sāmoan prehistory

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Abstract

The corpus of radiocarbon dates for Sāmoan archaeology has grown exponentially since the pioneering work of Green and Davidson in the 1960s, enabling us to re-analyze the archipelago's cultural chronology. A reliable and valid radiocarbon chronology forms the basis for describing and explaining cultural variability and change in the central Pacific. Towards that end, in this paper we compile the available radiocarbon dates from published and unpublished (“grey literature”) sources. We critically evaluate 236 radiocarbon dates following a chronometric hygiene protocol to identify the most secure and reliable age estimates. We accept 147 dates (62.3%) as a means of addressing two significant issues for Sāmoan prehistory: (1) the chronology of settlement and human expansion across the archipelago pre-2000 cal BP, which relates to issues of Lapita colonization, and the effect of island geomorphology on settlement; and (2) analysis of the so-called “Dark Ages” (ca. 1500–1000 cal BP), a period relevant to issues of social complexity and East Polynesian settlement. Our research highlights the need for a rigorous sampling protocol for radiocarbon dating.

Section snippets

Sāmoan prehistory

Green (2002) has provided a recent review of Sāmoan prehistory, one that generally follows the culture history originally proposed over 30 years ago (see Smith, 2002). His more recent overview was meant to provide an organization of settlement pattern data, and, as others have noted (Addison and Asaua, 2006), there has been a conscious resistance to dividing Sāmoan prehistory into culture historical phases (Green and Davidson, 1974b: p. 212). The early emphasis on settlement pattern studies (

Radiocarbon dating and “chronometric hygiene”

The development of an absolute chronology of Sāmoan prehistory was an implicit yet critical objective of Green and Davidson, 1969a, Green and Davidson, 1974a seminal research program. Green (1969a: p. 5) outlined the main research objectives, which were primarily concerned with typological descriptions of features and portable artifacts, as well as field surveys and settlement pattern analysis. The radiocarbon dates from their excavations provided an absolute chronology for their settlement

Radiocarbon events and target events

Radiocarbon dating must be understood as a direct measure of a radiocarbon event, which is used to infer the age of an archaeological target event (Dean, 1978). By measuring the residual radiocarbon content of a sample that has been isolated from the carbon reservoir(s), the age of this separation from atmospheric or marine carbon, i.e., the death of an organism, can be calculated. This event must then be correlated, by a bridging argument, with a target event of archaeological interest. The

Chronometric hygiene results

Of a total of 236 radiocarbon dates available for the archipelago, we accept 147 (62.3%) dates. Appendix A (in the online supporting materials) provides a complete tabulation of the radiocarbon dates and explanations for their classification. We excluded most dates based on criteria A and B, dating by the Gakushuin Laboratory and a CRA standard deviation ≥100 years, respectively. The Gakushuin Laboratory problem can be rectified with additional dates from the same deposits. New dates may

Initial colonization of Sāmoa: a review of the pre-2000 cal BP dates

There is broad consensus (see papers in Clark et al., 2002) that Lapita appears near-instantaneously across Fiji-West Polynesia region, and that it rapidly simplifies into Polynesian Plainware. Evaluating the earliest human presence in the Sāmoan archipelago requires a critical review of the pre-2000 cal BP radiocarbon dates to refine the accuracy of the radiocarbon chronology. This is a necessary first step in assessing any model for the colonization of the archipelago. Fig. 9 shows the location

The “Dark Ages,” ca. 1500–1000 cal BP

The compilation of radiocarbon dates from the archipelago also allows examination of a later period in Sāmoan prehistory, which has not garnered as much research to date. Approximately 1400 cal years after initial colonization and settlement in the Sāmoan archipelago, the period from ca. 1500 to 1000 cal BP has been noted by archaeologists as a poorly understood Dark Age with little associated cultural material (Davidson, 1979: pp. 94–95; see also Poulsen, 1974 for Tonga). Presumably, it was

Conclusions

Archaeological research in Sāmoa was pioneered by a program of extensive survey and excavation in Western Sāmoa, which established a culture historical framework that archaeologists continued to follow (Green and Davidson, 1969a, Green and Davidson, 1974a, Jennings et al., 1976, Jennings and Holmer, 1980a). The majority of the more recent research in the archipelago has centered on cultural resource management projects in American Sāmoa (Addison et al., 2006, Carson, 2005, Cleghorn and Shapiro,

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