Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T00:43:30.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

FROM LAND AND SEA: OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF DIRECTLY DATING DOG REMAINS ON POLYNESIAN ISLANDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2020

Justin Cramb Open the ORCID record for Justin Cramb [Opens in a new window]  and
Carla S Hadden
Justin Cramb*
Affiliation:
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology University of Georgia, Center for Applied Isotope Studies
Carla S Hadden
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Center for Applied Isotope Studies
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent archaeological excavations on Rakahanga Atoll, Northern Cook Islands, produced one of the earliest examples of dog (Canis familiaris) remains found on East Polynesian atolls. Direct dating of these and other Pacific Island fauna by AMS is complicated by a number of factors. (1) The animals’ diets may consist of marine and terrestrial protein. (2) Marine 14C is itself a mix of carbon pools with localized offsets that vary over time and space. (3) The region is potentially impacted by inter-hemispheric mixing of atmospheric 14C. Stable isotope analysis of gelatin extracted from dog teeth was used to estimate marine/terrestrial dietary components and paired terrestrial and marine samples were used to constrain local atmospheric and marine carbon offsets. The dates were modeled as a phase in a Bayesian chronological framework using mixed calibration curves. The resulting models confirm the presence of dogs on Rakahanga shortly after the initial colonization of the region and suggest that dogs were among the species that accompanied voyagers as they discovered and settled new islands. These methods can be applied to accurately date any marine-influenced terrestrial vertebrate remains in Remote Oceania.

Keywords

AMS datingBayesian modelingdogPolynesiastable isotopes
Type
Conference Paper
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 62 , Issue 6: Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium , December 2020 , pp. 1651 - 1665
Check for updates
Copyright
© 2020 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 9th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Athens, GA, USA, 20–24 May 2019

References

REFERENCES

Allen, MS, Craig, JA. 2009. Dynamics of Polynesian subsistence: insights from archaeofauna and stable isotope studies, Aitutaki, Southern Cook Islands. Pacific Science 63(4):447–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, MS, Huebert, JM. 2014. Short-lived plant materials, long-lived trees, and Polynesian 14C dating: considerations for 14C sample selection and documentation. Radiocarbon 56(1):257–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, SH. 1990. Preparation and characterization of bone and tooth collagen for isotopic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 17(4): 431–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, A. 1991. The chronology of colonization in New Zealand. Antiquity 65(249):767–795.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, A. 1996. Was Rattus exulans in New Zealand 2000 years ago? AMS radiocarbon ages from Shag River Mouth. Archaeology in Oceania 31(3):178–184.Google Scholar
Anderson, A. 2000. Differential reliability of 14C AMS ages of Rattus exulans bone gelatin in South Pacific prehistory. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 30(3):243–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, A. 2003. Models of initial colonization in Polynesia. In: Rockman, M, Steele, J, editors. The colonization of unfamiliar landscapes: the archaeology of adaptation. New York: Routledge Press. p. 169–189.Google Scholar
Anderson, A, Conte, E, Kirch, PV, Weisler, M. 2003. Cultural chronology in Mangareva (Gambier Islands), French Polynesia: evidence from recent radiocarbon dating. The Journal of the Polynesian Society 112(2):119–140.Google Scholar
Athfield, NB, McFadgen, B, Sparks, R. 1999. Reliability of bone gelatin AMS dating: Rattus exulans and marine shell radiocarbon dates from Pauatahanui midden sites in Wellington, New Zealand. Radiocarbon 41(2):119–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bay-Petersen, J. 1983. Competition for resources: the role of pig and dog in the Polynesian agricultural economy. Journal de la Société des Océanistes 39:121–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaglehole, E, Beaglehole, P. 1938. Ethnology of Pukapuka. Bernice, P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 150. Honolulu: The Bishop Museum Press.Google Scholar
Braziunas, TF, Fung, IY, Stuiver, M 1995. The preindustrial atmospheric 14CO2 latitudinal gradient as related to exchanges among atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial reservoirs. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 9(4):565–584.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burley, D, Weisler, MW, Zhao, J. 2012. High precision U/Th dating of first Polynesian settlement. PLoS ONE 7(11):e48769.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cherkinsky, AE, Culp, RA, Dvoracek, DK, Noakes, JE. 2010. Status of the AMS Facility at the Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 268:867–870.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chikamori, M. 1998. Archaeological Studies on the Cook Islands. Series 2. Occasional papers of the Department of Archaeology and Ethnology. Vol. 12. Tokyo: Keio University.Google Scholar
Chikamori, M, Yoshida, S. 1988. An archaeological Survey of Pukapuka Atoll, 1985: Preliminary Report. Occasional papers of the Department of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 6. Tokyo: Keio University.Google Scholar
Cumming, CFG. 1882. A lady’s cruise in a French man-o-war. London: Blackwood and Sons.Google Scholar
Di Piazza, A. 2005. Excavations at Avarua (RAK-1): a late archaeological assemblage from a pearl shell workshop on Rakahanga, Northern Cook Islands. People and Culture in Oceania 20:69–88.Google Scholar
Dye, TS. 2016 Long-term rhythms in the development of Hawaiian social stratification. Journal of Archaeological Science 71:1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandes, R, Millard, AR, Brabec, M, Nadeau, MJ, Grootes, P. 2014. Food reconstruction using isotopic transferred signals (FRUITS): a Bayesian model for diet reconstruction. PLoS ONE 9(2):e87436.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fernandes, R, Meadows, J, Dreves, A. 2015. Radiocarbon and diet: aquatic food resources and reservoir effects. Radiocarbon 57(4):iii–v.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forster, G. 1777. A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty’s sloop, resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5. 2 vols. London: White.Google Scholar
Hadden, CS, Schwadron, M. 2019. Marine reservoir effects in eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) from southwestern Florida, USA. Radiocarbon. doi: 10.1017/RDC.2019.25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, JN. 1928. Under the South. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Hedges, REM. 2000. Appraisal of radiocarbon dating of kiore bones (Pacific rat Rattus exulans) in New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 30(4):385–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hiroa, TR. 1932a. Ethnology of Manihiki and Rakahanga. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 99. Honolulu: The Bishop Museum Press.Google Scholar
Hiroa, TR. 1932b. Ethnology of Tongareva. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 92. Honolulu: The Bishop Museum Press.Google Scholar
Hogg, AG, Hua, Q, Blackwell, PG, Niu, M, Buck, CE, Guilderson, TP, Heaton, TJ, Palmer, JG, Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW, Turney, CS. 2013. SHCal13 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55:1889–1903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holdaway, RN. 1999. A spatio-temporal model for the invasion of the New Zealand archipelago by the Pacific rat Rattus exulans . Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 29(2):91–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, JB, Ferguson, JM. 2012. Estimating the diets of animals using stable isotopes and a comprehensive Bayesian mixing model. PLoS ONE 7(1):e28478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaffrés, JBD, Cuff, C, Rasmussen, C, Hesson, AS. 2018. Teleconnection of atmospheric and oceanic climate anomalies with Australian weather patterns: a review of data availability. Earth-Science Reviews 176:117–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, PV. 1986. Rethinking east Polynesian prehistory. The Journal of the Polynesian Society 95(1):9–40.Google Scholar
Kirch, PV. 2000. On the Road of the Winds: an archaeological history of the Pacific Islands before European contact. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kirch, PV, Ellison, J. 1994. Palaeoenvironmental evidence for human colonization of remote Oceanic islands. Antiquity 68(259):310–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, PV, Kahn, JG. 2007. Advances in Polynesian prehistory: A review and assessment of the past decade (1993–2004). Journal of Archaeological Research 15(3):191–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, PV, Steadman, DW, Butler, VL, Hather, J, Weisler, MI. 1995. Prehistory and human ecology in Eastern Polynesia: excavations at Tangatatau rockshelter, Mangaia, Cook Islands. Archaeology in Oceania 30(2):47–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kloosterman, AMJ. 1976. Discoverers of the Cook Islands and the names they gave. Cook Islands Library and Museum Bulletin 1. Rarotonga: Cook Islands Library and Museum Society.Google Scholar
Longin, R. 1971. New method of collagen extraction for radiocarbon dating. Nature 230(5291):241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macario, KD, Souza, RCCL, Aguilera, OA, Carvalho, C, Oliveira, FM, Alves, EQ, Chanca, IS, Silva, EP, Douka, K, Decco, J, Trindade, DC. 2015. Marine reservoir effect on the Southeastern coast of Brazil: results from the Tarioba shellmound paired samples. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 143:14–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Markham, C. 1923 [1904]. The voyages of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros 1595 to 1606. London: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
Marsh, EJ, Bruno, MC, Fritz, SC, Baker, P, Capriles, JM, Hastorf, CA. 2018. IntCal, SHCal, or a mixed curve? Choosing a 14C calibration curve for archaeological and paleoenvironmental records from tropical South America. Radiocarbon 60:925–940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niespolo, EM, Sharp, WD, Kirch, PV. 2019. 230Th dating of coral abraders from stratified deposits at Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia, Cook Islands: implications for building precise chronologies in Polynesia. Journal of Archaeological Science 101:21–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petchey, F, Anderson, A, Hogg, A, Zondervan, A. 2008. The marine reservoir effect in the Southern Ocean: an evaluation of extant and new ΔR values and their application to archaeological chronologies. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 38:243–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petchey, F, Allen, MS, Addison, D, Anderson, A. 2009 Stability in the South Pacific surface marine 14C reservoir over the last 750 years. Evidence from American Samoa, the southern Cook Islands and the Marquesas. Journal of Archaeological Science 36:2234–2243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petchey, F, Spriggs, M, Bedford, S, Valentin, F, Buckley, H. 2014. Radiocarbon dating of burials from the Teouma Lapita cemetery, Efate, Vanuatu. Journal of Archaeological Science 50:227–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petchey, F, Spriggs, M, Bedford, S, Valentin, F. 2015. The chronology of occupation at Teouma, Vanuatu: Use of a modified chronometric hygiene protocol and Bayesian modelling to evaluate midden remains. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 4:95–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petchey, F. 2019. New evidence for a mid- to late-Holocene change in the marine reservoir effect across the South Pacific Gyre. Radiocarbon 62(1):127–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petchey, F, Kirch, PV. 2019 The importance of shell: Redating of the To’aga site (Ofu Island, Manu’a) and a revised chronology for the Lapita to Polynesian Plainware transition in Tonga and Sāmoa. PLoS ONE 14(9):e0211990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, WJ, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffman, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–1887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, MP, West, E, Rolett, B, Dobney, K. 2009. Isotope analysis of human and animal diets from the Hanamiai archaeological site (French Polynesia). Archaeology in Oceania 44:29–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmid, MME, Dugmore, AJ, Foresta, L, Newton, AJ, Vésteinsson, O, Wood, R. 2018. How 14C dates on charcoal increase precision when dating colonization: the examples of Iceland and Polynesia. Quaternary Geochronology 48:64–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sear, DA, Allen, MS, Hassall, JD, Maloney, AE, Langdon, PG, Morrison, AE, Henderson, ACG, Mackay, H, Croudace, IW, Clarke, C, Sachs, JP, Macdonald, G, Chiverrell, RC, Leng, MJ, Cisneros-Dozal, LM, Fonville, T. 2020. Human settlement of East Polynesia earlier, incremental, and coincident with prolonged South Pacific drought. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117:1–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shigehara, N, Matsu’ura, S, Nakamura, T, Kondo, M. 1993. First discovery of the ancient dingo-type dog in Polynesia (Pukapuka, Cook Islands). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 3:315–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spriggs, M, Anderson, A. 1993. Late colonization of east Polynesia. Antiquity 67(255):200–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, J, Benson, A, Athens, JS, Kahn, J, Kirch, PV. 2017. Polynesian colonization and landscape changes on Mo’orea, French Polynesia: the Lake Temae pollen record. The Holocene 27(12):1963–1975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Pearson, GW, Braziunas, TF. 1986. Radiocarbon calibration of marine samples back to 9000 cal yr BP. Radiocarbon 28(2B):980–1021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Titcomb, M.1969. Dog and man in the ancient Pacific with special attention to Hawaii. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 59. Honolulu.Google Scholar
Vogel, JS, Southon, JR, Nelson, DE, Brown, TA. 1984. Performance of catalytically condensed carbon for use in accelerator mass spectrometry. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 5(2):289–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilmshurst, JM, Hunt, TL, Lipo, CP, Anderson, AJ, O’Connell, J. 2011. High-precision radiocarbon dating shows recent and rapid initial human colonization of East Polynesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108(5):1815–1820.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: PDF

Cramb and Hadden supplementary material

Cramb and Hadden supplementary material

Download Cramb and Hadden supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 12.6 KB