Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:24:03.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

AMS Dating of Human Bone from Palau: New Evidence for a Pre-2000 BP Settlement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Scott M Fitzpatrick*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA. Email: [email protected].
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Direct dating of a human bone fragment from the Chelechol ra Orrak site (western Micronesia) has yielded one of the earliest dates for Palau thus far. This date compares well with recently collected paleoenvironmental evidence and radiocarbon dates on Babeldaob Island suggesting that settlement of the Palauan archipelago took place much earlier than previously thought.

Type
Notes and Technical Comments
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Athens, JS, Ward, JV. 1995. Paleoenvironment of the Orote Peninsula, Guam. Micronesica 28:205–23.Google Scholar
Athens, JS, Ward, J V. 1999. Archaeological data recovery for the compact road, Babeldaob Island, Republic of Palau. Historic preservation investigations phase II. Volume IV: The holocene paleoenvironment of Palau. International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc. Google Scholar
Beardsley, FR. 1998. Sngall Ridge, Belau: Burials, spirit walks, and painted pottery. Paper presented at the 16th Congress of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, Melaka, Malaysia, 1–7 July 1998.Google Scholar
Butler, BM. 1994. Early prehistoric settlement in the Marianas Islands: new evidence from Saipan. Man and Culture in Oceania 10:1538.Google Scholar
Dodson, J, Intoh, M. 1999. Prehistory and paleoecology of Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. Quaternary International 59:1726.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, SM. 2000. Archaeological survey of a Yapese stone money quarry on Orrak Island. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, SM 2001. Archaeological investigation of Omis Cave: a Yapese stone money quarry in Palau. Archaeology in Oceania 36:153–62.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, SM. 2002. A radiocarbon chronology of Yapese stone money quarries in Palau. Micronesica. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Guilderson, TP, Schrag, DP, Goddard, E, Kashgarian, M, Wellington, GM, Linsley, BK. 2000. Southwest subtropical Pacific surface water radiocarbon in a high-resolution coral record. Radiocarbon 42(2):249–56.Google Scholar
Keegan, WF, De Niro, MJ. 1988. Stable carbon- and nitrogen-isotope ratios of bone collagen used to study coral-reef and terrestrial components of pre-historic Bahamian diet. American Antiquity 53:320–36.Google Scholar
Kurashina, H, Clayshulte, RN. 1983. Site formation processes and cultural sequence at Tarague, Guam. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 4:114–22.Google Scholar
Kurashina, H, Moore, D, Kataoka, O, Clayshulte, R, Ray, E. 1984. Prehistoric and protohistoric cultural occurrences at Tarague, Guam. Asian Perspectives 24:5768.Google Scholar
Liston, J, Kaschko, MW, Welch, DJ. 1998a. Archaeological inventory survey for the capital relocation project, Melekeok, Republic of Palau. Honolulu: International Archaeological Research Institute.Google Scholar
Liston, J, Tuggle, HD, Mangieri, TM, Kaschko, MW, Desilets, M. 1998b. Archaeological data recovery for the compact road, Babeldaob Island, Republic of Palau. Historic preservation investigations phase II. Volume I: Fieldwork reports. Honolulu: International Archaeological Research Institute.Google Scholar
Liston, J, Mangieri, TM, Grant, D, Kaschko, MW, Tuggle, HD. 1998c. Archaeological data recovery for the compact road, Babeldaob Island, Republic of Palau. Historic preservation investigations phase II. Volume II: Fieldwork reports. Honolulu: International Archaeological Research Institute.Google Scholar
Lum, JK, Cann, RL. 2000. MtDNA lineage analysis: Origins and migrations of Micronesians and Polynesians. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 113:151–68.Google Scholar
Masse, B. 1989. The archaeology and ecology of fishing in the Belau Islands, Micronesia [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms and University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Masse, B. 1990. Radiocarbon dating, sea level change and the peopling of Palau. Micronesica Supplement 2:213–30.Google Scholar
McGovern-Wilson, R, Quinn, C. 1996. Stable isotope analysis of ten individuals from Afetna, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. Journal of Archaeological Science 23:5965.Google Scholar
Nelson, G. Human skeletal remains from site B:IR-1:23, Orrak Island, Palau. Preliminary report in possession of author. Unpublished.Google Scholar
Osborne, D. 1979. Archaeological test excavations in the Palau Islands, 1968–69. Micronesica Supplement 1.Google Scholar
Phelan, MB. 1999. A ΔR correction value for Samoa from known-age marine shells. Radiocarbon 41(1):99101.Google Scholar
Reid, L. 1998. Morphosyntactic evidence for the position of Chamorro in the Austronesian language family. Paper presented at the 16th congress of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, Melaka, Malaysia, 1–7 July 1998.Google Scholar
Reith, TM, Liston, J. 2001. Archaeological data recovery at Ngermereues Ridge, Ngesaol, Koror, Republic of Palau. Honolulu: International Archaeological Research Institute.Google Scholar
Starosta, S. 1995. A grammatical subgrouping of Formosan languages. In: Li, P, Tsang, CH, Huang, YK, Ho, DA, Tseng, C Y, editors. Austronesian studies relating to Taiwan. Taipei: Academia Sinica. p 683726.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Beck, JW, Burr, GS, Hughen, KA, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, van der Plicht, J, Spurk, M. 1998. INTCAL98 radiocarbon age calibration, 24,000–0 BP. Radiocarbon 40(3):1041–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takayama, J. 1979. Archaeological investigations of PA AT- 2 in the Palaus: an interim report. In: Kusakabe, H, editor. Cultural anthropological research on the folkculture in the Western Caroline Islands of Micronesia in 1977. Tokyo: Committee for Micronesian Research, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. p 81103.Google Scholar
Tsang, CH. 1992. Archaeology of the P'eng-Hu Islands. Institute of History and Philology Special Publication 95. Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Weisler, MI. 2000. Burial artifacts from the Marshall Islands: description, dating, and evidence for extra-archipelago contacts. Micronesica 33(1/2):111–36.Google Scholar
Welch, DJ. 2001. Early Upland expansion of Palauan settlement. In: Stevenson, CM, Lee, G, Morin, FJ, editors. Pacific 2000–Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific. Los Osos: Easter Island Foundation. p 179–84.Google Scholar
Wickler, SK, Welch, DJ, Tomonari-Tuggle, MJ, Liston, J, Tuggle, HD. 1998. Intensive archaeological survey for the Palau compact road, Babeldaob Island, Palau. Historic preservation investigations phase I. Volume I. Scope, background, results, excavation, and recommendations. Honolulu: International Archaeological Research Institute.Google Scholar