Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-t27h7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-17T01:05:25.082Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Partial Chronological Sequence of Human Habitation for Pingelap Atoll (Pohnpei State, Federated States of Micronesia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2019

Maureece J Levin Open the ORCID record for Maureece J Levin [Opens in a new window] ,
Katherine Seikel  and
Aimee Miles
Maureece J Levin*
Affiliation:
Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford University, 488 Escondido Mall, Building 500, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Katherine Seikel
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National University College of Asia and the Pacific, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Aimee Miles
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University – Campus Gotland, Cramérgaten 3, 62157 Visby, Sweden
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pingelap Atoll, 1.8 km2 in area and nearly 70 km from the nearest island, presents a clear example of anthropogenic niche-building in physically isolated circumstances with limited resources. This paper presents the first radiocarbon (14C) dates (n=8) from an archaeological project examining settlement and subsistence practices on the atoll, specifically how Pingelapese people have constructed the environment to meet their needs over centuries of occupation. These dates confirm that human occupation of Pingelap occurred by 1700–1550 cal BP (2σ) at the latest, only a few centuries after the earliest securely-dated settlement of high islands in the region (Kosrae and Pohnpei), and with strikingly similar timing to another atoll in the region, Mwoakilloa. Evidence of early settlement includes shell tools, ornaments, extensive marine faunal remains, and charred botanical domesticates. These preliminary data build a framework for the settlement history and environment building of Pingelap.

Keywords

AMS datingenvironmentMicronesiaOceaniasettlement
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , June 2019 , pp. 765 - 776
Copyright
© 2019 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.)

References

REFERENCES

Athens, JS. 1980. Pottery from Nan Madol, Ponape, Eastern Caroline Islands. The Journal of the Polynesian Society 89(1):95–99.Google Scholar
Athens, JS. 1990. Nan Madol pottery, Pohnpei. Micronesica Supplement 2:17–32.Google Scholar
Ayres, WS. 1993. Nan Madol archaeological fieldwork: final report. Pacific Islands Archaeological Laboratory, University of Oregon. Submitted to Historic Preservation Office, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.Google Scholar
Ayres, WS, Levin, MJ, Seikel, KA. 2015. Archaeological Survey, Architectural Studies and Agricultural Analysis, Nan Madol and Temwen, Pohnpei. Pacific Islands Archaeological Laboratory, University of Oregon. Submitted to Historic Preservation Office, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.Google Scholar
Ayres, WS, Mauricio, R. 1999. Definition, ownership, and conservation of indigenous landscapes at Salapwuk, Pohnpei, Micronesia. In: Ucko, PJ, Layton, R, editors. The archaeology and anthropology of landscape: shaping your landscape. New York: Routledge. p. 298–321.Google Scholar
Ayres, WS, Scheller, CJ. 2003. Status architecture and stone resources on Pohnpei, Micronesia: experiments in stone transport. In: Sand, C, Burley, D, editors. Pacific archaeology: essays in honor of Richard Shutler, Jr. Noumea: CNRS. p. 109–121.Google Scholar
Ayres, WS, Seikel, K. 2014. Burial practises in the Archaeological Record on Pohnpei, Eastern Micronesia. In: Martinsson-Wallin, H, Thomas, T, editors. Monuments and people in the Pacific. Uppsala: Uppsala University. p. 129–166.Google Scholar
Ayres, WS, Seikel, K, Levin, M. 2009. Archaeological Remains at Angeir-Karian, Nan Madol, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, with supplemental studies at Sokehs and Temwen, Pohnpei. Final report submitted to Pohnpei State Historic Preservation Program.Google Scholar
Bernart, L. 1977. Book of Luelen. In: Fischer, J, Riesenberg, S, Whiting, M, editors and translators. Pacific history series no. 8. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Best, SB. 1988. Tokelau archaeology: A preliminary report of an initial survey and excavations. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 8:104–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carson, M. 2018. Archaeology of pacific oceania. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cordy, R. 1982. Lelu, the stone city of Kosrae: 1978–1981 research. Journal of the Polynesian Society 86:103–119.Google Scholar
Cordy, R. 1985. Investigations of Leluh’s stone ruins. National Geographic Research 1:255–263.Google Scholar
Cordy, R. 1993. The Lelu Stone Ruins (Kosrae, Micronesia): 1978-1981 historical and archaeological research. Asian and Pacific Archaeology Series 10. Honolulu: Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai’i.Google Scholar
Damas, D. 1985. Pingelap politics and American-Micronesian relations. Ethnology 24(1):43–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, JM. 1967. Preliminary archaeological investigation on Ponape and other Eastern Caroline Islands. Micronesica 3:81–97.Google Scholar
Davidson, JM, Leach, BF. 1996. Fishing on Nukuoro Atoll: ethnographic and archaeological viewpoints. In: Julien, M, Orliac, M, Orliac, C, editors. Mémoire de Pierre, Mémoire D’Homme: Tradition et Archéologie en Océanie. Hommage à José Garanger. Paris: Publication de la Sorbonne. p. 184–202.Google Scholar
Dickinson, WR. 2009. Pacific Atoll Living: How long already and until when? GSA Today 19(3):4–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dye, T. 1987. Archaeological survey and test excavations on Arno Atoll, Marshall Islands. Pacific Anthropological Records No. 30. Honolulu: Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. p. 271–399.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, SM, Anderson, A. 2008. Islands of isolation: archaeology and the power of aquatic perimeters. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 3(1):4–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, SM, Thompson, VD, Poteate, AS, Napolitano, MF, Erlandson, JM. 2016. Marginalization of the margins: the importance of smaller islands in human prehistory. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 11(2):155–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, M, Lambrides, ABJ, Weisler, MI. 2016. Windward vs. leeward: Inter-site variation in marine resource exploitation on Ebon Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 6:221–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, M, Weisler, M. 2016. Intertidal foraging on atolls: prehistoric forager decision-making at Ebon Atoll, Marshall Islands. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 12(2):200–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, M, Weisler, M. 2018. Two millennia of mollusc foraging on Ebon Atoll, Marshall Islands: sustained marine resource use on a Pacific atoll. Archaeology in Oceania 53:41–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haun, A. 1984. Prehistoric, subsistence, population, and sociopolitical evolution on Ponape, Micronesia [PhD dissertation]. Eugene (OR): University of Oregon.Google Scholar
Hau’ofa, E. 1994. Our Sea of Islands. The Contemporary Pacific 6(1):148–161.Google Scholar
Kirch, PV. 2017. On the Road of the Winds: an archaeological history of the Pacific Islands before European contact. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lambrides, ABJ. 2017. Sustained prehistoric exploitation of a Marshall Islands fishery: Icthyoarchaeological approaches, marine resource use, and human-environment interactions on Ebon Atoll [PhD thesis]. Brisbane: University of Queensland.Google Scholar
Lambrides, ABJ, Weisler, MI. 2018. Late Holocene Marshall Islands Archaeological Tuna Records Provide Proxy Evidence for ENSO Variability in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 13(4):531–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leach, BF, Davidson, JM. 1988. The quest for the rainbow runner: Prehistoric fishing on Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro Atolls, Micronesia. Micronesica 21(1, 2):1–22.Google Scholar
Lebot, V, Merlin, M, Lindstrom, L. 1992. Kava: the Pacific drug. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, MJ. 2015. Food production, environment, and culture in the tropical Pacific: evidence for prehistoric and historic plant cultivation in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia [PhD dissertation]. Eugene (OR): University of Oregon.Google Scholar
Levin, MJ. 2016. Roasting breadfruit in the Pacific: A combined plant macroremain and phytolith analysis from pohnpei, federated states of micronesia. Archaeology in Oceania 51:70–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, MJ. 2018. Breadfruit fermentation in Pohnpei, Micronesia: site formation, archaeological visibility, and interpretive strategies. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 13(1):109–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, MJ, Ayres, WS. 2017. Managed agroforests, swiddening, and the introduction of pigs in Pohnpei, Micronesia: phytolith evidence from an anthropogenic landscape. Quaternary International 434B:70–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, MJ, Shelton, M, Ayres, WS. 2017. Swiddening practices in the Micronesian past: macrocharcoal quantification from a gardening site in Pohnpei. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 12(3):451–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauricio, R. 1993. Ideological bases for power and leadership on Pohnpei, Micronesia: perspectives from archaeology and oral history [PhD dissertation]. Eugene (OR): University of Oregon.Google Scholar
McCoy, MD, Alderson, HA, Hemi, R, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL. 2016. Earliest direct evidence of monument building at the archaeological site of Nan Madol (Pohnpei, Micronesia) identified using 230Th/U coral dating and geochemical sourcing of megalithic architectural stone. Quaternary Research 86(3):295–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCoy, MD, Alderson, HA, Thompson, A. 2015. A new archaeological field survey of the site of Nan Madol, Pohnpei. Rapa Nui Journal 29(1):5–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCoy, MD, Athens, JS. 2012. Sourcing the megalithic stones of Nan Madol: an XRF study of architectural basalt stone from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 3(1):105–114.Google Scholar
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). 2018. ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/normals/1981-2010/products/station/FMC00914720.normals.txt Google Scholar
Ono, R, Intoh, M. 2011. Island of Pelagic fishermen: temporal changes in prehistoric fishing on Fais, Micronesia. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 6:255–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen, G. 2006. Micronesia’s breadfruit revolution and the evolution of a culture area. Archaeology in Oceania 41: 82–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen, G. 2009. Traditional Micronesian societies: adaptation, integration, and political organization. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poteate, AS, Fitzpatrick, SM, Ayres, WS, Thompson, A. 2016. First radiocarbon chronology for Mwoakilloa (Mokil) Atoll, eastern Caroline Islands, Micronesia. Radiocarbon 58(1):169–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rainbird, P. 2004. The archaeology of Micronesia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, ZT, Shen, CC, Hobbs, JPA, Wu, CC, Jiang, X, Beardsley, F. 2015. New precise dates for the ancient and sacred coral pyramidal tombs of Leluh (Kosrae, Micronesia). Science Advances 1(2):e1400060.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riesenberg, S. 1968. The native polity of Ponape. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, TJ. 1987. Archaeological survey and testing, Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands. In: Dye T, editor. Marshall Islands archaeology. Pacific Anthropological Records No. 30. Honolulu: Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. p. 169–270.Google Scholar
Rosendahl, P. 1977. Archaeological Survey in the Marshall and Eastern Caroline Islands. Mss. 080577. Honolulu: Bishop Museum.Google Scholar
Rosendahl, PH. 1987. Archaeology in eastern Micronesia: reconnaissance survey in the Marshall Islands. In: Dye, T, editor. Marshall Islands archaeology. Pacific Anthropological Records No. 30. Honolulu: Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. p. 17–168.Google Scholar
Seikel, K. 2011. Mortuary contexts and social structure at Nan Madol, Pohnpei. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 6(3): 442–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seikel, K. 2016. Prehistoric Socio-Political Structure on Pohnpei: Perspectives from Mortuary Contexts. Ph.D. Thesis. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Thomas, F. 2007a. The behavioral ecology of shellfish gathering in western Kiribati, Micronesia 1: prey choice. Human Ecology 35:179–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, F. 2007b. The behavioral ecology of shellfish gathering in western Kiribati, Micronesia 2: patch choice, patch sampling, and risk. Human Ecology 35:515–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, FR. 2009. Historical ecology in Kiribati: Linking past with present. Pacific Science 63(4):67–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, F. 2015. Marginal islands and sustainability: 2,000 years of settlement in eastern Micronesia. Ekonomska i Ekohistorija 10(11):64–74.Google Scholar
Thompson, A. 2010. Land snail and soil analysis in atoll archaeology with special reference to Atafu Atoll, Tokelau Islands. [Master’s Thesis]. Dunedin: University of Otago.Google Scholar
Ueki, T. 1984. Processes of increasing social complexity on Kosrae, Micronesia [PhD dissertation]. Providence (RI): Brown University.Google Scholar
Weisler, MI. 1999a. The antiquity of Aroid Pit agriculture and significance of buried A horizons on Pacific atolls. Geoarchaeology 14(7):621–654.3.0.CO;2-2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisler, MI. 1999b. Atolls as settlement landscapes: Ujae, Marshall Islands. Washington (DC): National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Weisler, MI. 2001a. Precarious landscapes: prehistoric settlement of the Marshall Islands. Antiquity 75:31–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisler, MI. 2001b. Life on the edge: prehistoric settlement and economy on Utrōk Atoll, northern Marshall Islands. Archaeology in Oceania 36:109–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisler, MI. 2001c. Archaeological Excavations at site MLMl-3, Kapen Islet, Maloelap Atoll, Marshall Islands. Majuro, Marshall Islands: report prepared for the Historic Preservation Office, Republic of the Marshall Islands.Google Scholar
Weisler, M. 2002. Archaeological survey and test excavations on Ebon Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands. Report prepared for the Historic Preservation Office, Republic of the Marshall Islands.Google Scholar
Weisler, MI, Yamano, H, Hua, Q. 2012. A multidisciplinary approach for dating human colonization of Pacific atolls. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 7(1):102–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamaguchi, T, Kayanne, H, Yamano, H, Najima, Y, Chikamori, M, Yokoki, H. 2005. Excavation of pit-agriculture landscape on Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, and its implications. Global Environmental Research 9(1):27–36.Google Scholar