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A Radiocarbon Chronology for Human-Induced Environmental Change on Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands, Polynesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

P. V. Kirch ,
J. R. Flenley  and
D. W. Steadman
P. V. Kirch
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 USA
J. R. Flenley
Affiliation:
2Department of Geography, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
D. W. Steadman
Affiliation:
3Biological Survey, New York State Museum, Albany, New York 12230 USA
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Abstract

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A suite of 23 14C age determinations, from a well-stratified rockshelter and from 3 pollen cores on Mangaia Island is reported. The rockshelter has yielded significant evidence for avifaunal extinctions during the period cal. A.D. 1000-1600. The Lake Tiriara pollen cores span a period from ca. 6500 cal. b.p. to the present, and palynological analysis of the TIR 1 core indicates major anthropogenic disturbance on the island's vegetation after ca. 1600 cal. B.P. These sites, and the radiocarbon ages associated with them, provide the first chronologically secure evidence for human impacts on the island ecosystems of the southern Cook Islands.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , 1991 , pp. 317 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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