Timothy M Rieth
Biographic Data
| ID | 239784 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Timothy M Rieth |
| GIVEN NAMES | Timothy M |
| FAMILY NAME | Rieth |
| SIGNATURE | RIETH T M |
| AFFILIATIONS | International Archaeological Research Institute |
| ORCID | 0009-0007-3781-1025 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 98 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Documentation of inter-island interaction in the Mariana Islands through geochemical characterization of volcanic stone artifacts
The Mariana Islands have at least a three-millennia human occupation and have been subject to decades of intensive archaeological research. However, unlike other regions of Oceania, intra- and inter-archipelago movement of volcanic stone/tools is poorly documented. We used non-destructive EDXRF to characterize the geochemistry of 36 geological samples from three islands (Sarigan, Rota, and Guam) and 287 artifacts and manuports from five islands (…
Scottish Reformers and ʻIli ʻĀina Dissolution in Mid-19th Century Hawaiʻi
ʻIli ʻāina – the institutional and spatial expression of a common Polynesian social organization designed to manage land tenures efficiently – were systematically dissolved in the mid 19th century as the Hawaiian Kingdom struggled to develop revenue during a population decline and to ward off foreign governments that desired fee-simple title to Hawaiian lands. The King and chiefs responded to these challenges by studying the economic logic of Wes…
The Pacific Archaeology Radiocarbon Database
This paper describes the Pacific Archaeology Radiocarbon Database (PARD), which includes radiocarbon data from archaeological sites excavated in an area commonly described as Near and Remote Oceania. The collated 14C database is available using ArcGIS Online, an online geospatial system with searchable fields and locational navigation. The online PARD currently has over 17,000 radiocarbon measurements from archaeological sites from over 300 islan…
The patterning of volcanic glass transfer across eastern Oʻahu Island, Hawaiʻi
Ideal distribution models and the tempo of agricultural development in a windward valley of Hawaiʻi
Across the Pacific, agricultural systems have used two main complementary cultivation regimes: irrigated farming of wet environments and rain-fed cropping of drylands. These strategies have different productive potential and labour needs, which has structured their temporal and spatial distributions. Although these approaches have been studied a great deal at a general level, there has been less work on the local use and significance of these str…
Colluvial slope agriculture in context
Archaeological research on traditional Hawaiian agriculture has generally focused on two primary strategies: irrigated pondfield and intensive dryland cultivation. However, other cultivation strategies, such as colluvial slope agriculture, were practiced but have been less intensively studied and remain poorly understood. To begin to remedy this paucity of information, a joint education and research project between International Archaeological Re…
States without Archaeological Correlates? A Report from Hawaiʻi
Two recent archaeological narratives of ancient Hawaiian society apply a neo-evolutionary approach to political development to argue that a primary state evolved prior to contact with Europeans in the late 18th century. Our analysis demonstrates that this finding is based on interpretations of indigenous oral traditions and contact-period historical accounts but lacks archaeological warrant. The Hawaiian archaeological record does not yield the c…
The premise and potential of model-based approaches to island archaeology
In a recent paper published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology , John Terrell (2020) objected to the proposition that islands can offer model systems to study human behavior and ecodynamics (see Cherry and Leppard 2018; DiNapoli and Leppard 2018; DiNapoli et al. 2018; Fitzpatrick and Erlandson 2018; Kirch 2007; McLaughlin, Stoddart, and Malone 2018; Pilaar Birch 2018). He argues that a review of insular model systems in the study of…
A model-based approach to the tempo of “collapse”
The Sāmoa Archaeological Geospatial Database
Jeff Clark's archaeological research on Eastern Tutuila Island provided the first regional scale settlement pattern data in American Samoa that could be meaningfully compared to earlier data drawn from projects on the archipelago's western islands, Savaiʻi and ʻUpolu. Building on Clark's work, in this paper we generate a spatial and temporal geodatabase incorporating 900 archaeological sites and 520 age estimates spanning the entirety of the Sāmo…
Late Holocene Human Expansion into Near and Remote Oceania
Since the investigations of Spoehr in the 1950s, most researchers have accepted a date of ∼3500 BP/1500 BC for the initial human settlement of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. The relationship of this early expansion beyond Island Southeast Asia, characterized by Lapita-like pottery, to the appearance of Lapita in Near Oceania, generally was either given little thought or largely ignored. The Lapita settlement of Near Oceania is almost…
Archaeological and sedimentological data indicate Lapita settlement on a newly formed coastal plain
The timing and choice of initial settlement location are examined on the small island of Tavua in Fiji’s Mamanuca Group. The mid- to late-Holocene sea-level retreat influenced the island’s coastal landforms through the acceleration of coastal progradation and the production of habitable land. Archaeological, sedimentological, and chronological data are integrated to better understand the island’s settlement and geomorphological history. These dat…
Pre‐contact fish choice and foraging efficiency at Tula, American Sāmoa
Marine foraging is an under‐studied aspect of Sāmoan archaeology, although it clearly played a primary role in subsistence, with implications for settlement and demography. A pair of previous ichthyoarchaeological studies identified general stability in fish exploitation during ∼1500–2000 year sequences. We present a foraging‐theory‐based analysis of fish remains from Tula Village, Tutuila Island. Our results identify a decrease in foraging effic…
Sāmoan artefact provenance reveals limited artefact transfer within and beyond the archipelago
We summarise previous provenance research of Sāmoan lithic and ceramic artefacts, noting the timing and relative frequency of artefact transfers. Our summary suggests few intra‐ and extra‐archipelago artefact transfers for the first two millennia, but that these modestly increased in the last 800 years of the prehistoric sequence. The late distribution of Sāmoan basalt around the Pacific was spatially expansive, but proportionally small. These re…
A Paleoenvironmental and Archaeological Model-Based Age Estimate for the Colonization of Hawai'l
Recent estimates of when Hawai'i was colonized by Polynesians display considerable variability, with dates ranging from about A.D. 800 to 1250. Using high resolution paleoenvironmental coring data and a carefully defined set of archaeological radiocarbon dates, a Bayesian model for initial settlement was constructed. The pollen and charcoal assemblages of the core record made it possible to identify and date the prehuman period and also the start…
Plainware ceramics from Sāmoa
The 13th century polynesian colonization of Hawai’i Island
Chapter 10
Human and nonhuman faunal remains from small deposits at three sites, NGRP 16, 23, and 46, were analyzed to determine the species and minimum numbers of individuals represented, and to investigate the processes of natural and human-induced modification that resulted in the extensive fragmentation of the human remains. Taphonomic analysis indicates perimortem modification of the human remains during disarticulation and processing as well as pig pr…
The Temporal and Spatial Patterning of the Initial Settlement of Sāmoa
Among the Lapita-bearing island groups of the Pacific, Sāmoa is unusual for having a relatively large land area but only one cultural deposit containing Lapita ceramics. Although it has been proposed that additional Lapita settlements may have been distributed along the coasts of much of the archipelago, investigations have not located these deposits nor reliably dated early Polynesian Plainware deposits older than ∼2500 cal BP. We combine a chro…
A radiocarbon chronology for Sāmoan prehistory
A radiocarbon chronology for Sāmoan prehistory
A Paleoenvironmental and Archaeological Model-Based Age Estimate for the Colonization of Hawai'l
Recent estimates of when Hawai'i was colonized by Polynesians display considerable variability, with dates ranging from about A.D. 800 to 1250. Using high resolution paleoenvironmental coring data and a carefully defined set of archaeological radiocarbon dates, a Bayesian model for initial settlement was constructed. The pollen and charcoal assemblages of the core record made it possible to identify and date the prehuman period and also the start…
Late Holocene Human Expansion into Near and Remote Oceania
Since the investigations of Spoehr in the 1950s, most researchers have accepted a date of ∼3500 BP/1500 BC for the initial human settlement of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. The relationship of this early expansion beyond Island Southeast Asia, characterized by Lapita-like pottery, to the appearance of Lapita in Near Oceania, generally was either given little thought or largely ignored. The Lapita settlement of Near Oceania is almost…
The Temporal and Spatial Patterning of the Initial Settlement of Sāmoa
Among the Lapita-bearing island groups of the Pacific, Sāmoa is unusual for having a relatively large land area but only one cultural deposit containing Lapita ceramics. Although it has been proposed that additional Lapita settlements may have been distributed along the coasts of much of the archipelago, investigations have not located these deposits nor reliably dated early Polynesian Plainware deposits older than ∼2500 cal BP. We combine a chro…
A model-based approach to the tempo of “collapse”
Sāmoan artefact provenance reveals limited artefact transfer within and beyond the archipelago
We summarise previous provenance research of Sāmoan lithic and ceramic artefacts, noting the timing and relative frequency of artefact transfers. Our summary suggests few intra‐ and extra‐archipelago artefact transfers for the first two millennia, but that these modestly increased in the last 800 years of the prehistoric sequence. The late distribution of Sāmoan basalt around the Pacific was spatially expansive, but proportionally small. These re…
The premise and potential of model-based approaches to island archaeology
In a recent paper published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology , John Terrell (2020) objected to the proposition that islands can offer model systems to study human behavior and ecodynamics (see Cherry and Leppard 2018; DiNapoli and Leppard 2018; DiNapoli et al. 2018; Fitzpatrick and Erlandson 2018; Kirch 2007; McLaughlin, Stoddart, and Malone 2018; Pilaar Birch 2018). He argues that a review of insular model systems in the study of…
Colluvial slope agriculture in context
Archaeological research on traditional Hawaiian agriculture has generally focused on two primary strategies: irrigated pondfield and intensive dryland cultivation. However, other cultivation strategies, such as colluvial slope agriculture, were practiced but have been less intensively studied and remain poorly understood. To begin to remedy this paucity of information, a joint education and research project between International Archaeological Re…
Pre‐contact fish choice and foraging efficiency at Tula, American Sāmoa
Marine foraging is an under‐studied aspect of Sāmoan archaeology, although it clearly played a primary role in subsistence, with implications for settlement and demography. A pair of previous ichthyoarchaeological studies identified general stability in fish exploitation during ∼1500–2000 year sequences. We present a foraging‐theory‐based analysis of fish remains from Tula Village, Tutuila Island. Our results identify a decrease in foraging effic…
Ideal distribution models and the tempo of agricultural development in a windward valley of Hawaiʻi
Across the Pacific, agricultural systems have used two main complementary cultivation regimes: irrigated farming of wet environments and rain-fed cropping of drylands. These strategies have different productive potential and labour needs, which has structured their temporal and spatial distributions. Although these approaches have been studied a great deal at a general level, there has been less work on the local use and significance of these str…
The Sāmoa Archaeological Geospatial Database
Jeff Clark's archaeological research on Eastern Tutuila Island provided the first regional scale settlement pattern data in American Samoa that could be meaningfully compared to earlier data drawn from projects on the archipelago's western islands, Savaiʻi and ʻUpolu. Building on Clark's work, in this paper we generate a spatial and temporal geodatabase incorporating 900 archaeological sites and 520 age estimates spanning the entirety of the Sāmo…
Archaeological and sedimentological data indicate Lapita settlement on a newly formed coastal plain
The timing and choice of initial settlement location are examined on the small island of Tavua in Fiji’s Mamanuca Group. The mid- to late-Holocene sea-level retreat influenced the island’s coastal landforms through the acceleration of coastal progradation and the production of habitable land. Archaeological, sedimentological, and chronological data are integrated to better understand the island’s settlement and geomorphological history. These dat…
The Temporal and Spatial Patterning of the Initial Settlement of Sāmoa
Among the Lapita-bearing island groups of the Pacific, Sāmoa is unusual for having a relatively large land area but only one cultural deposit containing Lapita ceramics. Although it has been proposed that additional Lapita settlements may have been distributed along the coasts of much of the archipelago, investigations have not located these deposits nor reliably dated early Polynesian Plainware deposits older than ∼2500 cal BP. We combine a chro…
A radiocarbon chronology for Sāmoan prehistory
The 13th century polynesian colonization of Hawai’i Island
Chapter 10
Human and nonhuman faunal remains from small deposits at three sites, NGRP 16, 23, and 46, were analyzed to determine the species and minimum numbers of individuals represented, and to investigate the processes of natural and human-induced modification that resulted in the extensive fragmentation of the human remains. Taphonomic analysis indicates perimortem modification of the human remains during disarticulation and processing as well as pig pr…
Plainware ceramics from Sāmoa
A Paleoenvironmental and Archaeological Model-Based Age Estimate for the Colonization of Hawai'l
Recent estimates of when Hawai'i was colonized by Polynesians display considerable variability, with dates ranging from about A.D. 800 to 1250. Using high resolution paleoenvironmental coring data and a carefully defined set of archaeological radiocarbon dates, a Bayesian model for initial settlement was constructed. The pollen and charcoal assemblages of the core record made it possible to identify and date the prehuman period and also the start…
Sāmoan artefact provenance reveals limited artefact transfer within and beyond the archipelago
We summarise previous provenance research of Sāmoan lithic and ceramic artefacts, noting the timing and relative frequency of artefact transfers. Our summary suggests few intra‐ and extra‐archipelago artefact transfers for the first two millennia, but that these modestly increased in the last 800 years of the prehistoric sequence. The late distribution of Sāmoan basalt around the Pacific was spatially expansive, but proportionally small. These re…
Late Holocene Human Expansion into Near and Remote Oceania
Since the investigations of Spoehr in the 1950s, most researchers have accepted a date of ∼3500 BP/1500 BC for the initial human settlement of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. The relationship of this early expansion beyond Island Southeast Asia, characterized by Lapita-like pottery, to the appearance of Lapita in Near Oceania, generally was either given little thought or largely ignored. The Lapita settlement of Near Oceania is almost…
Archaeological and sedimentological data indicate Lapita settlement on a newly formed coastal plain
The timing and choice of initial settlement location are examined on the small island of Tavua in Fiji’s Mamanuca Group. The mid- to late-Holocene sea-level retreat influenced the island’s coastal landforms through the acceleration of coastal progradation and the production of habitable land. Archaeological, sedimentological, and chronological data are integrated to better understand the island’s settlement and geomorphological history. These dat…
Pre‐contact fish choice and foraging efficiency at Tula, American Sāmoa
Marine foraging is an under‐studied aspect of Sāmoan archaeology, although it clearly played a primary role in subsistence, with implications for settlement and demography. A pair of previous ichthyoarchaeological studies identified general stability in fish exploitation during ∼1500–2000 year sequences. We present a foraging‐theory‐based analysis of fish remains from Tula Village, Tutuila Island. Our results identify a decrease in foraging effic…
The Sāmoa Archaeological Geospatial Database
Jeff Clark's archaeological research on Eastern Tutuila Island provided the first regional scale settlement pattern data in American Samoa that could be meaningfully compared to earlier data drawn from projects on the archipelago's western islands, Savaiʻi and ʻUpolu. Building on Clark's work, in this paper we generate a spatial and temporal geodatabase incorporating 900 archaeological sites and 520 age estimates spanning the entirety of the Sāmo…
A model-based approach to the tempo of “collapse”
States without Archaeological Correlates? A Report from Hawaiʻi
Two recent archaeological narratives of ancient Hawaiian society apply a neo-evolutionary approach to political development to argue that a primary state evolved prior to contact with Europeans in the late 18th century. Our analysis demonstrates that this finding is based on interpretations of indigenous oral traditions and contact-period historical accounts but lacks archaeological warrant. The Hawaiian archaeological record does not yield the c…
The premise and potential of model-based approaches to island archaeology
In a recent paper published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology , John Terrell (2020) objected to the proposition that islands can offer model systems to study human behavior and ecodynamics (see Cherry and Leppard 2018; DiNapoli and Leppard 2018; DiNapoli et al. 2018; Fitzpatrick and Erlandson 2018; Kirch 2007; McLaughlin, Stoddart, and Malone 2018; Pilaar Birch 2018). He argues that a review of insular model systems in the study of…
Colluvial slope agriculture in context
Archaeological research on traditional Hawaiian agriculture has generally focused on two primary strategies: irrigated pondfield and intensive dryland cultivation. However, other cultivation strategies, such as colluvial slope agriculture, were practiced but have been less intensively studied and remain poorly understood. To begin to remedy this paucity of information, a joint education and research project between International Archaeological Re…
The patterning of volcanic glass transfer across eastern Oʻahu Island, Hawaiʻi
Ideal distribution models and the tempo of agricultural development in a windward valley of Hawaiʻi
Across the Pacific, agricultural systems have used two main complementary cultivation regimes: irrigated farming of wet environments and rain-fed cropping of drylands. These strategies have different productive potential and labour needs, which has structured their temporal and spatial distributions. Although these approaches have been studied a great deal at a general level, there has been less work on the local use and significance of these str…
Scottish Reformers and ʻIli ʻĀina Dissolution in Mid-19th Century Hawaiʻi
ʻIli ʻāina – the institutional and spatial expression of a common Polynesian social organization designed to manage land tenures efficiently – were systematically dissolved in the mid 19th century as the Hawaiian Kingdom struggled to develop revenue during a population decline and to ward off foreign governments that desired fee-simple title to Hawaiian lands. The King and chiefs responded to these challenges by studying the economic logic of Wes…
The Pacific Archaeology Radiocarbon Database
This paper describes the Pacific Archaeology Radiocarbon Database (PARD), which includes radiocarbon data from archaeological sites excavated in an area commonly described as Near and Remote Oceania. The collated 14C database is available using ArcGIS Online, an online geospatial system with searchable fields and locational navigation. The online PARD currently has over 17,000 radiocarbon measurements from archaeological sites from over 300 islan…
Documentation of inter-island interaction in the Mariana Islands through geochemical characterization of volcanic stone artifacts
The Mariana Islands have at least a three-millennia human occupation and have been subject to decades of intensive archaeological research. However, unlike other regions of Oceania, intra- and inter-archipelago movement of volcanic stone/tools is poorly documented. We used non-destructive EDXRF to characterize the geochemistry of 36 geological samples from three islands (Sarigan, Rota, and Guam) and 287 artifacts and manuports from five islands (…
Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (19 works) · Archaeology (18 works) · Geography (16 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (14 works) · Geology (9 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (9 works) · History (7 works) · Radiocarbon dating (7 works) · Archipelago (6 works) · History (6 works)