R K Walter
Biographic Data
| ID | 241867 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R K Walter |
| GIVEN NAMES | R K |
| FAMILY NAME | Walter |
| SIGNATURE | WALTER R K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Otago |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4536-097X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1929 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Fish from the Ōtata midden
The stratified midden on Ōtata Island, in New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf, dates from the fourteenth century CE, soon after the East Polynesian settlement of New Zealand, to the eighteenth century, just prior to the arrival of Europeans. Analysis of the fishbone assemblages shows that the main targeted species throughout the sequence was snapper ( Chrysophrys auratus ), accounting for between 50 and 88% of each assemblage. Cranial bones of snapper sig…
Ancient mitogenomes of Lapita pigs confirm continuity of the Pacific Clade in Remote Oceania
Reconstructing pre-European marine habitats using archaeological assemblages
Reflections on the commensal model and future directions in Polynesian interaction studies
One of the central themes of indigenous Polynesian historical narratives involves voyaging, navigation and patterns of inter‐island cultural connection. One of the ways archaeologists have long looked at these questions through the lens of material culture studies—distributions of artefact and assemblage traits in time and space. Here we examine patterns of historical interaction inferred from the application of the commensal model with those der…
An archaeological review of Polynesian adze quarries and sources
Adze quarries and sources are some of the most visible, unique and well‐preserved Polynesian archaeological sites where stone technology, intensification of production, other aspects of economy, social organisation and ritual practices are anchored together on the landscape. The production and exchange of adzes are associated with complex interaction networks connecting islands and archipelagos up to 4000 km distant making adzes amongst the most …
Back on the Rat Trail
Pottery Production and Exchange in the Last Millennium in the Western Solomon Islands
Introduced to the western Solomon Islands over two and a half millennia ago, pottery-making in the region has a long but patchily documented history. Previous research has focused predominantly on the earliest incised and applied relief ceramic wares associated with the arrival of Austronesian migratory groups in the Late to immediate Post-Lapita period (
A Re-Assessment of the Role of Dogs (Canis familiaris) in Early Aotearoa New Zealand
Temporal trends in the Colonisation of the Pacific
The colonisation of eastern parts of the Pacific Islands was the last phase in the preindustrial expansion of the human species. Given the scale and challenges of the endeavour it is unsurprising that scholars have long been interested in understanding the conditions that drove and supported the exploration and settlement of this vast region. There has been speculation as to the influence of demographic factors, either as drivers or in some way r…
Tracing changing life histories of tāmure (Chrysophrys auratus) in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, through otolith chemistry
Hinterlands, Heartlands and History
Core-periphery models have been widely used in archaeology. The core implies centrality and richness; the periphery encompasses ideas of distance, disconnection, marginality, and challenge. The approach is most useful in urban studies but less appropriate in societies with less well defined social and economic hierarchies, and few technological or economic dissimilarities such as pre-contact Aotearoa. In this study we explore the usefulness of th…
Identifying nineteenth century Trans-Pacific production and trade
Discovery of Talasea obsidian in a post-Lapita deposit in Arnavon Islands, Solomon Islands
This paper reports on the discovery and geochemical characterisation of an obsidian artefact from a post-Lapita site on the Arnavon Islands situated between Choiseul and Santa Isabel in Solomon Islands. The flake is analysed using pXRF and sourced to the Talasea region of West New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago. Obsidian is common in the Lapita sites of the Reef-Santa Cruz Islands of the eastern Solomons and Buka at the northern end of the a…
First Islanders
Ancient DNA evidence for the introduction and dispersal of dogs in New Zealand
When people first arrived in New Zealand around 700 years ago, they brought their dogs (Canis familiaris) with them. To investigate the introduction and dispersal of dogs across the country we generated twenty-three new complete, or nearly complete, mitogenomes from ancient DNA from dog teeth sampled from four early archaeological sites in New Zealand and from one archaeological site in the southern Cook Islands. When considered together with fou…
Excavations at Kahukura, Murihiku
Archaeological data from coastal village sites are critical to our understanding of culture change in southern New Zealand. Here we report on excavations from Kahukura (G47/128), a sedentary coastal village occupied around the time of the cessation of moa-hunting. Results document an attempt to continue the sedentary village way of life in an environment of increasing isolation from long-distance exchange networks. Imported stone resources are sc…
Mangahawea Bay Revisited
The Mangahawea Bay Site (Q05/682) on Moturua Island in the Bay of Islands was excavated in 1981. A single radiocarbon date from the lower levels returned an age of 1162-1439 AD (95.4% confidence) but the results of the excavation have never been fully reported. Despite some uncertainty about the age and nature of the stratigraphy, the site has long been regarded in the New Zealand archaeological community as a significant example of early occupat…
Colyers Island
Bluff Harbour, in southern New Zealand (Murihiku), is the southernmost location of Polynesian adze production. Here, an industry developed during the colonisation phase based on the exploitation of numerous sources of argillite – a fine‐grained, homogeneous rock with conchoidal fracture properties. Argillite from the Bluff and Riverton sources was a major attractor during the earliest period of human occupation and Bluff argillite adzes were dist…
Mass Migration and the Polynesian Settlement of New Zealand
This paper reintroduces the concept of mass migration into debates concerning the timing and nature of New Zealand's settlement by Polynesians. Upward revisions of New Zealand's chronology show that the appearance of humans on the landscape occurred extremely rapidly, and that within decades settlements had been established across the full range of climatic zones. We show that the rapid appearance of a strong archaeological signature in the early…
The Varying Role of Vertebrae in Pacific Fishbone Analysis
Archaeologists working in the tropical Pacific have demonstrated the feasibility and value of including fish vertebrae in midden analyses, and recent New Zealand studies draw similar conclusions. This work provides an illustrated guide to the identification of vertebrae from key New Zealand fish taxa and shows the effects of including vertebrae on a large fishbone assemblage from southern New Zealand. We note major differences between New Zealand…
A morphometric reassessment of Roger Duff's Polynesian adze typology
Re-dating Lapita Movement into Remote Oceania
Understanding the nature and process of initial Pacific settlement by people carrying the Lapita culture is ultimately founded upon accurate knowledge of the timing and speed of settlement. This paper reports on re-dating of one of the earliest Lapita sites (SE-SZ-8) from Santa Cruz in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands on the western margin of Remote Oceania. Our results indicate this site is considerably younger than previously believed…
Lapita diet and subsistence strategies on W atom I sland, P apua N ew G uinea
Stable isotope ratios (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) were analyzed from the bone collagen of individuals ( n = 8) from a Lapita burial ground (ca. 2800–2350 BP) on Watom Island, located off northeast New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago. The aim of this study was to assess the diet and subsistence strategies of humans that lived during the later Lapita period in Near Oceania. To aid in the interpretation of the human diet we analyzed the stable isotope r…
High-precision dating and ancient DNA profiling of moa (Aves
Geochemical sourcing of obsidians from thePūrākaunuisite,SouthIsland,NewZealand
We report the first well‐documented case of aSouthIsland site whereMayorIsland obsidian is not the dominant source represented. At thePūrākaunui site (I44/21), located in coastalOtago, we find that most obsidians come from theTaupoVolcanicZone, including sources nearLakeTaupo (52%) andRotorua (27.7 %). A small proportion of the collection comes fromMayorIsland (10.8%) and theCoromandelPeninsula (9.5%) obsidian. The results point to early effects …
The Ngati Tiare Adze Cache
Both morphology and ethnohistory suggest that the adzes in the Ngati Tiare cache (Rarotonga, Southern Cook Islands) are derived from Samoa. If true, this is further documentation of post‐colonisation contact between West and East Polynesia, regions which were generally throught to have remined isolated from one another following human settlement. The results of geochemical analysis and thin section petrography indicate a very high probability tha…
Sedentism, subsistence and socio-political organization in prehistoric New Zealand
Much archaeological thinking about the interrelationships between subsistence, sedentism and socio-political organization has been carried out within an evolutionary framework. The classic model sees the development of complex social organization linked to a rise in the importance of agriculture and of a sedentary way of life. The New Zealand record offers challenges to this model. New Zealand is an unusual case involving a society moving from an…
Colonisation, mobility and exchange in New Zealand prehistory
An analysis of the exchange of lithics in settlement period New Zealand (fourteenth century AD) is used to throw light on the mechanisms of colonisation more generally. The early distribution of New Zealand's Mayor Island obsidian demonstrates efficient exploration and dispersal, and the rapid establishment of long-distance exchange networks similar to that seen in early Melanesian obsidian movements. But in New Zealand the motivation is the ceme…
Cult assemblages and ritual practice in Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands
Mortuary architecture and ritual assemblages have played a central role in archaeological inquiry since the discipline began. Most recently they have featured in the archaeology of social organization where variations in scale and value of the objects concerned are seen as reflections of religion, ideology, ethics or politics. This study looks at the shrines and cult assemblages of late prehistoric Roviana Lagoon, in the Western Solomon Islands. …
High-precision dating and ancient DNA profiling of moa (Aves
Geochemical sourcing of obsidians from thePūrākaunuisite,SouthIsland,NewZealand
We report the first well‐documented case of aSouthIsland site whereMayorIsland obsidian is not the dominant source represented. At thePūrākaunui site (I44/21), located in coastalOtago, we find that most obsidians come from theTaupoVolcanicZone, including sources nearLakeTaupo (52%) andRotorua (27.7 %). A small proportion of the collection comes fromMayorIsland (10.8%) and theCoromandelPeninsula (9.5%) obsidian. The results point to early effects …
Landscape, Violence and Social Bodies
This article considers the interplay between the bodily experience of landscape and the formation of sociality. We investigate the social experiences of landscape in nineteenth-century Roviana Lagoon in the Solomon Islands, dealing specifically with the ritualized architecture of a fortification on Nusa Roviana Island. Drawing on oral tradition and archaeological and historical data, we argue that the architectural remains reflect a powerful mode…
Colyers Island
Bluff Harbour, in southern New Zealand (Murihiku), is the southernmost location of Polynesian adze production. Here, an industry developed during the colonisation phase based on the exploitation of numerous sources of argillite – a fine‐grained, homogeneous rock with conchoidal fracture properties. Argillite from the Bluff and Riverton sources was a major attractor during the earliest period of human occupation and Bluff argillite adzes were dist…
Temporal trends in the Colonisation of the Pacific
The colonisation of eastern parts of the Pacific Islands was the last phase in the preindustrial expansion of the human species. Given the scale and challenges of the endeavour it is unsurprising that scholars have long been interested in understanding the conditions that drove and supported the exploration and settlement of this vast region. There has been speculation as to the influence of demographic factors, either as drivers or in some way r…
Tracing changing life histories of tāmure (Chrysophrys auratus) in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, through otolith chemistry
A cultural landscape approach to community-based conservation in Solomon Islands
International environmental organizations have an increasing commitment to the development of conservation programs in high-diversity regions where indigenous communities maintain customary rights to their lands and seas. A major challenge that these programs face is the alignment of international conservation values with those of the indigenous communities whose cooperation and support are vital. International environmental organizations are foc…
Molecular and morphological analyses of avian eggshell excavated from a late thirteenth century earth oven
Nusa Roviana
When European traders started to expand their economic activities in the Solomon Islands in the early 19th century, they found indigenous groups already engaged in long-distance exchange. Amongst the most powerful of these were the Roviana chiefs whose bases were situated on the shores and offshore islets of Roviana Lagoon on the island of New Georgia. Power in Roviana was bound to a cycle of headhunting raids, ritual violence, ancestor cults, an…
The Varying Role of Vertebrae in Pacific Fishbone Analysis
Archaeologists working in the tropical Pacific have demonstrated the feasibility and value of including fish vertebrae in midden analyses, and recent New Zealand studies draw similar conclusions. This work provides an illustrated guide to the identification of vertebrae from key New Zealand fish taxa and shows the effects of including vertebrae on a large fishbone assemblage from southern New Zealand. We note major differences between New Zealand…
Lapita diet and subsistence strategies on W atom I sland, P apua N ew G uinea
Stable isotope ratios (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) were analyzed from the bone collagen of individuals ( n = 8) from a Lapita burial ground (ca. 2800–2350 BP) on Watom Island, located off northeast New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago. The aim of this study was to assess the diet and subsistence strategies of humans that lived during the later Lapita period in Near Oceania. To aid in the interpretation of the human diet we analyzed the stable isotope r…
Anson's Voyage Round the World
The development and use of communication networks in the prehistoric North Island of New Zealand
What Became of the Degenerate
Journal Article What Became of the Degenerate? A Brief History of a Concept Get access RICHARD D. WALTER RICHARD D. WALTER *The University of California at Los Angeles Medical School, Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, Medical Center, Los Angeles, California Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume XI, Issue 4, October 1956, Pages 422…
Anson's Voyage Round the World
What Became of the Degenerate
Journal Article What Became of the Degenerate? A Brief History of a Concept Get access RICHARD D. WALTER RICHARD D. WALTER *The University of California at Los Angeles Medical School, Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, Medical Center, Los Angeles, California Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume XI, Issue 4, October 1956, Pages 422…
From the Comstock to Cosmic Consciousness
Journal Article From the Comstock to Cosmic Consciousness: Richard Maurice Bucke, M.D. Get access RICHARD D. WALTER RICHARD D. WALTER Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume XIII, Issue 2, April 1958, Pages 260-b–263, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/XIII.2.260-b Published: 01 April 1958
S. Weir Mitchell, M.D., Neurologist
Historia política y constitucional argentina
The Latin American University
The development and use of communication networks in the prehistoric North Island of New Zealand
Reconsideration of the Marquesan sequence in East Polynesian prehistory, with particular reference to Hane (MUH1)
Current views about the Marquesan sequence are reviewed through a reassessment of the archaeological evidence from Hane. Particular attention is given to the stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating, adzes, fishhooks, harpoons, ornaments, pottery and faunal remains. These data suggest that the lower levels at Hane represent a single relatively brief phase of occupation, probably about the middle of the first millenium A.D., during the initial settlement …
The Ngati Tiare Adze Cache
Both morphology and ethnohistory suggest that the adzes in the Ngati Tiare cache (Rarotonga, Southern Cook Islands) are derived from Samoa. If true, this is further documentation of post‐colonisation contact between West and East Polynesia, regions which were generally throught to have remined isolated from one another following human settlement. The results of geochemical analysis and thin section petrography indicate a very high probability tha…
Nusa Roviana
When European traders started to expand their economic activities in the Solomon Islands in the early 19th century, they found indigenous groups already engaged in long-distance exchange. Amongst the most powerful of these were the Roviana chiefs whose bases were situated on the shores and offshore islets of Roviana Lagoon on the island of New Georgia. Power in Roviana was bound to a cycle of headhunting raids, ritual violence, ancestor cults, an…
Landscape, Violence and Social Bodies
This article considers the interplay between the bodily experience of landscape and the formation of sociality. We investigate the social experiences of landscape in nineteenth-century Roviana Lagoon in the Solomon Islands, dealing specifically with the ritualized architecture of a fortification on Nusa Roviana Island. Drawing on oral tradition and archaeological and historical data, we argue that the architectural remains reflect a powerful mode…
Cult assemblages and ritual practice in Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands
Mortuary architecture and ritual assemblages have played a central role in archaeological inquiry since the discipline began. Most recently they have featured in the archaeology of social organization where variations in scale and value of the objects concerned are seen as reflections of religion, ideology, ethics or politics. This study looks at the shrines and cult assemblages of late prehistoric Roviana Lagoon, in the Western Solomon Islands. …
Sedentism, subsistence and socio-political organization in prehistoric New Zealand
Much archaeological thinking about the interrelationships between subsistence, sedentism and socio-political organization has been carried out within an evolutionary framework. The classic model sees the development of complex social organization linked to a rise in the importance of agriculture and of a sedentary way of life. The New Zealand record offers challenges to this model. New Zealand is an unusual case involving a society moving from an…
Radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a pre-Columbian introduction of Polynesian chickens to Chile
Two issues long debated among Pacific and American prehistorians are ( i ) whether there was a pre-Columbian introduction of chicken ( Gallus gallus ) to the Americas and ( ii ) whether Polynesian contact with South America might be identified archaeologically, through the recovery of remains of unquestionable Polynesian origin. We present a radiocarbon date and an ancient DNA sequence from a single chicken bone recovered from the archaeological …
Living on Pipi (Paphies australis)
A large, single-species shell midden on the South Island’s West Coast is investigated. The deposit is remarkable both for its size in an otherwise sparse and resource-poor archaeological landscape and its composition. Because of its single-species nature and apparent lack of stratigraphic variability several methods of analysis were required for its investigation. In addition to standard archaeofaunal identification these included measurement of …
Excavations at Cook’s Cove, Tolaga Bay, New Zealand
The Cook’s Cove site (Z17/311) on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand is an unusual example of an archaeological site spanning close to the full duration of the New Zealand prehistoric sequence. In addition to a record of Polynesian activities, the site is also well known as the type site for the North Island Holocene stratigraphy. Recent excavations at Cook’s Cove have resulted in a reinterpretation of the nature of Polynesian occu…
Colonisation, mobility and exchange in New Zealand prehistory
An analysis of the exchange of lithics in settlement period New Zealand (fourteenth century AD) is used to throw light on the mechanisms of colonisation more generally. The early distribution of New Zealand's Mayor Island obsidian demonstrates efficient exploration and dispersal, and the rapid establishment of long-distance exchange networks similar to that seen in early Melanesian obsidian movements. But in New Zealand the motivation is the ceme…
Molecular and morphological analyses of avian eggshell excavated from a late thirteenth century earth oven
High-precision dating and ancient DNA profiling of moa (Aves
Geochemical sourcing of obsidians from thePūrākaunuisite,SouthIsland,NewZealand
We report the first well‐documented case of aSouthIsland site whereMayorIsland obsidian is not the dominant source represented. At thePūrākaunui site (I44/21), located in coastalOtago, we find that most obsidians come from theTaupoVolcanicZone, including sources nearLakeTaupo (52%) andRotorua (27.7 %). A small proportion of the collection comes fromMayorIsland (10.8%) and theCoromandelPeninsula (9.5%) obsidian. The results point to early effects …
A cultural landscape approach to community-based conservation in Solomon Islands
International environmental organizations have an increasing commitment to the development of conservation programs in high-diversity regions where indigenous communities maintain customary rights to their lands and seas. A major challenge that these programs face is the alignment of international conservation values with those of the indigenous communities whose cooperation and support are vital. International environmental organizations are foc…
Re-dating Lapita Movement into Remote Oceania
Understanding the nature and process of initial Pacific settlement by people carrying the Lapita culture is ultimately founded upon accurate knowledge of the timing and speed of settlement. This paper reports on re-dating of one of the earliest Lapita sites (SE-SZ-8) from Santa Cruz in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands on the western margin of Remote Oceania. Our results indicate this site is considerably younger than previously believed…
Lapita diet and subsistence strategies on W atom I sland, P apua N ew G uinea
Stable isotope ratios (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) were analyzed from the bone collagen of individuals ( n = 8) from a Lapita burial ground (ca. 2800–2350 BP) on Watom Island, located off northeast New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago. The aim of this study was to assess the diet and subsistence strategies of humans that lived during the later Lapita period in Near Oceania. To aid in the interpretation of the human diet we analyzed the stable isotope r…
A morphometric reassessment of Roger Duff's Polynesian adze typology
Mass Migration and the Polynesian Settlement of New Zealand
This paper reintroduces the concept of mass migration into debates concerning the timing and nature of New Zealand's settlement by Polynesians. Upward revisions of New Zealand's chronology show that the appearance of humans on the landscape occurred extremely rapidly, and that within decades settlements had been established across the full range of climatic zones. We show that the rapid appearance of a strong archaeological signature in the early…
Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (38 works) · Archaeology (35 works) · Geography (32 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (23 works) · History (20 works) · Biology (15 works) · Geology (15 works) · Ecology (12 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (12 works) · Sociology (11 works)