Peter Sheppard
Biographic Data
| ID | 150715 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter Sheppard |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter |
| FAMILY NAME | Sheppard |
| SIGNATURE | SHEPPARD P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Auckland |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6624-7856 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 488 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 45 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Wiggles, Plateaus, and Precision: High-Resolution Radiocarbon Dating of the Transition from Early East Polynesian to Classic Māori Society.
Achieving precise archaeological chronologies in island environments has long been hindered by plateaus and wiggles in the radiocarbon calibration curve. This study shows how to overcome these temporal bottlenecks by integrating Bayesian principles with high-precision sample selection, and demonstrates how the interpretation of archaeological context affects the results. Using two iconic Aotearoa, New Zealand sites previously dated over 30 years …
Professional development and instructional leadership: Views and experiences of U.S. mathematics and science teachers who leave the classroom to lead
This paper examines the perspectives and experiences of 21 science and mathematics teachers in the U.S. who shifted from classroom teaching to leadership roles in their schools and districts. These individuals viewed themselves as ‘teacher leaders’, regardless of whether they maintained classroom teaching responsibilities, and they engaged in work typically associated with researchers’ definitions of teacher leaders. They viewed teacher leaders a…
Three Late 18th Century CE East Polynesian Sails in the British Museum Collected from New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii (or the Marquesas) Reveal Regional Adaptations in Sailing Technology
Three unique sails in the British Museum provide valuable information about sailing technology and practice in the late 18th century, CE, and insights into early East Polynesian migration. The sails were collected from New Zealand, Tahiti, and the third most probably from Hawaii or the Marquesas. Tacking double canoes were used in the settlement of East Polynesia, in combination with the Oceanic spritsail, and the sails reveal different adaptatio…
Revisiting the evidence of the Arenal 1 site: Chronologies and human interactions in central southern Chile
The Arenal 1 site in central southern Chile is renowned for its chicken DNA evidence suggesting pre-Columbian contacts with Polynesia. Debates around the chronology of the site and the lack of additional evidence supporting contact, gave origin to a new archaeological excavation focusing on refining the site's chronology and recovering further archaeological materials. The results appear to reconfirm a pre-Columbian date for this site; however, o…
Southeast Solomon Islands in regional perspective: Settlement history, interaction spheres, Polynesian outliers and eastward dispersals
This paper reviews the prehistory of the greater southeast Solomons region in the light of the 46 years of research which has been conducted since Green and Yen published the preliminary results of their Southeast Solomons Culture History Project in 1976. Green saw the region as key to investigating some of the major questions relating to Oceanic culture history, and as subsequent archaeological, linguistic and genetic research has shown, this ha…
New information from an old discovery: Geological analysis of a stone adze found on Pohnpei, Micronesia
Geological analysis was conducted on a stone adze, which was accidentally dug up from an intertidal dredging site on a reef flat in Pohnpei Island, Micronesia in the 1980s. Detailed geological observations identified the material as metamorphic rock (schist), not basalt as originally reported. This result places its source in the continental rocks of Island Melanesia, most probably New Guinea. The location where it was recovered suggests an age t…
Interaction and Isolation in New Georgia: Insights from the Nabo Point ceramic assemblage, Tetepare
This paper describes a ceramic assemblage from a Post‐Lapita site on Tetepare, a geologically distinct island on the periphery of the New Georgia group, Solomon Islands. Previous studies of ceramic assemblages in the region have found evidence of exotic sherds and patterns of pottery transfer indicating population mobility during a colonisation phase establishment of new communities in coastal lagoon settings. Here, a geochemical and petrographic…
Ethan E. Cochrane & Terry L. Hunt. 2018. The Oxford handbook of prehistoric Oceania. New York: Oxford University Press; 978-0-19-992507-0 £97
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How You Like Me Now?”: Exploring Teacher Perceptions of Urban Middle Schoolers’ Mathematical Abilities and Identities
HEAT, an instructional program emphasizing a nontraditional hands-on approach to algebraic instruction for urban, predominantly African American middle schoolers, provides a space to explore teachers’ beliefs about urban students’ mathematical abilities and motivation and addresses how teacher perceptions can intersect with instruction, learning, and the construction of students’ mathematical identities. Using a multiple case study design, we ana…
Ancient DNA and its contribution to understanding the human history of the Pacific Islands
Two recent papers, by Lipson et al. and Posth et al., have challenged current interpretations of the initial settlement of Remote Oceania. We invited Stuart Bedford, who is an author on both papers, to outline their importance, and a number of scholars in various disciplines to comment on their findings
Tattooing tools and the Lapita cultural complex
A use‐wear and residue study of 56 retouched obsidian flakes from seven Lapita sites in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu confirms that they had been used for tattooing. These specialised tools all bear one or more very small points formed by alternating retouch. A detailed comparison of use traces and pigments on these and 19 additional skin piercing tools analysed previously challenges the notion of homogeneity in cultural practice…
Archaeology in Oceania is an international journal
Detecting early tattooing in the Pacific region through experimental usewear and residue analyses of obsidian tools
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…
Geochemical Characterization of Lapita Ceramics From the Western Solomon Islands by Means of Portable X-Ray Fluorescence and Scanning Electron Microscopy
The study of interaction and exchange among different geographic areas in the Western Pacific occupied by Lapita people (3500–2500 BP) has been an important component of research into the colonization process of the Pacific region. The Western Solomon Islands, lying in the central area of the Lapita distribution, have a unique archaeological record presenting intertidal sites with Late/Post Lapita ceramics as the only material evidence of Lapita …
Ritually breaking L apita pots: Or, can we get into the minds of O ceanic first settlers? A discussion
One of the striking characteristics of Lapita archaeology during the past century has been the very limited number of preserved whole or nearly whole pots found in excavations. This appears odd for ceramics mostly interpreted in the scientific literature as non‐utilitarian and carrying social or ritual symbolism. The clear connection between dentate‐stamped pots and complex burial rituals at the T eouma site ( V anuatu), along with studies on pot…
The identification of a Marquesan adze in the Cook Islands
We report on the provenance of an adze from the Cook Islands that was previously geochemically analysed by Sheppard, Walter and Parker (1997) but could not be assigned a source at that time because of the paucity of reference data. Drawing on basalt characterisation studies from the last two decades, we can now demonstrate that the adze most likely derives from the Marquesan island of Eiao, over 2500 km to the east. This find extends the western …
Obsidian Source Use in Tongan Prehistory: New Results and Implications
The article presents results of an obsidian sourcing study on artifacts from Tonga and Fiji. New LA-ICPMS data on obsidian source locations on Tafahi in northern Tonga are discussed in relation to inter-island mobility during two important phases in the Central Pacific: the late-Lapita phase in Fiji-West Polynesia at 2700–2600 cal. BP and during the time of the rise of Polynesian chiefdoms at ∼1000–400 cal. BP. The sourcing results indicate that …
Sourcing temper sands in ancient ceramics with U–Pb ages of detrital zircons: A southwest Pacific test case
Tongan and Samoan volcanic glass: PXRF analysis and implications for constructs of ancestral Polynesian society
Lapita Colonization across the Near/Remote Oceania Boundary
The Lapita colonization of Remote Oceania involved rapid expansion from New Guinea across onetenth of the circumference of the earth. Implicit in most discussions of this phenomenon is a standard wave-of-advance model founded on demographic growth and the economic advantage provided by food production. The Lapita movement is also routinely embedded within a much larger narrative of the expansion of Austronesian languages and peoples out of Southe…
The Early Prehistory of Fiji - Clark, G. and Anderson, A
Characterization of New Zealand obsidian using PXRF
Roger Curtis Green 1932-2009: Ippa President 1988-1992
Roger Curtis Green 1932 – 2009. BA, BSc (New Mexico), PhD (Harvard), ONZM, FRSNZ, member Nat. Acad. Sci.(USA), Hon. Fellow Soc. Antiquaries (Lon.) and Emeritus Professor of Prehistory at the University of Auckland
Pacific obsidian sourcing by portable XRF
The use of portable XRF analysis to characterise the geochemistry of Pacific obsidians is reported. Obsidian source samples from New Britain, the Admiralties, Fergusson Island and the Banks Islands were successfully characterised and then used to source 966 samples of obsidian from three (SE=SZ‐8, SE‐RF‐2, SE‐RF‐6) Reef/Santa Cruz Lapita sites. The analysis demonstrates the capabilities of portable XRF and confirms the previous analysis of this m…
The Rise and Fall of Seasonal Mobility among Hunter-Gatherers: The Case of the Southern Levant [and Comments and Replies]
Lapita lithics: Trade/exchange and technology. A view from the Reefs/Santa Cruz
An analysis of the obsidian and chert flaked stone assemblages from three Reefs/Santa Cruz Lapita sites (SE‐SZ‐8, SE‐RF‐2, SE‐RF‐6) is presented. Data on extraction, transport, core reduction, tool use and deposition are examined to see how well they fit a resource maximization model. It is concluded that factors other than utilitarian resource maximization are significant for an understanding of the use and distribution of lithic raw materials a…
Pacific obsidian sourcing by portable XRF
The use of portable XRF analysis to characterise the geochemistry of Pacific obsidians is reported. Obsidian source samples from New Britain, the Admiralties, Fergusson Island and the Banks Islands were successfully characterised and then used to source 966 samples of obsidian from three (SE=SZ‐8, SE‐RF‐2, SE‐RF‐6) Reef/Santa Cruz Lapita sites. The analysis demonstrates the capabilities of portable XRF and confirms the previous analysis of this m…
Technological change in the Earlier and Middle Stone Age of Kalambo Falls (Zambia)
Lapita Colonization across the Near/Remote Oceania Boundary
The Lapita colonization of Remote Oceania involved rapid expansion from New Guinea across onetenth of the circumference of the earth. Implicit in most discussions of this phenomenon is a standard wave-of-advance model founded on demographic growth and the economic advantage provided by food production. The Lapita movement is also routinely embedded within a much larger narrative of the expansion of Austronesian languages and peoples out of Southe…
Characterization of New Zealand obsidian using PXRF
The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Exchange in Precolonial and Colonial Roviana: Gifts, Commodities, and Inalienable Possessions
Using ethnohistorical, ethnographical, historical, and archaeological evidence, this article reconstructs the development of exchange systems in Roviana, Solomon Islands, and explores their longterm transformation. It suggests that a Roviana system of multiple coexisting standards of valuation of goods and services gained preeminence in precolonial times in the context of a regional exchange system and political expansion and explores this system…
The Ngati Tiare Adze Cache: Further evidence of prehistoric contact between West Polynesia and the Southern Cook Islands
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…
Sourcing temper sands in ancient ceramics with U–Pb ages of detrital zircons: A southwest Pacific test case
The reconstructed environment and absolute dating of SE‐SZ‐8 Lapita site on Nendö, Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands
The SE‐SZ‐8 site of Nanggu is a large Lapita site in the Reef/Santa Cruz group of the Southeast Solomon Islands. This paper provides a detailed discussion of its geomorphological and environmental context on Santa Cruz and the within site position of four marine shell dates from it, followed by a Bayesian analysis of the radiocarbon dating of the site. The analysis includes two new marine shell dates on additional species to overcome possible pro…
The identification of a Marquesan adze in the Cook Islands
We report on the provenance of an adze from the Cook Islands that was previously geochemically analysed by Sheppard, Walter and Parker (1997) but could not be assigned a source at that time because of the paucity of reference data. Drawing on basalt characterisation studies from the last two decades, we can now demonstrate that the adze most likely derives from the Marquesan island of Eiao, over 2500 km to the east. This find extends the western …
Tongan and Samoan volcanic glass: PXRF analysis and implications for constructs of ancestral Polynesian society
The Marine ΔR for Nenumbo (Solomon Islands): A Case Study in Calculating Reservoir Offsets from Paired Sample Data
It is necessary to calculate location-specific marine ΔR values in order to calibrate marine samples using calibration curves such as those provided through the IntCal98 (Stuiver et al. 1998) data. Where known-age samples are available, this calculation is straightforward (i.e. Stuiver et al. 1986). In the case that a paired marine/terrestrial sample calculation is performed, however, the standard calculation (i.e. Stuiver and Braziunas 1993) req…
Samoan Volcanic Glass
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. …
Weathering of archaeological cherts: A case study from the Solomon Islands
Weathering of chert artifacts from three Lapita sites (ca. 3000–2000 B.P.) in the Southeast Solomons is examined. It is shown that the rate of weathering is strongly influenced by soil pH, mineralogy, and prehistoric burning of the material. The concentrations of some major elements (Na, Cl, K, Al) are shown to have been altered during the weathering process. Implications of this work for the sourcing and dating of cherts are discussed
Spatial analysis of the Nenumbo (SE‐RF‐2) Lapita site, Solomon Islands
Data on the spatial distribution of features, pottery, lithic materials, fishbones and shellfish are used to examine spatial organization in the SE‐RF‐2 Lapita site (Reef Islands, Southeast Solomons). It is shown that the site is at most a small hamlet and consisted of a large rectilinear central structure with an adjacent cooking area. It is argued that the distribution of imports (pottery, chert, obsidian) with different transport costs cannot …
Advances in the Hydration Dating of New Zealand Obsidian
Tattooing tools and the Lapita cultural complex
A use‐wear and residue study of 56 retouched obsidian flakes from seven Lapita sites in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu confirms that they had been used for tattooing. These specialised tools all bear one or more very small points formed by alternating retouch. A detailed comparison of use traces and pigments on these and 19 additional skin piercing tools analysed previously challenges the notion of homogeneity in cultural practice…
Obsidian Source Use in Tongan Prehistory: New Results and Implications
The article presents results of an obsidian sourcing study on artifacts from Tonga and Fiji. New LA-ICPMS data on obsidian source locations on Tafahi in northern Tonga are discussed in relation to inter-island mobility during two important phases in the Central Pacific: the late-Lapita phase in Fiji-West Polynesia at 2700–2600 cal. BP and during the time of the rise of Polynesian chiefdoms at ∼1000–400 cal. BP. The sourcing results indicate that …
Landscape, Violence and Social Bodies: Ritualized Architecture in a Solomon Islands Society
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…
Characterisation of cherts from sites in southwest Tasmania
This paper reports on the characterisation, using thin section petrography and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis, of cherts recovered from Pleistocene sites (Bone Cave, Warreen, Pulawa Trounta and Nunamira) located in the interior of Southwest Tasmania. The results indicate use of one major chert source area and fit a simple distance fall‐off model. These results are congruent with palaeo‐ecological models previously developed for Southwes…
Ancient DNA and its contribution to understanding the human history of the Pacific Islands
Two recent papers, by Lipson et al. and Posth et al., have challenged current interpretations of the initial settlement of Remote Oceania. We invited Stuart Bedford, who is an author on both papers, to outline their importance, and a number of scholars in various disciplines to comment on their findings
Detecting early tattooing in the Pacific region through experimental usewear and residue analyses of obsidian tools
Late Ceramics in Samoa: A Test Using Hydration-Rim Measurements
African Archaeology
Samoan Volcanic Glass
Spatial analysis of the Nenumbo (SE‐RF‐2) Lapita site, Solomon Islands
Data on the spatial distribution of features, pottery, lithic materials, fishbones and shellfish are used to examine spatial organization in the SE‐RF‐2 Lapita site (Reef Islands, Southeast Solomons). It is shown that the site is at most a small hamlet and consisted of a large rectilinear central structure with an adjacent cooking area. It is argued that the distribution of imports (pottery, chert, obsidian) with different transport costs cannot …
Weathering of archaeological cherts: A case study from the Solomon Islands
Weathering of chert artifacts from three Lapita sites (ca. 3000–2000 B.P.) in the Southeast Solomons is examined. It is shown that the rate of weathering is strongly influenced by soil pH, mineralogy, and prehistoric burning of the material. The concentrations of some major elements (Na, Cl, K, Al) are shown to have been altered during the weathering process. Implications of this work for the sourcing and dating of cherts are discussed
The Rise and Fall of Seasonal Mobility among Hunter-Gatherers: The Case of the Southern Levant [and Comments and Replies]
Lapita lithics: Trade/exchange and technology. A view from the Reefs/Santa Cruz
An analysis of the obsidian and chert flaked stone assemblages from three Reefs/Santa Cruz Lapita sites (SE‐SZ‐8, SE‐RF‐2, SE‐RF‐6) is presented. Data on extraction, transport, core reduction, tool use and deposition are examined to see how well they fit a resource maximization model. It is concluded that factors other than utilitarian resource maximization are significant for an understanding of the use and distribution of lithic raw materials a…
GIS-Based Image Enhancement of Conductivity and Magnetic Susceptibility Data from Ureturituri Pa and Fort Resolution, New Zealand
Two geographic information system (GIS) techniques for displaying, analyzing, and interpreting geophysical data were recently applied at two archaeological sites in northern New Zealand; a pre-European Maori pa (fortification), and a late nineteenth-century European fortification. A GIS was used to stretch and filter the conductivity data from the pa to accentuate subtle contrasts and clearly delineate boundaries between areas with contrasting co…
Advances in the Hydration Dating of New Zealand Obsidian
Middle-Aged Spread
Technological change in the Earlier and Middle Stone Age of Kalambo Falls (Zambia)
The Ngati Tiare Adze Cache: Further evidence of prehistoric contact between West Polynesia and the Southern Cook Islands
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…
Soil Temperature and Obsidian Hydration Dating: A Clarification of Variables Affecting Accuracy
Characterisation of cherts from sites in southwest Tasmania
This paper reports on the characterisation, using thin section petrography and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis, of cherts recovered from Pleistocene sites (Bone Cave, Warreen, Pulawa Trounta and Nunamira) located in the interior of Southwest Tasmania. The results indicate use of one major chert source area and fit a simple distance fall‐off model. These results are congruent with palaeo‐ecological models previously developed for Southwes…
Late Ceramics in Samoa: A Test Using Hydration-Rim Measurements
Nusa Roviana: The Archaeology of a Melanesian Chiefdom
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: Ritualized Architecture in a Solomon Islands Society
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…
The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Exchange in Precolonial and Colonial Roviana: Gifts, Commodities, and Inalienable Possessions
Using ethnohistorical, ethnographical, historical, and archaeological evidence, this article reconstructs the development of exchange systems in Roviana, Solomon Islands, and explores their longterm transformation. It suggests that a Roviana system of multiple coexisting standards of valuation of goods and services gained preeminence in precolonial times in the context of a regional exchange system and political expansion and explores this system…
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. …
The Marine ΔR for Nenumbo (Solomon Islands): A Case Study in Calculating Reservoir Offsets from Paired Sample Data
It is necessary to calculate location-specific marine ΔR values in order to calibrate marine samples using calibration curves such as those provided through the IntCal98 (Stuiver et al. 1998) data. Where known-age samples are available, this calculation is straightforward (i.e. Stuiver et al. 1986). In the case that a paired marine/terrestrial sample calculation is performed, however, the standard calculation (i.e. Stuiver and Braziunas 1993) req…
The reconstructed environment and absolute dating of SE‐SZ‐8 Lapita site on Nendö, Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands
The SE‐SZ‐8 site of Nanggu is a large Lapita site in the Reef/Santa Cruz group of the Southeast Solomon Islands. This paper provides a detailed discussion of its geomorphological and environmental context on Santa Cruz and the within site position of four marine shell dates from it, followed by a Bayesian analysis of the radiocarbon dating of the site. The analysis includes two new marine shell dates on additional species to overcome possible pro…
The Early Prehistory of Fiji - Clark, G. and Anderson, A
Characterization of New Zealand obsidian using PXRF
Roger Curtis Green 1932-2009: Ippa President 1988-1992
Roger Curtis Green 1932 – 2009. BA, BSc (New Mexico), PhD (Harvard), ONZM, FRSNZ, member Nat. Acad. Sci.(USA), Hon. Fellow Soc. Antiquaries (Lon.) and Emeritus Professor of Prehistory at the University of Auckland
Pacific obsidian sourcing by portable XRF
The use of portable XRF analysis to characterise the geochemistry of Pacific obsidians is reported. Obsidian source samples from New Britain, the Admiralties, Fergusson Island and the Banks Islands were successfully characterised and then used to source 966 samples of obsidian from three (SE=SZ‐8, SE‐RF‐2, SE‐RF‐6) Reef/Santa Cruz Lapita sites. The analysis demonstrates the capabilities of portable XRF and confirms the previous analysis of this m…
Tongan and Samoan volcanic glass: PXRF analysis and implications for constructs of ancestral Polynesian society
Archaeology (37 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (35 works) · Geography (30 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (25 works) · Geology (20 works) · History (18 works) · History (13 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (10 works) · Paleontology (10 works) · Prehistory (9 works)