A 3000-Year Culture Sequence from Palau, Western Micronesia

Bibliographic Data

ID4904682
AuthorsGeoffrey R Clark, Geoffrey Clark (0000-0002-9055-655X, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume44
Issue2
Pages349-380
Publication date2005-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0066-8435 • E-ISSN: 1535-8283
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/asi.2005.0020
OpenAlexW2116251685
LanguageEN
Citations received42
References cited21

In western Micronesia archaeological sites containing material-culture remains spanning millennia are rare. This paper reports one from Ulong Island in Palau, which is radiocarbon dated to 3000 cal. B.P. The pottery sequence was divided into three assemblages, each distinguished by distinct vessel forms and by the type and proportion of nonplastic temper inclusions. An abrupt transformation of the ceramic assemblage is tentatively dated to around 2400 cal. B.P., coincident with substantial landscape alteration on the main island where pottery was manufactured, indicating that anthropogenic activity may have constrained the raw materials available to prehistoric potters. There is a discontinuity in the sequence from 2000-1000 B.P. that might represent an hiatus in site use. Critical consideration of paleoenvironmental data pointing to human arrival at 4500-4300 cal. B.P. suggests, instead, that climatic events may be responsible for the observed palaeoecological changes. If so, then sites dating to 3300-3000 cal. B.P., such as Ulong, could well be among the oldest in western Micronesia

Archaeology · Biology · Geography · Sequence (biology · Sociology · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies