In the South Pacific region, Vanuatu stands as the country most at risk of disasters from natural hazards, generating growing interest and making it a compelling case for study across various disciplines. In this book written in French, Maëlle Calandra offers an original examination of disasters through the dual frameworks of disaster anthropology and environmental anthropology. Focusing on Tongoa, an island in central Vanuatu, she explores the relationships between inhabitants and their environment - particularly their gardens - as well as the impact of disasters, and the ways in which people perceive, define, explain, experience, and live with these events. This book is building on her doctoral thesis (Calandra 2017) which examined the connections between Tongoa’s inhabitants, their gardens, the sea, and local perceptions of disasters. Maëlle Calandra is a brilliant anthropologist who has received several awards (2018 Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Dissertation Prize, 2018 1st ThesePac Prize, ‘South Pacific Grand Jury’ category, 2025 Red Cross Foundation Research Award) and is deeply appreciated by the communities she worked with on Tongoa.
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 (Alamagan, Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and Guam). We confirm that some reliable geochemical results can be obtained from heavily chemically weathered artifacts and define three primary and four secondary geochemical groups. Our results document ~1,500 years of interaction with notable north-south oriented clines in the prevalence of northern- and southern-sourced stone. For Guam, there is a significant association between two broad artifact categories and local and non-local stone. We propose complementary hypotheses for explaining the procurement and circulation of stone/tools—bet hedging, economic need, and prestige/costly signaling—that may explain different aspects of the current data and provide several avenues for future research.
As a tribute to Helen’s scholarly breadth and contributions, her influence as an academic leader and mentor and her warm friendship, several former students and colleagues have participated in the creation of this appreciation.
The Queen Street Gaol Site (R11/1559) excavation in 1987 was one of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s earliest large-scale archaeological investigations of a 19th-century colonial site. However, one of its significant findings related to much earlier Māori occupation along the Waihorotiu Stream. Despite over 40 years of work in Auckland, the site remains the only securely dated Māori site in the Auckland Central Business District. Redating samples from the site confirmed the likelihood of human presence in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland as early as AD1280. This discovery aligns with evidence from other early settlement sites around the Waitematā Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf. The Gaol site also provided evidence of Māori occupation in the AD1500s–1600s, including kō (digging stick), ketu (weeding stick), ochre, woven flax, and shell midden deposits which suggest an established community engaged in gardening and marine resource exploitation. These results offer insights into the landscape history of the Horotiu Valley, a topic that has received little attention despite the increasing number of excavations in the region. The redating of material from the Queen Street Gaol underscores its significance in debates over the timing and environmental impact of early Polynesian settlement in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The migration of humans into the eastern Pacific was relatively rapid and focused around 900-1250 CE. Although the causes for this migration are varied, we put forward evidence to suggest that a change in the mean state of the tropical South Pacific from La Nina like to El NinAo like conditions accompanied by an increase in climate "shocks" around the period of migration, could have created conditions to promote migration east into the Pacific. We use a range of sediment archives and hydroclimate proxies located in sites within the region of migration, to reconstruct climate conditions in the 'sending' islands, and 'receiving' archipelagos. Climate in the period immediately prior to the eastward migration was characterised by a drier southwest Pacific. During the period following settlement of the central region of eastern Polynesia, the mean climate state in receiving islands became wetter, with fewer climate "shocks".Results from socio-hydrological models highlight the sensitivity of growing populations to droughts within a drying climate. Using these lines of evidence, we suggest that as populations grew, particularly in drought-sensitive islands, people with some knowledge of eastern "Gateway islands", chose to move east, fortuitously at a time when wetter conditions supported their long-term settlement.
This article questions how surface stone architecture and site proxemics can inform on the pre-contact use of house structures on Rurutu Island (Austral archipelago) and their relationship to residential social status and/or occupational specialization. After exploring available linguistic and ethnohistoric accounts to understand emic conceptions of Rurutuan houses, I turn to a survey of the archaeological data, using specific site characteristics, like house form, house size, and architectural elaboration, to understand Rurutuan house types in later prehistory, both at the island-wide scale and with a case study focusing on the Tehaumatea chiefly center in Vitaria. Results demonstrate that Rurutuan house architecture varies substantially, with both house form, size, and architectural elaboration signaling house function and site status. While both residential and specialized house forms have been identified, their specific associations with class types are still murky, as most sites heretofore studied are from elite contexts. In terms of chronological shifts in house form through time, there are hints that Rurutuan houses both get larger and their surface architecture becomes more elaborate. These shifts may be due to social factors, like the accumulation of power by diverse social personae (chiefs, warriors, priests, and perhaps craft specialists) and increased chiefly competition through time, although this proposition must be tested with additional fieldwork.
Addison and Matisoo-Smith (2010) challenged the widely accepted model regarding the settlement history of Polynesia, specifically the Lapita only origin of East Polynesia, and identified possible drivers for the resumption of the eastward expansion of Pacific peoples around 1500 BP. In the last 15 years, there have been some significant advances in our understanding of the events that have led to the biological, cultural and linguistic variation we currently see in the Pacific. Here we will review the evidence, particularly the genetic and genomic evidence, related to Pacific settlement history that has accumulated since the publication of Addison and Matisoo-Smith. We then fully investigate these genomic data to see if we are any closer to understanding and reconstructing Pacific settlement history, and to identify any gaps that still exist.
The Watinglo rockshelter provides an occupation record from the central north coast of New Guinea from 13 ka to the last few hundred years, with a hiatus in the later Holocene. Examination of the lithic artefacts from this sequence suggests that within a paradigm of technological continuity and local resource procurement, there were notable fluctuations in the use of particular materials and the intensity with which the site was used. This suggests a pattern of small range size and population fragmentation that may have contributed to the unparalleled linguistic diversity of the wider region.
The use of stable isotope analysis (SIA) has contributed significantly to our understanding of the diets of people who lived in Oceania in the past. While this work has relied extensively on Pacificwide baselines, in this study, we demonstrate the importance of understanding local isotopic ecologies for the application of SIA to the interpretation of past human diets across the Pacific Islands. We expand on previous isotopic analysis from Waya Island, Fiji, by analysing additional human (n = 3) and faunal (n = 15) remains using delta 13C and delta 15N data from bone collagen. The analysed samples come from human and faunal individuals excavated from two different sites, Y225 "Olo" (2800-2400BP) and Y2-39 "Qaranicagi" (760-660 BP). We used a multispecies approach to SIA to capture aspects of the local isotope ecology of Waya Island, informing our interpretation of the human isotopic data. Through a re-analysis of previously published data alongside these new contributions, we demonstrate how intra-regional isotopic variation in marine environments may complicate the use of Pacific-wide baselines for understanding past human diets.
Marine paleoclimate records for the last 1,000 years are scarce in the southwest Pacific, limiting our understanding of complex environmental changes that may have affected MaAori seascapes and fisheries. We seek to begin filling this knowledge gap by studying stable oxygen (delta 18O) and carbon (delta 13C) isotopes in archaeological and modern otoliths from ta mure (Australasian snapper, Chrysophrys auratus), which provide information about water temperature, salinity, and fish diet and metabolism. Our results show that fourteenth and fifteenth century ta mure otoliths recorded environmental conditions that are comparable to twentieth century temperatures, with some evidence for anomalously warmer seas and/or higher precipitation during the fifteenth century. These findings are concordant with previous reconstructions of terrestrial climatic conditions in northern Aotearoa and of central west Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures, providing additional evidence that MaAori experienced a warm climatic period during their first centuries of habitation and fishing in the North Island.
Substantial changes in political and land organization occurred in Hawai`i in the last 200 years before European arrival. These changes are thought to have affected land access and management, with areas nearer centres of power being more heavily influenced. Less is known about the effects of these changes on outlying areas and those areas with substantial environmental diversity. We investigate this scenario here by examining remnants of the Ka`u Field System located in the Kahuku Unit of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. We find evidence for local-scale agricultural management and the persistent use of houses through time. We also identify evidence of continued access to forest resources, even after formal agricultural infrastructure replaced a low-intensity agroforestry system. Our results speak to a high degree of autonomy in this section of the Ka`u Field System, which contrasts with some parts of the Kona Field System and the centre of the Leeward Kohala Field System.
The Queen Street Gaol Site (R11/1559) excavation in 1987 was one of Tamaki Makaurau Auckland's earliest large-scale archaeological investigations of a 19th century colonial site. However, one of its significant findings related to much earlier MaAori occupation along the Waihorotiu Stream. Despite over 40 years of work in Auckland, the site remains the only securely dated MaAori site in the Auckland Central Business District. Redating samples from the site confirmed the likelihood of human presence in Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland as early as AD 1290. This discovery aligns with evidence from other early settlement sites around the Waitemata Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf. The Gaol site also provided evidence of MaAori occupation in the AD 1430s-1690s, including ko and ketu (digging and weeding sticks), ochre, woven flax, and shell midden deposits which suggest an established community engaged in gardening and marine resource exploitation. These results offer insights into the landscape history of the Horotiu Valley, a topic that has received little attention despite the increasing number of excavations in the region. The redating of material from the Queen Street Gaol underscores its significance in debates over the timing and environmental impact of early Polynesian settlement in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
In paying tribute to the late Ian Smith this lecture takes up a theme arising from his interests in the exploitation of marine mammals and the early historical archaeology of southern New Zealand. The commercial sealing industry, about 1792-1830, is known from shipping and other historical records and to some extent from historical archaeology but the activities and experiences of sealers, as individuals and in their gangs, remain little known. At the same time, sealers as a class appear widely in the general historical literature where they are associated characteristically with primitive, barbaric or immoral behaviours both in New Zealand and elsewhere on the Tasman frontier. The questions at issue are whether observations of the sealers support the general description and how the latter arose. It is argued that inter-gang behaviour, skirmishing with Māori, sealer housing and diet and relationships with Māori women, do not fit the general description nor do sealers stand out in these respects from whalers or other European sojourners. It is suggested that the characterisation of New Zealand sealers owes much to the flow of opinion about sealers across the Tasman world and an historiography of social evolution.
This paper explores the history of Hartley Ferrar’s early 20th-century geological maps to identify the location of Māori pā sites in Te Tai Tokerau Northland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Although in regular use, Ferrar’s maps represent an underexplored resource, revealing over 530 potential pā sites, including many not recorded in the national ArchSite database. The research leverages modern techniques such as georeferencing, manual digitisation, machine learning, and LiDAR analysis to locate sites and suggest possible locations for future surveys to identify unrecorded sites. It highlights the significance of combining historical cartographic data with advanced spatial technologies. The findings underscore the value of Ferrar and his team’s meticulous mapping and use of local informant knowledge for understanding the region’s cultural landscape, while also addressing challenges posed by landscape change, data quality, and evolving definitions of pā. The ongoing work contributes to heritage management, offering robust tools for site preservation and emphasising the need for continued field validation and collaboration with iwi and hapū. Ferrar’s legacy persists through the enduring relevance of his maps for archaeological and cultural research in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Pahautane chert, which occurs as isolated pockets within Oligocene bioclastic limestone on the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand, was exploited by indigenous Māori communities over a period of at least 500 years. Thin-section petrography of samples from two localities reveals that the chert is composed predominantly of quartz (85-90% SiO2) and calcite (10-15% CaCO3) with common silicified fossil remains, mainly of benthic foraminifera and sponge spicules, but including a variety of other fauna. Wavelength-dispersive XRF analyses indicate a slightly higher silica content (91-95 weight % SiO2), and very low concentrations of all other elements except calcium. The visually similar Gordon’s Valley chert in South Canterbury, some 260 km to the south, has an almost identical composition. Examination of artefact collections at Canterbury Museum, and other records, shows the Pahautane chert was more widely dispersed than previously thought, and distributed along the western coast of the South Island over a total distance of at least 300 km. This distribution pattern reflects the use of well-established communication routes for the export of nephrite (pounamu) from the West Coast, probably beginning in the late 13th or early 14th century. On the West Coast, Pahautane chert was being used for drilling holes in nephrite up until the middle 1840s.
Previous palaeo-starch studies in Australia, almost all using stone tool analysis, have yielded a considerable body of information on Indigenous plant processing. Here we build on this work with starch analysis of 58 sedimentary samples from Carpenters Gap 1 and 3 rockshelters, Kimberley, Western Australia. Starch of two species native to the region, supported by calcium oxalate crystal and xylem evidence, was identified at both sites: cf. Dioscorea transversa (pencil yam) tuber, dated from 30,372-27,846 cal BP; and cf. Colocasia esculenta (taro) corm, dated from 26,202-25,143 cal BP. The taro material has not previously been reported in Australian archaeological contexts. We discuss other possible sources of this starch type that have similar, relatively tiny sized grains, showing several differentiating features of taro starch. Results show promise for isolating starch and associated material from archaeological sedimentary records in Australia, which can provide a complimentary line of evidence alongside stone tools. The presence of another microfossil type, euglenoid cysts, provides evidence for gathering wetland/aquatic resources.
The northern part of the North Island of New Zealand includes numerous occurrences of chert, some of which are known to have been exploited by pre-European Maori. Most of the chert is of sedimentary origin, of Late Cretaceous-Eocene age, but Miocene `volcanic' chert (i.e. jasper, sinter and silicified wood) is also common in places. To facilitate a better understanding of cherts in this region, and promote further research, the geological context and visual attributes of samples from 19 locations are described. Five different chert types are formally recognised. Visual examination of >160 samples show there is considerable overlap in the colour range of cherts from different localities, indicating that attribution of artefacts to specific sources based on colour alone is likely to be unreliable. However, a distinction between sedimentary and `volcanic' cherts and sinters should be possible based upon the presence/absence of bioturbation, radiolaria and plant remains.
In paying tribute to the late Ian Smith this lecture takes up a theme arising from his interests in the exploitation of marine mammals and the early historical archaeology of southern New Zealand. The commercial sealing industry, about 1792-1830, is known from shipping and other historical records and to some extent from historical archaeology but the activities and experiences of sealers, as individuals and in their gangs, remain little known. At the same time, sealers as a class appear widely in the general historical literature where they are associated characteristically with primitive, barbaric or immoral behaviours both in New Zealand and elsewhere on the Tasman frontier. The questions at issue are whether observations of the sealers support the general description and how the latter arose. It is argued that inter-gang behaviour, skirmishing with Maori, sealer housing and diet and relationships with Maori women, do not fit the general description nor do sealers stand out in these respects from whalers or other European sojourners. It is suggested that the characterisation of New Zealand sealers owes much to the flow of opinion about sealers across the Tasman world and an historiography of social evolution.
There are about 20 known sources of artefact-quality obsidian in New Zealand, of which around half were extensively exploited by pre-European M & amacr;ori. The visual attributes of the obsidians are described, and a procedure for identifying the original source of artefact material is outlined. Several case studies are presented to illustrate different aspects of the sourcing method, including its reliability. These, along with other studies, indicate that although some obsidian can be attributed to sources with >90% accuracy, the success rate is dependent upon the ability of the analyst and the particular mix of sources represented in any assemblage. Overall, the use of visual attributes combined with limited chemical analysis is considered the most effective means of sourcing larger obsidian artefact assemblages.
